The Trolls are Organized, and Everyone’s a Target:
The Effect of Online Hate and How You Can Fight Back

Dear John,

• A family business run by a Jewish couple found its reputation under attack when angry reviews claimed that the business was run by a ‘Jewy Jew’ and the type of person ‘who gave rise to Hitler.’
• A professor was shocked and horrified when alt-right harassers targeted his wife and daughter. His distress continued when, in response to the defamatory statements spewed by the perpetrators, a local elected official called for an investigation of the professor and not the harassers.
• In the wake of messages from an online stalker, another professional installed an expensive security system and hired private security guards for her home, fearing that her online stalker was a former client who had the potential to be dangerous.

The same social media platforms that connect you to a community of friends, family and co-workers are being exploited by trolls who use the anonymity and interconnectivity of these platforms to stalk, to harass and to threaten.

These trolls take advantage of platforms’ slow reporting and removal processes, and gaps in state and federal laws related to cybercrimes.

Today, you can help. Sign up for ADL’s Backspace Hate campaign to urge lawmakers to support the victims of online hate and harassment by holding perpetrators more accountable for their actions online when their conduct crosses legal lines.

You can also use our guide on how to respond to cyberhate and share your story of harassment with ADL’s Center for Technology and Society so we can better understand and fight the extremists online.

As part of this new effort, ADL launched a report today, “The Trolls are Organized, and Everyone’s a Target” to analyze how social platforms are being exploited, and what the devastating impact of online platforms was for the individuals we interviewed who suffered from cyberhate. The report was made possible by support from the social platform Bumble.

With 37 percent of Americans having experienced severe online hate and harassment in 2018, the damage caused by online actions is very real and will continue to escalate unless we take action together against it. There is an eagerness for better legislation; 86 percent of American adults support strengthening laws against perpetrators of online hate and harassment. It’s not always easy, but our campaign differentiates from free speech that should be protected — even when hateful — and harassment and hate crimes that cross a line.

So please speak out against online harassment by signing our petition now and urging lawmakers to support new legislation to fight this problem.

Sincerely,

Eileen Hershenov

SVP, Policy

ADL