Thread by @coralproject

We’ll be tweeting today from the @IWMF event on online violence against female journalists, run by @mediaghosts.

“The goal is to shut you up, and we won’t stand for it” - @emunozdc

@emunozdc In a @IWMF survey of female journalists around the globe, 63% said they had been harassed or threatened online.

78% of those attacked said that gender was a contributing factor to the online attacks.

Full report: iwmf.org/wp-content/upl…

@emunozdc @IWMF 9 out of 10 female journalists in the survey said that in the last five years, online threats and harassment are occurring more often.

58% of female journalists have been threatened or harassed in person. 26% have been physically attacked.

36% considered leaving journalism.

@emunozdc @IWMF 29% of female journalists said that they feared retaliation if they were to engage their trolls.

Even more worryingly, a similar number feared going to their bosses about the attacks, because they thought they’d lose future work.

There are secondary effects on the sources of your stories. They can get attacked in comment spaces, and we can put our sources at risk of harm - @mediaghosts

Social media policies [from employers] that require that individuals share certain information may be putting journalists at risk - @mediaghosts

@mediaghosts Media Management Response slide from @mediaghosts.

Management’s response should be: You are not alone.

Every newsroom should have proactive strategies on this issue. See troll-busters.com for more information

@mediaghosts @GinaMChen: senior management at major news organizations have said to her, “women need to grow a thicker skin.”

This is painfully underestimating and ignoring the problem.

@mediaghosts @GinaMChen "You shouldn’t have to tolerate any abuse or pass any threat threshold for management to care about it" - @GinaMChen

Gina Chen’s team reached out to 75 female journalists around the world to ask if they’d been threatened or harassed. 73 had.

Report: mediaengagement.org/research/women…

Men do get criticized too, sometimes in awful ways.

But when people want to criticize a woman’s story, they do it in a gendered/sexist way. It’s usually related to how she looks, if she’d slept her way into her job, etc.

- @GinaMChen

@GinaMChen It really seems to anger people when women cover what are seen as male beats - cars, sports, gaming.

Or controversial topics - refugees, immigration.

And women do not trust their editors to support them. They fear being taken off the beat. - @GinaMChen

@GinaMChen

@GinaMChen Journalists are expected to engage, but not given training or protection - @GinaMChen

(We offer guidelines for journalists in comments sections here: guides.coralproject.net/engage-in-the-… and for management to support moderation here: guides.coralproject.net/supporting-emo… and here guides.coralproject.net/creating-a-suc… )

I was shocked at how common rape threats are for female journalists - @GinaMChen

@sarahguinee is now talking about how strong men leaders, such as Narendra M*di and Rodrigo D*terte, are targeting female journalists in particular with bot farms and paid trolls over coverage they don’t like.

(Asterisks to try and avoid bot swarm replies)

Here’s more on how D*terte in the Philippines used bot farms and paid trolling to subvert journalism and democracy, from one of the key targets @mariaressa’s @rapplerdotcom rappler.com/nation/148007-…

@mariaressa @rapplerdotcom The PTSD that female journalists are suffering has a major impact on the industry - @sarahguinee

How Barstool Sports operates [against female journalists] is a microcosm of how state actors are attacking female journalists - @sarahguinee

More on that here: thedailybeast.com/inside-barstoo…

The cyberstalking laws operate on a state level, but these attacks are often international.

The laws are insufficient, and law enforcement is unprepared to act.

I want to make journalists a protected class on a state level like judges and police officers - @mediaghosts

If a platform erroneously shuts you down because you’re under attack and trying to talk about it, it can take days for them to act - @mediaghosts

Qn: how can management help support women to come forward without fear?

@GinaMChen: One newsroom outlines their policy on day one of what to do if something happens, who to report it to, what to do next.

Moderate and pre-moderate your comments. Ban certain words.

@GinaMChen Give the journalists themselves the ability to delete terrible comments, instead of having to report it to the online team and wait for a response. - @GinaMChen

Shout out by @sarahguinee to @voxdotcom’s harassment task force, where concerns by any journalist can be immediately escalated.

Being in the stream and showing that people are watching can make a big difference - @mediaghosts

Study showing that: mediaengagement.org/research/journ…

(also thanks for the shout out!)

