Online violence response hub to help women journalists under threat
The Coalition Against Online Violence has launched an Online Violence Response Hub to aid women journalists with the rising threat of violence online. The Coalition is led by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF).
The site supports women journalists with ways to fight back against online violence while protecting their privacy, accessing trauma support, pursuing accountability, and continuing to work without self-censorship, the Coalition said.
”The Online Violence Response Hub allows journalists to focus on their safety instead of searching for support with censorship, doxing, harassment, threats, trolling, and more. The hub is a project of the IWMF and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) under the banner of the Coalition Against Online Violence”.
“Women journalists must be supported if they are to continue to expose injustice and amplify issues that are so often ignored,” said IWMF’s Executive Director Elisa Lees Munoz. “No journalist should face threats against their life and livelihood for uncovering uncomfortable truths. If we don’t address the epidemic of online violence, we eliminate the future of diversity in storytelling.”
“Women journalists need a network of support to continue their work in news media, and to protect our functioning democracy,” said Craig Newmark of Craig Newmark Philanthropies. “I am proud to partner with the IWMF to expand the resources available to women journalists experiencing online attacks, which will enable a freer, more diverse press.”
While the journalism industry understands the dangers of physical attacks, online attacks are not addressed with the same urgency. In 2018, the IWMF and TrollBusters found that digital violence – intended to intimidate, sow disinformation, discredit journalism and create professional harm – was surging, with 63% of women journalists surveyed experiencing more than one type of attack or harassment online, specifically.
In 2021, ICFJ’s research for UNESCO showed that 73% of women journalists surveyed experienced online violence in the course of their work with one in five women journalists enduring offline attacks they connected with online abuse. In addition, 41% said they experienced online violence perpetrated as part of coordinated disinformation campaigns. That study, called “pioneering” by UNESCO, surveyed women journalists in five languages in 125 countries.
“As ICFJ’s research shows, online violence takes many forms and is especially harmful to women of color, women of minority religions and women in the LGBTQ community,” said ICFJ’s President Joyce Barnathan. “It does not respect global boundaries and it demands collaborative responses like those offered on the Hub.”
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