News / Society

New site tackling online abuse launched

Saturday, 27 June 2015 11:05 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 27 June 2015 11:05 AM ]

A new site, aimed at advising online users how to handle trolling and abuse has been launched by the British government.

The website, Stop Online Abuse recommends ways in which victims of online abuse including harassment, hate speech, sexual harassment and blackmail, should deal with their situation. The site is said to primarily target women as well as and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, who have been described as the biggest sufferers of extreme online abuse.

The new site identifies a number of different forms of abuse including trolling – intentional posing of “offensive, upsetting or inflammatory comments online in an attempt to hurt and provoke a response”, doxxing – publishing and publicising personal information and documents including that of sexual nature, and finally cyberstalking- “a pattern of online behaviour that is the long-term, intrusive and persistent pursuit of one person by another, making the victim feel frightened and distressed”).

While it provides legal advice, it also suggests practical tips on how to react and respond toward abuse online as well as how to identify abuse. The website says “it is often obvious that someone is behaving in an abusive way, but it’s not always clear where the boundary falls between expressing a point of view and being abusive”.

Criado-Perez, a writer and campaigner who received death threats said: “It is such a terrifying, mind-consuming and shocking thing to happen, when you receive these really detailed and graphic threats of what’s going to be done to you, how they are going to find you and how you are going to die: I didn’t know what was a police matter, or how to report it to the police.”

Nicky Morgan, the minister for women and equalities, said the site is “another sign of our determination to tackle discrimination in all its forms and create a fairer society for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

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