The plight of journalists like Rana Ayyub exposes the failure of big tech to tackle threats and harassment, especially against women
The prominent Indian investigative journalist Rana Ayyub has publicly pleaded with Twitter to take action against the harassment and abuse – described as online violence – she experiences every single day. Incredibly, while the company rarely steps in against the trolls who threaten to rape and murder her, this week it took the extraordinary step of blocking access to one of her posts in India, apparently at the request of the Indian government.
In the past few days, the Indian authorities have arrested two other journalists and human rights defenders – Teesta Setalvad and Mohammad Zubair – on national security grounds for allegedly stoking religious enmity through their reporting and activism on sectarian violence, and it appears they have been issuing orders to censor other journalists on social media, including Ayyub.
Dr Julie Posetti is deputy vice-president and global director of research at the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Kalina Bontcheva is a professor at the University of Sheffield and a leading expert in big data analysis of online abuse and misinformation
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