Showing your support

Negative experiences online can be very isolating. Activists who have experienced online abuse don’t always feel fully supported by the party, or that the party puts enough resources into tackling abusive behaviour. Parties should have a duty of care towards their candidates and a responsibility to respond quickly to internet trolling and be more explicit about how online abuse and discrimination won’t be tolerated. Your response should be discussed with the person receiving the abuse.

For example, if voters have been posting racist comments about one of your candidates, you should swiftly put out a public statement about how their comments are unacceptable, you are proud of diversity and you won’t tolerate racism. This sends a message to other minority ethnic people who might be considering joining or standing for the party that you will support them effectively is they experience discrimination. By saying nothing, you are giving the impression that unacceptable behaviour is tolerated in the party.

However, be wary of responding directly to the person posting the abuse. By responding directly, social media algorithms can be tricked into showing the post in a wider range of users’ timelines which further legitimises the abuse. In their report ‘Don’t feed the Trolls’ the Centre for Countering Digital Hate recommends avoiding responding directly to online trolling.

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