In the '70s, women were reclaiming the night, to make the streets a safer place for females on their own.

Today, we're reclaiming the Internet. 

Recent research, by the think tank Demos, has shown the rising scale of online abuse and just how much of it is aimed at women.

Over a three-week period earlier this year, 10,000 misogynistic tweets were sent from UK accounts containing the words 'slut' or 'whore'.

Internationally, the number reached over 200,000 similarly aggressive tweets.

As part of the drive to challenge online abuse, politicians have launched Reclaim the Internet, a forum which aims to tackle online misogyny by starting a national conversation about it.

ELLE's Political Editor Ellie Gellard was at today's launch which is spearheaded by Labour MP Yvette Cooper.

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Yvette Cooper described the Reclaim the Internet event as a 'call to arms', encouraging all internet-users to get involved: 'The Internet should be for everyone - that was Tim Berners Lee's original idea.

But that means we have responsibilities as online citizens to make sure the Internet is a safe space. 

Challenging online abuse can't be done by any organisation alone.'

The research also showed that over the same three-week period Azealia Banks, Katie Hopkins and Hillary Clinton were among the most abused celebrities online.

But away from the limelight, professionals such as teachers are also being targeted.

The more we know about online misogyny, the more equipped we are to deal with it.

Which is why it's so important to keep talking and not be shocked to silence.

Internet, we're reclaiming you right now.

#ReclaimTheInternet

Headshot of Hannah Nathanson
Hannah Nathanson
Features Director
Hannah Nathanson is Features Director at ELLE. She commissions, edits and writes stories for online and print, spanning everything from ’Generation Flake’ to cover profiles with Dua Lipa and Hailey Bieber. One of her most surreal moments as a journalist has been ‘chairing’ a conversation between Jodie Comer and Phoebe Waller-Bridge from her living room. The word she says most in the office is ‘podcast’.