Thread by @timnitGebru

This episode has had so much collateral damage--it has brought so many different threads together, and has damaged so many people. The latest is not only the racist & sexist attacks on Reddit we even wrote about on our paper, but fake accounts & troll farms targeting ppl 1\

As we know, and as @L_badikho has studied in his "spare time" in the last few months, these troll farms work within a specific context to harass and intimidate people who speak up, who are many times women of color. 2\

Anima Anandkumar, in addition to the sexism she has experienced all her life, the excruciating constant harassment she has had to endure from university to her work environment, to any professional interaction, has also been attacked for simply calling it out. 3\

This life. Not only do we have to endure, if we dare say anything about what we endure we put our life in danger. Imagine receiving death threats for advocating for a conference name change: a name change from one that takes you to a porn site to one that is slightly different 4\

After this constant threat all of her life, Anima is supposed to take every single thing that comes at her with grace. She cannot wince, she cannot slip, she cannot speak up about the constant attacks she faces online--because that would bring more death threats. 5\

So she finally decides to deactivate her Twitter account--her voice for which many women were grateful, the voice that got her the New York Times Good Tech Awards, Venture Beat Awards, and many other awards. 6\

Because people who have experienced what she has experienced wanted her to know who much she was appreciated in spite of the trolls. Each step forward that we take in this field, someone comes and erases all the hard work to take is 10 steps back. 7\

As @ram_ssk reminded me, I forgot who he was quoting: "A quieter gentler voice doesn't bring about a quieter gentler world." We try everything to bring about change. Literally every single mode of communication. The opposite happens and people like Anima get death threats. 8\

There is no both sides here. One side is used to having power and can't imagine any sort of accountability or getting "their feelings hurt." The other side has lived a life of constant harassment and receives death threats for saying anything. animakumar.wpcomstaging.com/2020/12/16/my-…