John Oliver Re-Created an Old AOL Ad to Show What the Internet Is Really Like for Women

The Internet has brought us so many everyday miracles—like the ability to stream the above HD video on your cellphone or on your work computer while your boss isn’t looking—that it’s easy for some of us to forget that the Web can also be a disturbing hellscape. Or as John Oliver put it on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight: If you think that online harassment is not a serious problem, “Well, congratulations on your white penis.”

For those who don’t realize how bad a problem online harassment is, Oliver spent more than 16 minutes from this week’s show to talk about the rape threats and death threats and violations of privacy (including revenge porn) that too many women face every day. And, with a nod to the National Magazine Award–winning article on the subject by Slate’s Amanda Hess, he also offered some specifics about how we can do a better job fighting it: by updating our outdated laws to make revenge porn illegal in every state, by making sure our police officers and judges know how to deal with crimes on the Web, and by ending our culture of victim-blaming that shames women every time private photos and videos of them are hacked and put on the Internet. Finally, he tied it all up by remaking a vintage AOL ad to show what the Internet is really like for women.