The scale and virulence of internet harassment often lingers in the news, but three women who have faced down the bullies are sharing their guide to staying safe online.
The advice is eminently sensible, well thought-out and derives, sadly, from all-too-familiar experience.
Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t have time to read the whole thing? Start with these three steps:
Set up two step verification
Create unique, complex passwords
Remove potential doxxing information
Created by Feminist Frequency’s Anita Sarkeesian, Women, Action & the Media founder Jaclyn Friedman and Saying Abortion Aloud author Renee Bracey Sherman, the guide was made necessary by “the failure of social media services to adequately prevent and deal with the hateful targeting of their more marginalized users.”
As this guide details, forcing individual victims or potential targets to shoulder the costs of digital security amounts to a disproportionate tax of in time, money, and emotional labor. It is a tax that is levied disproportionately against women, people of color, queer and trans people and other oppressed groups for daring to express an opinion in public.
Even if you’re an old hand with the online safety basics, the miscellaneous tips are still unexpected and useful. For example, did you know can use free, throwaway VOIP numbers from Google to conceal your real cell number?