Women, Jews, people of color and LGBTQ+ Americans are disproportionately targeted.
Every year, the Anti-Defamation League conducts a survey assessing the hate and harassment Americans experience online, and the results are consistently horrifying. Its latest report shows that abuse remains “unacceptably prevalent,” despite the measures social media platforms have put in place to curtail it. Online harassment was most prevalent on Facebook — at more than double the rate of the next-worst offender, Instagram.
Overall, online harassment among the survey’s respondents remains steady at around 40%, though hate-based harassment is on the rise. Serious harassment — involving physical threats, stalking and sustained harassment — remained consistent with levels seen in 2021, affecting 27% of respondents.
Here are more of the ADL’s main findings:
Hate-based harassment is extremely high
Identity-based harassment targeting marginalized people remains extremely high at 65%, with women, Jews, people of color and LGBTQ+ Americans experiencing disproportionate levels. This sort of harassment, which can focus on physical appearance, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, or disability, can effectively exclude these groups from important online spaces that play a pivotal role in our democracy.
LGBTQ+ respondents were the most likely to report harassment
Roughly two-thirds of LGBTQ+ respondents reported harassment online versus 38% of non-LGBTQ+ participants, with the majority of those who did attributing it to their sexual orientation.
Women are facing much more harassment than men
Women are nearly three times as likely to report sexual harassment as men (14% versus 5%), and much more likely than men to associate that harassment with their gender (40% versus 14%). Women of color were more likely than white women to associate the harassment they experienced with elements of their identity (81% versus 61%).
Asian-Americans are experiencing more harassment than ever
Harassment reported by Asian-Americans leaped from 21% in 2021 to 39% in 2022, in tandem with the abuse the demographic has experienced offline. This group was more likely to experience sustained harassment than others, and 53% overall attributed the harassment to their race or ethnicity, versus 23% of non-Asian Americans.
Jewish respondents linked online harassment to their religion
Jewish respondents were more likely to relate harassment to their religion than non-Jews, with 37% doing so versus 14% of their non-Jewish peers. Jewish participants were 21% more likely to associate harassment with their political views than non-Jews.
Young people are targeted with more hate-based harassment
According to the survey, nearly half (47%) of young people aged 13-17 have experienced some sort of harassment. Hate-based harassment is even higher in this demographic than it is for adults, with 72% of marginalized youth reporting identity-based harassment, versus 46% of non-marginalized youth.
The ADL’s recommendations
The ADL suggests that tech companies should provide clear, public-facing guidelines that detail what constitutes hateful online content and behavior, and clearly outline the consequences of violating community standards. Tech companies should also interrogate the degree to which engagement-focused business models can potentially drive harassment, or overshadow efforts to enforce community standards.
Companies should collaborate with targeted communities to integrate their suggestions for how to adapt platforms to serve those who are targets of abuse, and provide effective tools and services in the event people experience harassment. Efforts to reduce harassment should be transparent, with third-party experts invited to evaluate their efficacy.
