Background
Instead of the internet helping women and girls to get information about period health, breast health etc, it appears such information is now often being suppressed on the Social Media platforms from which many young women get most of their news and other content.
Prof Woollard, an ethicist interested in pregnancy, has given various examples of social media censoring a wide variety of women’s health campaigns. The information she gave is mainly from the UK.
See The Conversation article “Social media continues to censor women’s health posts as pornography – and it may cause serious harm“.
Survey Overview
We would like to find out if any medical women in our organisation Australia wide have come across examples of Women’s health related content having been blocked, eg on Facebook or Youtube etc.
The motivation for blocking this content is unclear. But we know that hours of scrolling ‘engagement’ in a sort of hypnotic state is what these platforms value the most. Fluffy kittens probably promote this more than discussion on how to deal with your period.
There has previously been a senate committee on regulation of social media, so if MWS members can supply information, we could develop a submission.
The tech companies are well known for making empty promises and then not delivering. So one aim would be to ask them to supply ongoing monthly data on the number and outcome of appeals by women’s/ health organisations asking for their content to be unblocked. Then it would be possible to see if they are improving or whether further action is needed. For instance, fines were set up for media platforms taking News content without paying for it.
Start Survey
The survey is seeking information about any blocking / censorship you are aware of.
Please ONLY DO THE SURVEY IF YOU KNOW OF AN EXAMPLE FOR WHICH YOU CAN SUPPLY SOME DETAILS, as the Free form of the Survey only allows a very limited number of responses to be processed. If we reach the maximum number of responses, we might try to issue a supplementary survey, if possible.
Start The Survey Here >>
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The Australian Federation of Medical Women (AFMW) is a not for profit, politically neutral, non sectarian, non government organisation that seeks to improve the health of all Australians, especially the health of women and children.
Events and Updates coordination by AFMW, on behalf of the Australian Federation of Medical Women (AFMW), its affiliated Australian state and territory partners and international networks and supporters. If you have an update or event you would like to share with us for Australian medical women, please contact us with details. Thank you.
