Universities failing academics targeted by online abuse – paper

Universities have been urged to be more proactive in helping academics who receive “shocking” abuse online, after another year of persistent issues on social media.

Just last month, a University of Cambridge academic received rape threats after posting a photo of herself with her PhD thesis.

Hannah Yelin, a reader in media and culture at Oxford Brookes University, also received “pretty unpleasant” vitriol after her work on Meghan Markle’s feminism was published in 2018 – although it has inspired her research since.

Her latest paper, published in the journal New Formations, found that 74 per cent of academics had experienced online harms as a result of sharing research publicly – affecting their careers and causing significant physical and mental harms.

Through 85 survey responses and 13 in-depth interviews with UK academics, the study uncovered “shocking” results: rape and death threats to academics and their families, “Twitter pile-ons”, abusive mail, phone tapping, hacking, doxing, stalking, calls for resignation, and targeted harassment at workplaces and around academics’ homes.

“Academics are pushed into extreme and traumatising experiences as part of their day-to-day work, experiences which go unacknowledged by their employers,” the paper says.

The study also found that the risks of visibility are “unevenly distributed” and that those from marginalised groups are being particularly targeted for abuse because of their characteristics.

“The cost is much higher if you belong to a group for whom there’s already racism or transphobia or sexism or ableism flourishing online,” Dr Yelin told Times Higher Education.

“There are rewards for public academia…and they’re not distributed equally; and there are risks and harms, and they’re not distributed equally, either.”

Despite the “huge appetite” for alternative structures and outlets for knowledge sharing, Dr Yelin said, it would be a significant loss to public debate if all academics could not participate safely on social media – particularly if those targeted were working on progressive issues.

Online safeguarding advice for HE institutions

“These are areas where we really need peer-reviewed research to contribute to public debate, otherwise that domain is just left to unchecked, rising misinformation,” she added.

Dr Yelin said that her research, conducted alongside her co-author Laura Clancy, a lecturer in media at Lancaster University, was helping to contribute to increased awareness about the issue – but that institutions were still not doing enough.

“Universities benefit when everything is riding high and going well, and then kind of cut their losses if it turns nasty; and academics reported feeling really unsupported at that point,” she said.

All survey respondents said they did not have training on how to deal with an online backlash, and 90 per cent said their institution did not effectively prepare staff for the risks and challenges of having a public profile.

The paper calls for digital hate to be treated as seriously as any other workplace health and safety concerns, with fully resourced policies, protocols and support services in place before issues arise.

It also urges institutions to offer training for all staff to understand the varied risks of public engagement, and to recognise the time-consuming requirements on those most likely to be affected by digital hate.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com