Editorial: "Has the time come to abandon online anonymity?"
"HE SAID, 'I'm going to write in your own vomit across your forehead what a sick, vile woman you are and then piss on the ashes while I burn you alive'," recalls Nicola Brookes.
What could Brookes, an unassuming 45-year-old from Brighton, UK, have done to provoke such an attack? She had simply challenged the conduct of internet trolls who ganged up on a minor celebrity. When she didn't back down, she became the victim of a two-year campaign of harassment, receiving nearly 10,000 similar messages.
She is hardly the first to feel the sting of a virtual attack. This summer, feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez was subjected to a barrage of abuse after successfully campaigning for a woman to feature on the English £10 note. When UK Member of Parliament Stella Creasy voiced her support, she also received rape and ...
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