A new study conducted by The Guardian shows that Black and female writers experience more hate from commenters than white writers.
The UK-based news site investigated, using more than 70 million comments on their site as a way to collect sizable data to prove their hypothesis that female writers face the most backlash online. Similar studies were conducted by the Pew Research Institute, revealing that nearly 73 percent of people online have seen someone harassed online before. However, 40 percent of the people in the study stated that they have personally experienced it.
The 2014 Pew study also shows startling data about the number of women who have been stalked, harassed, called names and threatened online. Data shows that men have been harassed the most online in general usage. That means 44 percent of men and 37 percent of women who use the Internet have reported experiencing harassment on the various websites and social media outlets they use.
In regards to the Guardian study, their new research caters only to the journalists who work online everyday. While delving deep into their own comment threads, they saw that the female journalists they hire to write and freelance experienced the hate they have long suspected: “Articles written by women attract more abuse and dismissive trolling than those written by men, regardless of what the article is about.”
After taking a look at their Op-Ed writers, of which the majority are white, they discovered that two Black men and eight women (four white and four non-white) experienced the highest levels of abuse and dismissive trolling, and they also received the most abuse.
Contrary to the Pew study, the top writers who write news and a variety of other types of stories for the news site are all men. They received the least amount of abuse online.
While many social media platforms are trying to make their spaces safe, the comment sections on all websites are still a dark place to venture.