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Speak Up and Stay Safe(r): A Guide to Protecting Yourself from Online Harassment

The writers of this guide—creators, activists, and authors who have survived cyberattacks themselves—provide safety tips to help keep users safe from “individuals, loosely organized groups, and cybermobs online.” Aimed at helping women, people of color, trans people, and genderqueer people in particular, Feminist Frequency offers suggestions for online security in regard to social media, email and physical mail, online gaming, website creation, and documentation and reporting of harassment from people who recognize the importance of emotional self-care after an episode of online harassment.

HeartMob

HeartMob by the creators of Right to Be—a community of activists engaged in ending harassment in public spaces—offers a ready-made online community and support system with which to share stories of online harassment and receive tips for combatting it in the future. In the name of bystander intervention, HeartMob utilizes its Twitter bot, sustained by HeartMob volunteers, to log and reply to online harassers with disincentives. HeartMob also sources in-depth guides to both technical and social media safety and self-care, and advises the development of anti-harassment infrastructure at organizations where it does not yet exist.

Global Cyber Alliance’s Cybersecurity Toolkit for Journalists

The GCA Cybersecurity Toolkit for Journalists provides journalists, watchdogs, and small newsrooms with free and effective tools and resources to bolster their digital safety. The tools are carefully selected and organized in a toolbox to make it easy to find and implement digital safety best practices that help freelance journalists, researchers, and independent news organizations better secure themselves against online abuse, including doxing, hacking, impersonation, and other tactics. A video explains each toolbox’s recommended actions and a community forum provides additional support to assist journalists in protecting themselves and their assets.

Consumer Reports Security Planner

CR Security Planner is a free, easy-to-use guide to staying safer online. It provides personalized recommendations and expert advice on topics such as keeping social media accounts from being hacked, locking down devices ranging from smartphones to home security cameras, and reducing intrusive tracking by websites. Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit member organization that works with consumers to create more fairness, safety, and transparency in the marketplace. It doesn’t run third-party ads, and no company will ever exercise influence over its recommendations of products or services.

We Keep Us Safe: LGBTQ Digital Safety Guide

GLAAD is a non-profit organization focused on LGBTQ advocacy and cultural change. Serving as a storyteller, media force, resource, and advocate, GLAAD tackles tough issues and provokes dialogue so that authentic LGBTQ stories are seen, heard, and actualized. Their LGBTQ Digital Safety Guide offers both topline best practices and more detailed guidance on preparing for online abuse, tightening your digital safety, and documenting and reporting abuse to platforms.

Crash Override Network

Crash Override is the brainchild of Zoë Quinn, an award-winning independent game developer-turned-activist after she underwent life-altering cyber abuse. Crash Override works with tech companies, lawmakers, law enforcement, and the media to address the root causes of online abuse. Navigate to Crash Override’s Resource Center for tools, security guides, and educational materials on protecting your online identity as an individual netizen. The website prioritizes privacy and is useful for anyone seeking information about nonconsensual imagery (such as revenge porn), hacking, stalking, surveillance, doxing, Swatting, impersonation, and online hate groups.

Surveillance Self-Defense by the Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world, championing user privacy, free expression, and innovation through original research on the policies impacting our access to the internet. EFF’s Surveillance Self Defense offers tips, tools, and how-to guides covering all your cybersecurity needs, from deleting data on your desktop to choosing the VPN (virtual private network) that’s right for you. While this guide is geared more toward targets of surveillance than victims of online abuse, it offers a number of security measures valuable to anyone who would like to beef up their security during an episode of online harassment.

Zen and the Art of Making Tech Work for You

A bilingual manual sourced from a community of women, trans activists, human rights defenders, and technologists, Zen and the Art of Making Tech Work for You, by the Tactical Technology Collective and the Association for Progressive Communications, comprises a virtual library of information dedicated to strengthening and protecting a user’s online presence and creating safe and collaborative online spaces.

Digital First Aid Kit

An open-source guide, developed by the Rapid Response Network and CiviCERT, that walks you through a series of questions about the online harassment and digital security challenges you’re facing and offers specific guidance in multiple languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, and Albanian).

Safety Net Project by the National Network to End Domestic Violence

Predominantly geared toward victims of domestic violence and cyberstalking, the National Network to End Domestic Violence offers several comprehensive tool kits on internet safety useful for individuals subjected to cyber harassment. Their Technology Safety & Privacy tool kit, Technology & Confidentiality tool kit, and App Safety Center (with apps available in English and Spanish) help internet users to identify online harassment and impersonation and offer information regarding mobile device safety, stalking, and law enforcement.