How To Deal With Online Harassment [Podcast]

We live our lives online – we shop online, socialize online, work online, and we are harassed online. According to a 2020 Pew Research Center survey, 41% of Americans have experienced some form of online harassment, including offensive name-calling, humiliation, stalking, physical threats, harassment over a sustained time, or sexual harassment. These behaviors are found on social media sites, texts, emails, messenger systems, and Zoom meetings, with women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals receiving a disproportionate amount of the abuse.

With the average person spending a little over six and a half hours online (at least two of which or spent exclusively on social media), it is important to understand what types of harassment and abuse people are experiencing, where they are most commonly experiencing it, and what we can do to stop it.

To help us understand more about the issues of online harassment is Ana Velasquez,  Program and Communications Associate at Hollaback! and is the moderator at HeartMob- a community dedicated to ending online harassment.

Topics Covered:

• What Heartmob is and how it works?
• Is the online harassment we are seeing a mirror of what is happening in real life, or is this a unique form of harassment?
• What are some of the most common forms of online abuse and harassment?
• Does there seem to be any one reason why people seem almost eager to be so abusive online?
• Are there any statistics that show how often harassment that starts online moves into the real world?
• What are some of the repercussions survivors experience?
• Are there specific platforms that have proven to be more problematic for harassment than others and, if so, do we know why?
• What do people need to know about staying safe online?
• If you experience harassment online, what should you do?

Sources:

HeartMob (website)
Hollaback! (website)
Hollaback! (Facebook)
Hollaback! (Twitter)
Hollaback! (Instagram)
Take Back The tech (website)