"You have to prove the threat is real": Understanding the needs of Female Journalists and Activists to Document and Report Online Harassment

Title of the Paper

“You have to prove the threat is real”: Understanding the needs of Female Journalists and Activists to Document and Report Online Harassment

Paper Information

• Research Area: Study on online harassment faced by female journalists and activists
• Keywords: Online harassment, gender-based harassment, social media, cyber violence, feminism, harassment management tools, PMCR framework, journalists, human rights activists, countermeasures against online harassment

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  • Female journalists and activists are more vulnerable to online harassment due to the nature of their professions, including gender-based harassment and attacks.
  • Existing tools and methods are insufficient to help these groups effectively document and report harassment incidents.
  • Issues such as the ease of content deletion, complex data privacy regulations, and cross-platform harassment make evidence collection and legal accountability challenging.
  • Victims often resort to avoidance or self-censorship, leading to negative professional and psychological impacts.

• Importance:

  • Online harassment not only endangers personal mental health and safety but also negatively impacts press freedom and gender equality.
  • Failure to address these issues effectively may lead victims to withdraw from social media or their careers, triggering broader societal and industry crises.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Existing studies highlight the prevalence and severity of online harassment against female journalists but lack focus on empowering victims to manage and respond to harassment.
  • While some tools provide content blocking and user support, the specific needs for documenting evidence and generating reports during large-scale harassment events remain unmet.

Solution

• Proposed Solution:

  • Based on the PMCR (Prevention, Monitoring, Crisis, Recovery) theoretical framework, the authors designed and validated a prototype tool to assist target users (e.g., female journalists and activists) in documenting and reporting social media-based online harassment.

• Innovative Features:

  • Integration with social media platform APIs to aggregate and verify harassment data, enhancing evidence reliability.
  • Support for filtering and analyzing harassment content (e.g., by keywords or dates) to address the high intensity and large-scale nature of harassment.
  • Reporting functionality for structured evidence storage and sharing with support networks (e.g., lawyers or human rights organizations).
  • Consideration of privacy and psychological impacts in the prototype design, such as blurring intrusive content to protect users' mental health.

• Implementation Steps and Key Technologies:

  1. Exploratory Research: Conducted focus group discussions and interviews (N=27) to comprehensively understand harassment trajectories and user needs.
  2. Design Phase: Designed the prototype tool based on research findings and user requirements, incorporating privacy protection, data authenticity, user-friendly interfaces, and support network sharing functionalities.
  3. Validation Phase: Conducted user testing and iterative feedback (N=18) to optimize tool design.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Outcomes:

  • Identified phased needs before, during, and after harassment incidents, categorizing these needs into four types under the PMCR framework (Prevention, Monitoring, Crisis, Recovery).
  • Developed and experimentally designed a semantic and integrated tool to support users in documenting harassment evidence and generating reports.

• Advantages Over Existing Solutions:

  • Existing products primarily focus on blocking (mute/block functions), psychological support (positive tweets), or screenshot-based recording algorithms. This tool directly connects with social media platforms to mitigate evidence loss due to content deletion.
  • Emphasizes user-driven harassment management with potential for cross-platform support.
  • Centers on privacy protection and mental health, addressing risks associated with "big data."

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Users generally found the prototype tool highly practical for evidence aggregation, report generation, and managing harassment stress.
  • The most popular features among users included keyword filtering, report generation, and evidence sharing with support networks.
  • Psychological stress management emerged as a particularly prominent need during tool usage.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations: The sample primarily consisted of users from the United States, leaving cross-cultural and cross-language adaptability unverified; the study focused on journalists and activists, with insufficient research on harassment management needs of general users.
  • Future Directions:
    1. Explore ways to expand the tool’s scope, including support for cross-platform harassment management.
    2. Conduct in-depth research on design mechanisms related to mental health, such as providing psychological preparedness prompts or blurring intrusive content.
    3. Extend research to other social roles, such as teachers and public servants, who are similarly vulnerable to online attacks.