The Anti-Defamation League's fourth annual survey of hate and harassment online shows that levels of harassment remain "unacceptably high," with Jews, women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals experiencing disproportionately high levels of harassment.
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This year's report, titled "Online Hate and Harassment: The American Experience 2022," included a dedicated sub-survey of youth in the 13-17 age range, which the ADL said could be the first nationally representative survey of teens' experience of hate and harassment online.
Jewish respondents were more likely than non-Jewish respondents to attribute harassment to their religion: 37% compared to 14% of non-Jews. In addition, 64% attributed the harassment to their political views compared to 43% of non-Jews.
Facebook was the primary source of harassment, responsible for 68% of complaints to date and 57% in the past 12 months). Instagram was second Instagram (26% lifetime, 27% in the past 12 months), and Twitter came in third, accounting for 23% lifetime and 21% of reported harassment in the past 12 months.
The ADL survey found that 58% of respondents from minority or marginalized groups reported hate-based harassment in the past year, with LGBTQ+ people most likely to be targeted online. Two-thirds (66%) of LGBTQ respondents reported experiencing hate-based harassment.
The survey pointed to a rise in online harassment of Asian Americans, from 21% in 2021 to 39% in 2022. This comes after the previous year saw a jump in severe harassment toward Asian Americans (17% in 2021, up from 11% in 2020).
According to the survey, women were more than twice as likely to report experiencing sexual harassment online as men (14% versus 5%), with 40% of women reporting gender-based harassment, compared to 14% of men.
Harassment over time has hardly budged, holding steading since 2020 with 40% of respondents reporting some type of harassment. Nor has the rate of severe harassment seen any significant decline, with "severe" defined as physical threats, sustained harassment, stalking, sexual harassment, doxing, and/or swatting. Over one-quarter (27%) of respondents reported severe harassment of some kind, the same as in 2021.
Nearly half (47%) of youth ages 13-17 reported ever experiencing some type of harassment, and more than a third (36%) in the past 12 months. Youth experienced hate-based harassment at a higher rate than adults: 72% of marginalized youth reported being harassed because of an aspect of their identity, compared to 46% of non-marginalized youth.
"Social media companies are nowhere near where they need to be when it comes to hate and harassment on their platforms. It's especially upsetting to see so many young people are having such negative experiences online," said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. "We must expand our efforts to hold tech companies accountable as online spaces are still unsafe, particularly for those in marginalized communities."
"Hate-based harassment may drive marginalized groups away from online spaces, even as these spaces become central to public discourse, further undermining democracy and free speech," Greenblatt said
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