Assessing Online Threats

One of the first questions to ask yourself when you’re experiencing online harassment is whether it has made you feel physically unsafe.

If online abuse has made you fear for your physical safety or the safety of your loved ones, please seriously consider:

Safety is rooted in fact, but it’s also a feeling. How hateful slurs, sexual harassment, or violent threats make you feel is intertwined with your identity, your lived experience, your profession, and the context of the abuse. For example, if you identify as a woman, online sexual harassment may make you feel especially unsafe because we know that women are far more likely to be sexually assaulted than men, and women also experience sexualized forms of online abuse at much higher rates than men.

Ultimately you are in the best position to assess your sense of safety. Follow your instincts and trust your judgment. Keep in mind that it can be tempting to minimize or dismiss online threats, so it can be helpful to do a gut check with a trusted friend, family member, or colleague.

Questions to Ask Yourself

  • Is your harasser affiliated with the state? If so, check our resources here.
  • Has your harasser made an explicit threat that names you specifically and/or includes specific details (“Someone should do something” VS “Here is how I am going to do this thing to you”)?
  • Does the content of your harasser’s messages contain personal details about you or your loved one(s) (e.g., your location, your place of employment, the name of your child’s school)?
  • Are you seeing “indicia of irrationality”? In other words, is your harasser using their real name, real email address, real phone number, or otherwise openly identifying themselves while threatening you?
  • Is your harasser engaging in a course of conduct? In other words, are they attacking or threatening you repeatedly in a concerted way and/or across platforms?
  • Do you know the person who is harassing you? If so, do you believe them capable of escalating the abuse? Do they have a history of violence?
  • ​​Is the unwelcome content extending to other people in your network? Has the offender researched you and begun reaching out to your job, friends, and family?
  • Have you been hacked? i.e., have your accounts been compromised or taken over?
  • Is the behavior – frequency, violence, and volume – escalating?
  • Has the abuser shared (or threatened to share) sexually explicit images of you without your consent?
  • Are you concerned that the content of your harasser’s messages, circulating publicly, will negatively impact your personal or professional life?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, again please seriously consider:

If you’d like more information on threat assessment, check out OnlineSOS’s Threat Modeling Guide and the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s, which walk you through a detailed series of questions.

Further Reading

PEN America has developed these guidelines in consultation with security experts at major media outlets, and we are deeply grateful to them for their time and expertise. 

IMPORTANT: THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEBPAGE IS OFFERED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THE INFORMATION DOES NOT, AND IS NOT INTENDED TO, CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE, NOR IS IT INTENDED TO REPLACE THE ASSISTANCE OF A LAWYER OR LAW ENFORCEMENT.