Rita Ora And Cara Delevingne Team Up With Cosmetics Giant Rimmel To Fight Cyberbullying
Rita Ora and Cara Delevingne have teamed up with cosmetics manufacturer Rimmel to fight cyberbullying, particularly when it comes to shamers who belittle women for their bodies.
As The Sun reports, the pair were spotted in London this week at Rimmel’s launch of the #IWILLNOTBEDELETED campaign, which urges women who have been victimized by cyberbullying to stand up for themselves.
Cara, speaking for both women, said that the internet can be a damaging place for women.
“Social media is a big part of our jobs and it’s really horrible to see the way people treat each other. I think enough is enough. It’s time for us to stand up to it.”
The facts tend to back her up. Cosmetics company Coty commissioned a study, and according to Qweerist, some 115 million images are deleted from social media each year because of so-called “beauty cyberbullying,” which is to say, shaming posters for their personal appearance. Other social media users have even gone so far as to delete their social media accounts entirely, thanks to body-shamers; that includes Modern Family star Ariel Winter who, according to The Daily Mail, got so fed up with body-shamers that she deleted her Twitter account and threatened to erase her social media presence entirely. (For what it’s worth, Ariel, as of this writing, still has an active Twitter account.)
Ariel Winter and Levi Meaden couple up for a soccer game! https://t.co/aupdBQdhvQ
— JustJared.com (@JustJared) October 21, 2018
Other women have even gone on to do self-harm (such as attempting suicide) after cyberbullying.
In fact, so prevalent is beauty cyberbullying that it is believed to have affected one in four women, and an untold number of men.
To that end, the movement, centered around the hashtag #IWILLNOTBEDELETED, encourages victims not to give into trolls and haters and delete their posts or their accounts.
“Cyberbullying related to beauty choices has a real impact on people long after the incident occurs. The idea that some people make decisions in anticipation or fear of potential bullying is heartbreaking.”
There’s more to the campaign than just hashtags and encouraging words. Anti-bullying charity The CyberSmile Foundation has developed an algorithm that will help bullying victims connect with each other and draw support from one another, says Qweerist.
“It’s hoped the campaign will spark a conversation about beauty cyberbullying by creating an online space where young people can share their experiences as well as find solutions to this growing issue.”
The Coty/Rimmel effort to fight cyberbullying isn’t the only such effort in place. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Instagram has recently employed software that will pick up on bullying comments disguised in photos – a technique previously used by trolls and shamers in an attempt to get around the social media platform’s bullying filters.
