School of Journalism hosts panel on Viral Threats to Journalists

On Nov. 9, the School of Journalism hosted a panel discussion on viral threats to journalists, including talk radio, social media and zoombombing. 

“In the wake of viral threats to journalists which were very violent and hate-fueled, we thought it was important for our students to be part of the conversation where they could learn not only the impact of these threats on journalists but also where they’re coming from and the patterns of networked harassment,” said School of Journalism Interim Co-Chair Asmaa Malik. “It was important for us as journalists to have context on how to report on these stories but also what to do if you’re impacted by this kind of hate.”

The panel consisted of Anthony Burton, Supriya Dwivedi and Jane Lytvynenko. Burton is a SSHRC Joseph Armand Bombardier Ph.D. scholar at Simon Fraser University’s Communications Department, while Dwivedi is a researcher in residence at the School of Journalism and Lytvynenko works with the Technology and Social Change Project at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University.

Lytvynenko says there’s a distinction between regular harassment and harassment that is amplified by social media networks. She notes that activists, politicians and journalists are some of the targets of networked harassment, which can silence positive conversation, and the void is then filled with misinformation. 

“It’s one thing for someone to come up to you on the street and say ‘You Suck’ and then walk away – really the problem that we’re talking about is networked harassment, which is essentially people harnessing the power of social media to silence somebody’s voice or silence discussion on a topic.”

Dwivedi experienced significant harassment as a morning radio show host. She said other hosts at the station allowed irresponsible commentary on air, so when Dwivedi and her co-host delivered fact-checking, they received hate mail in their inboxes. Dwivedi noted in particular, the worst hate mail came on issues that had to do with racialized or marginalized individuals and the tipping point for her was when the threats became about her then one-year-old daughter. 

Another issue that was discussed by the panel was the tactic of Zoombombing. Burton notes that while Zoombombing may have started as a less harmful practice, often used by kids at the start of the pandemic, that’s no longer the case. 

“What started with a bunch of kids who wanted to Zoombomb their teachers – the same as throwing erasers at a chalkboard sort of thing – then as a tactic or technique, (it) gets appropriated for networked harassment,” said Burton, who notes the tactic “still is very much being used as a public spectacle of disorientation and obscenity.” 

Some of the tips from Lytvynenko provided for journalists to handle harassment were changing Facebook privacy settings to prevent people from digging up information on friends and family, using the Consumer Reports Security Planner, which generates a checklist of what can be done before and during harassment to minimize the impact, as well as using information from the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma.

Lytvynenko also notes that social media networks bear a lot of the responsibility.

“The slow enforcement of these companies’ own policies gets worse and worse the smaller the market is and the less profitable the market is,” said Lytvynenko. “So as bad as we think it is in Canada, if we’re looking at places where English is not a dominant language, it gets even worse.”

Dwivedi pointed out Defector Media as an organization helping to back journalists facing harassment. For journalists who are on the receiving end of targeted harassment, Defector will offer paid time off for a mental health check, will set journalists up with legal help, as well as a proxy to be able to go into an inbox and siphon out what is hate mail and what is a threat that could be acted upon. 

“If Defector Media can do it, which is arguably this startup media organization, any legacy media organization could very easily implement all of these policies that would help their journalists deal with this hateful rhetoric and harassment, as well as enforcing some of those editorial standards,” said Dwivedi.