From Anita Sarkeesian to Raisa Patel, news outlets ranging from local to national have had one journalist or another speak on the abuse that they deal with every day from their online readership. Overall, 73% have experienced some form of online violence or abuse. Online abuse can encompass harassment, threats, slurs and other threatening behavior that can make a person feel unsafe. As online culture has shifted more and more, the reading public now has more access to harass journalists than ever before. Online culture must take stock of how female, nonbinary and minority journalists are mistreated on the internet.
“How To Stay Safe Online” by Seyi Akiwowo, a UK founder of Glitch, an organization that is working to end online abuse, is a manifesto against these online abuses. She notes that many people, especially women and non-binary individuals, experience higher levels of online abuse than men do. Even though these actions are technically confined to a digital space, personal safety in the physical world can feel threatened immensely when someone receives a threatening comment.
While it could be claimed that this kind of abuse is par the course when using the internet, this is not a matter of simply toughening up. Although a public figure may have made their work available to a large audience, that does not mean that they are fair targets for an invasion of privacy. Online threats can be especially terrifying because they can be accompanied by doxxing, or the leaking of private photos and information belonging to the target or their family members and loved ones. Swatting, or cyber harassment of making false emergency calls, is also another concern for some people in online spaces. With all of these potential threats, it is no wonder why women journalists have begun to speak out.
This is not to be confused with proper critique, such as questioning the validity of sources, the way certain information is presented or stating that an article is harmful. Sometimes journalists do put out work that is not always up to snuff regardless of gender, and their article — not their person — should indeed be critiqued. However, when people resort to threats instead of civilly discussing what is wrong, that crosses a dangerous line. Indeed, it risks women and marginalized people feeling less empowered to speak their opinions or share investigations for a publication.
If this goes unchecked on social media platforms as well as in the comments sections many news websites have enabled, it could potentially deter more women and nonbinary journalists from speaking their minds in public forums, while also doing emotional and mental damage to journalists who are actively writing. If this were to happen, this negatively impacts journalism as a whole by limiting its perspectives. This would also be a blow to the freedom of the press as a whole, which relies on all journalists of all backgrounds to do investigative and opinionated work that might be overlooked by journalists who are more privileged.
The internet is an incredible tool, but only if used well and not to attack large swaths of the population who deserve to use it without fear of harassment. More people are victims of, or have witnessed, online gender-based violence than they might initially think. If platform runners refuse to enforce any sort of user guidelines and standards, the online spaces many use become even more unsafe not only for journalists but for everyone. For the freedom of the press, these random and vague user expectations must be clarified and enforced. It is up to every internet user to work towards an online world where people are respectful to one another, and where online abuse is ultimately eliminated from our casual internet browsing and interactions.
