17.3. Who gets harassed?#

While anyone is vulnerable to harassment online (and offline as well), some people and groups are much more prone to harassment, particularly marginalized and oppressed people in a society.

Historically of course, different demographic groups have been subject to harassment or violence, such as women, LGBTA+ people, and Black people (e.g., the FBI trying to convince Martin Luther King Jr. to commit suicide).

On social media this is true as well. For example, the last section mentioned the (partially bot-driven) harassment campaign against Meghan Markle and Prince Henry was at least partially driven by Meghan Markle being Black (the same racism shown in the British Press).

When Amnesty International looked at online harassment, they found that:

  • Women of colour, (black, Asian, Latinx and mixed-race women) were 34% more likely to be mentioned in abusive or problematic tweets than white women.

  • Black women were disproportionately targeted, being 84% more likely than white women to be mentioned in abusive or problematic tweets.

Troll Patrol Findings

17.3.1. Intersectionality#

As we look at the above examples we can see examples of intersectionality, which means that not only are people treated differently based on their identities (e.g., race, gender, class, disability, weight, height, etc.), but combinations of those identities can compound unfair treatment in complicated ways.

For example, you can test a resume filter and find that it isn’t biased against Black people, and it isn’t biased against women. But it might turn out that it is still biased against Black women. This could happen because the filter “fixed” the gender and race bias by over-selecting white women and Black men while under-selecting Black women.

Key figures: