In 2022 I wrote an opinion article for NBC News thinks about leg hair, of all things. The article detailed a month-long experiment during which I stopped shaving. Apart from a paragraph on bodily autonomy and Roe v. Wade, I thought it was a soft item. Boring, even.
The Internet disagreed. Within an hour of posting, I started receiving angry emails in all caps. Then he started on Twitter. They called me everything from stupid and self-absorbed to Sasquatch. They accused me of hating men and pressuring women.
The flood lasted almost two weeks. In the end, she had dozens of nasty emails, almost a thousand social media notifications, and no idea how to handle what he had experienced.
Unfortunately, these cases of online harassment are becoming more common. In 2021, the Pew Research Center reported that 41 percent of American adults had experienced online harassment; he Anti-Defamation League reported an increase to 52 percent in 2023. Public and semi-public figures are especially at risk, as recent studies on american journalists, Zimbabwean journalistsand women parliamentarians in Sweden.
But the truth is that on social networks anyone who has an account can suffer harassment. Here’s what you should do if it happens to you.
Document everything
Knee-deep in hate mail, I reached out to a former thesis advisor who had written op-eds. How had he handled the trolls?
Your answer: Document everything. If you have to report harassment to a social platform or to the authorities, you will need a set of evidence to prove the harassment.
Save nasty emails to a special folder, either manually or by using keywords to filter and route all relevant mail automatically.
On social media, take screenshots of what people are saying. Doing this will give you lasting digital proof, which is important if the trolls’ comments disappear later, either because the trolls deleted them or because someone reported the comments, leading to their deletion. Save all of these screenshots in a folder that you can easily share with anyone investigating your harassment.
Documenting harassment is common advice, appearing in resources ranging from specific written organizations such as PEN America to broader organizations such as University of Chicago and the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
Don’t answer
Another common piece of advice is “don’t feed the trolls.” In theory, if you don’t react to harassment, the trolls get bored and leave. Some have argued that this advice has failed us, as it places the responsibility on the victim to stop cyberbullying; suggests that it is not the trolls Who should stop, but the victim who should turn the other cheek.
This is a fair criticism; Social media platforms should create better moderation systems and restrict users who violate harassment rules. Ideally, events like Child Safety Hearing 2024 before the US Congress will lead to changes that will make the Internet safer for everyone. In a perfect world, the responsibility falls on Big Tech.