@SarahKogod is sharing some horrific slides from real emails, DMs, tweets.

Some of the worst tweets she’s showing stayed up for a week.

“They misspell things to get around word filters."

There is a request not to share the slides showing the worst behavior.

The perpetrators want their words to be spread, even if it’s by people who disapprove.

@julieduque1 is sharing her experiences as a journalist under attack on Twitter in Colombia.

@JulieDuque1 “I speak about things that others don’t talk about.”

She receives images of dead bodies in her mentions in response.

@JulieDuque1 is constantly being accused of being a terrorist and a sex worker, a lesbian and old and overweight, a feminist and a member of the CIA, and someone who doesn’t understand the facts.

All for her brave, independent, important reporting.

@JulieDuque1 I receive clear hate speech. Twitter calls it freedom of expression - @JulieDuque1

The night of our biggest front page success, we received 300 death threats, in major part because of the president’s lies about the story on Twitter. The courts said he is immune from prosecution. - @JulieDuque1

@JulieDuque1 We’re hearing about a horrific ongoing situation that includes official government accounts deliberately posting disinformation about journalists, and dozens of fake journalist Twitter accounts (non-U.S.)

We’ve been asked not to tweet any details. But it’s terrifying.

I often feel very uncomfortable saying I’m a journalist. Especially in a vulnerable situation like in a Lyft. But people should know who we are, so we aren’t nameless, faceless - @iiwrites

“Like many women online, I’ve made the mistake of being accurate” - @iiwrites

Despite the fact that we list our sources, we are still attacked online.

You need to manage your online footprint. I have separate personal and professional online profiles. You will never see my phone number. Get Google Voice if you don’t have a company number - @iiwrites

Being journalist in the 21st century, you’re expected to leverage your personal identity as part of your work. But you aren’t paid or protected for that. - @iiwrites

What’s your company’s online harassment policy? Is it up to date?

Don’t be afraid to push for changes.

Be specific on what you want to include.

Rally the support of others in the business to help support you.

- @iiwrites

More than once, I’ve replied and pushed back, and they’ve apologized and said that they didn’t know anyone was reading their comments - @iiwrites

@iiwrites We need to take back our comments sections - @iiwrites

💯

Critical Race Theory’s key tenets are brought up by one speaker. Here’s a brief summary of what CRT is: britannica.com/topic/critical…

@mediaghosts shares Trollbusters’s Typology of Threats: yoursosteam.wordpress.com/tabloid-sized-…

@mediaghosts We’re seeing a perversion of language through visuals and memes as a way to perpetuate violence - @mediaghosts

We see coordinated attacks by groups who know the letter of the law very well, and how to walk that line so that they can continue to attack you without consequence - @mediaghosts

@mediaghosts We do not train our students for this kind of environment, and student media are receiving these kinds of attacks while in school.

We are not preparing people for this part of the job. And it can absolutely lead to physical violence - @mediaghosts

@mediaghosts @mediaghosts shares @womensmediacntr speech wheel of online abuse womensmediacenter.com/speech-project…

@colsecproject talking about how to do a threat assessment. Law enforcement is more likely to act if capability + intent + repeated communications can be shown. 1 message is not enough.

Here’s how we discuss threat modeling for online communities:
guides.coralproject.net/threat-modelin…

@colsecproject It is extremely rare for an act of violence to be committed without a word of warning first.

That means we need to know how to listen for those - @colsecproject

@colsecproject If the messenger has made themselves hard to find, they know what they’re doing is wrong, and are less likely to take action.

If individuals are showing their real identity alongside their threats, they’re more likely to lack the controls that prevent action - @colsecproject

Working groups in companies need to exist, as well as threat assessment process, peer support networks to create a resilient workforce - @colsecproject

@colsecproject Our adversaries are not acting in good faith, this is not about open exchange of ideas. There are enemies who want to destroy these individuals and institutions. - @colsecproject

@colsecproject Buzzfeed recommends that people keep their private life private, and public life public.

Keep the professional twitter account open so that the abuse will be focused there and your HR/security team can focus there.

Also recommends @PENamerican’s onlineharassmentfieldmanual.pen.org