Credible Threat Attacks Against Women Online and the Future of Democracy

"This book argues that the rampant hate-filled attacks against women online come are best understood as patterned resistance to women's political voice and visibility that coalesce into an often-unrecognized form of gender inequality that constrains women's use of digital public spaces, much as the pervasive threat of sexual intimidation and violence constrain women's freedom and comfort in physical public spaces. What's more, the abuse exacerbates inequality among women, as women of color, and Muslim, immigrant, and/or LBTQ women of all races, are disproportionately targeted. Drawing on in-depth interviews with women who have been on the receiving end of digital hate, Credible Threat shows that the onslaught of epithets and stereotypes, rape threats, and commentary about their physical appearance and sexual behavior come with great professional, personal, and psychological costs for the women targeted, but also with underexplored societal level costs that demand attention. The women's accounts show that when effective, identity-based attacks undermine their contributions to public discourse, create a climate of self-censorship, and at times, push women out of digital publics altogether. Given the uneven distribution of toxicity, those women whose voices are already most under-represented (e.g., women from historically undervalued groups, those in male-dominated fields) are particularly at risk. In the end, identity-based attacks online erode civil liberties, diminish public discourse, limit the knowledge we have to inform policy and electoral decision-making, and teach all women that activism and public service are unappealing, high-risk endeavors to be avoided"--