Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Women's Studies International Forum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif Gender-based harassment in cyberspace. The case of Pikara magazine Alberto Jonay Rodríguez-Darias a , Laura Aguilera-Ávila b,⁎ a Institute of Political and Social Sciences, University of La Laguna and National Distance Education University (UNED), Camino de la Hornera s/n, Campus de Guajara, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain b Social Work and Social Services area, University of La Laguna, Camino de la Hornera s/n, Campus de Guajara, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Gender-based violence Harassment Internet Social work ABSTRACT The internet has brought about a radical change in the way people communicate and relate to each other. Widespread use of this new system of communication has resulted in a shift in conventional attitudes in human relations. Some of its features are anonymity, virality or disinhibition, which in turn determine norms of in- teraction. This paper offers an analysis of gender-based harassment on the internet, using the case of Pikara Magazine (a Spanish feminist electronic magazine). The comments posted on this online magazine during 2015 have been analysed from a qualitative perspective (using grounded theory methodology), focusing on dis- covering the major discursive categories related to harassment behaviours, as well as the different strategies of response and resistance. The categories identified make up a system to be contrasted on future analysis. Finally, different ways of tackling this phenomenon through the social work discipline are also considered. 1. Introduction With the arrival of the internet, and especially the Web 2.0, some aspects of our daily routine have undergone significant changes. Social environments and establishments such as the organisation of work, the education system, our way of interacting, the media, political cam- paigning, artistic activity or urban development have been significantly impacted, giving rise to new challenges in areas of social intervention. These online interaction environments, as digital public spheres, have become a new arena in which to develop human relations under old and new codes and norms. Social issues that have already been widely researched have taken new forms, resulting in different oper- ating rules, features and repercussions from those studied in traditional social interaction environments (offline). The advance of gender-based violence into the digital world has become a significant problem (Barak, 2005; Buelga, Cava, & Musitu, 2010; Kowalski & Limber, 2007; Marwick & Miller, 2014). In fact, the level of prevalence is higher than in offline forms, as around “73% of women have already been exposed to or have experience some form of online violence” (United Nations, 2015, p. 3). Gender-based harassment is one of these forms of violence. It can be widely defined as the use of online aggression, and includes attacks, negative comments, mockery and sexual references, to which women are subjected when they pub- lish online content simply because of their gender. This paper analyses the different types of harassment found on the comments section of Spanish website Pikara Magazine from a feminist perspective. Although this case study is specific to Spain, similar cases have been analysed in other parts of the world, such as Twitter threads in Turkey (Demirhan & Çakir-Demirhan, 2015), United Kingdom (Hardaker & McGlashan, 2016), United States and Australia (Megarry, 2014). The problem remains difficult to quantify due to a number or reasons, such as the scarce acknowledgement of the issue, its natur- alisation, and its relatively recent and ongoing development. It is therefore almost impossible to compare the number of people affected by it in different countries. The comments were examined using grounded theory methodology in order to create a discursive categories system that comprises the diversity of expressions of harassment. This research paper also points to the view that social work is a discipline that can both empower women in the digital world and continue to raise awareness and move towards equality. 2. Gender-based harassment in cyberspace In the early 2000s, the expansion of the online world was hailed as a catalyst for the development of democracy, equality (Ferdinand, 2000) and women's empowerment by enabling access to information and so- cial support (Finn & Banach, 2000). Therefore, online interaction en- vironments have been introduced as spaces in which stigmatized or socially rejected individuals and groups can freely participate and ex- press their opinions (Bargh & McKenna, 2004). Furthermore, it has been argued that social movements such as feminism have the potential to exert more influence and reach a higher level of interaction using new http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.10.004 Received 14 March 2017; Received in revised form 28 September 2017; Accepted 13 October 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: laguiler@ull.edu.es (L. Aguilera-Ávila). Women's Studies International Forum xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 0277-5395/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Please cite this article as: Darias, A.J.R., Women's Studies International Forum (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.10.004