Pathways to Politics for Women is now offering free access to Social Protect for all alums and program participants nationally, in a new initiative to help address online abuse and support women’s wellbeing in the political sphere.
Founded in Australia, Social Protect is a purpose-built app that uses AI to detect and delete abusive comments in real time across social media accounts, filtering out offensive and harmful content.
Free access to Social Protect is now available to all current participants and members of the Pathways to Politics national alum community, funded by the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia.
Gendered online abuse remains a serious and ongoing issue for women in public life. It silences voices, damages wellbeing, and creates real barriers to women’s equal participation in politics.
Pathways to Politics alum Georgie Purcell MP, a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, has been a vocal advocate for confronting online abuse and harassment. She has spoken out publicly about the disproportionate volume and severity of trolling and abuse that has been directed at her and other women in public life – and the toll it can take on wellbeing, visibility and political participation.
“I feel very lucky to have a large and active social media following, but managing my comments section was beginning to take up too much time and cause a lot of anxiety,” she says.
“Sexism and misogyny shouldn’t just be part of the job for women in politics – and Social Protect has played a huge part in ensuring that doesn’t become my reality.”
“Social Protect has allowed me to take back control and feel safe while communicating about my work across social media platforms. It deletes gendered abuse and violent comments in real time, protecting my staff and I from ever having to read it in the first place.”
While broader regulatory and legislative changes are urgently needed, providing free access to the Social Protect app offers a practical way for Pathways to Politics to support our alum network and participants right away – helping them stay safe and confident online and offline, not just during election campaigns but throughout their political leadership journeys.
This initiative builds on Pathways to Politics’ work over the last two years exploring a range of ways to help alums feel safer online, which has included partnering with the eSafety Commission to deliver Social Media Self-Defence training to hundreds of program participants and alums, expanding online safety resources on the Pathways to Politics Knowledge Hub, and supporting eSafety’s world-leading work.
We also thank the Pathways to Politics alums who generously contributed to our safety reference group, sharing their experiences and insights to shape this vital work towards building safer, more inclusive spaces for women in politics.
Pathways to Politics alums and current program participants have been emailed a special Access Code. Contact us if you haven’t received it.
