British model turned pop singer Dua Lipa has called for social media platforms to be monitored more closely for cyberbullying behavior.
In an interview with music magazine NME, the 24-year-old singer of "Future Nostalgia" opened up about her own experience of being cyberbullied.
Dua Lipa said that she used to run her own Twitter account personally, but the stress of dealing with negative cyberbullying comments became too much for her. Unwilling to exit a convenient platform that helps her stay in touch with her fans, the singer handed over the management of her Twitter account to her media team.
Practicing mental separation has given Dua Lipa the strength to continue using her Instagram account.
“I feel like on Instagram, I post as if I’m on a blog and I can just separate myself from it whereas, on Twitter, after I tweet I try and check all the comments,” she said.
“That was obviously getting quite unhealthy ’cause I would just get really upset about [the response].”
Cyberbullying is a growing social problem. Research conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Center found that in 2019, 36.5% of people felt that they had been bullied compared to just 18.8% of people in 2007.
Dua Lipa said that current monitoring practices for cyberbullying on social media platforms didn't go far enough and called for platform managers to take this digital threat to mental health seriously.
She said: “I know if there’s any abusive content or blah blah blah, they take it down. But I don’t think they see certain things or types of cyber bullying as seriously as they are. Those things need to be monitored a little closer.”
Dua Lipa's comments come as people around the world are increasingly using social media platforms to stay in contact with friends and family while isolating at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
According to a recent report by Kantar, the global health crisis has caused social media engagement to increase by 61% over normal usage rates. Overall use of Facebook has shot up by 37%, while Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo has seen a 58% increase in usage.