Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demands that the world stop the bullying of women on the internet.
“The online culture of bullying young women is horrible and even the most confident, well prepared girl has to be worrying, like why are people picking on me? Why are they saying these things about me? What is happening here?” she said, according to CNN. “We have got to stand up against that.”
Clinton made her remarks during a forum with women on Friday in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.
She lamented that people said ”the most vile, harassing, incredibly mean spirited things” especially on the internet which had “given a license to people to say things they would never say in person.”
“They would never say it to someone’s face,” she said.
The former First Lady, who has endured decades of criticism, asserted that it was part of human nature.
“Human nature has not changed,” she said, “but the megaphones that are now used to trumpet these kinds of attitudes has just magnified this issue.”
Clinton argued that it was time to change the culture of the Internet and the growing offensive rhetoric around the world.
“We’ve got to change the culture so that it is no longer acceptable for people to say what they [want] about others,” Clinton said, according to CBS. “You can disagree with somebody, that is fair game. But to launch personal attacks, to try to intimidate, and degrade somebody else is off limits.”
She also urged women to take criticism seriously in order to learn, but not to take criticism personally.
“Don’t take it personally, because it can knock you to your knees,” she said.