"Trolling” has become an increasingly reported method of attacking writers and users online who clearly identify as female, or who speak from feminist points of views. They range from unrelenting comments that belittle the opinions of the writer, to name calling, to specific threats of violence – often sexualised and almost always gendered. In cases of trolling and harassment that women and girls face on the internet, they also work towards shutting out and silencing feminist discourse and the voices of women and girls. http://www.takebackthetech.net https://www.takebackthetech.net/take-action/2012/12/9

1. “Frankly if you are a woman on the internet you might as well have a
sign on your back that says, “Troll me”. If you have an opinion or
focus on a commenting in a male dominated field, you probably
double your chances.”
- Sue, DC Women Kick Ass
http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/30910472373/troll

2. “[A]fter some verbal sparring, he finally showed his true colours by
issuing a rape threat. I’ve never gotten one of those, and I was a bit
shaken, yes, despite knowing it was nothing to worry about. But it
didn’t stop there.
The next night, the guy sent in one of his trolls to harass me. I woke
up to my phone constantly beeping with notifications as the troll
proceeded to write obscene comments all over my Facebook, on my
cover photos, public posts, profile picture, whatever he could find.”
- Ghausia Rashid Salam, My first (won’t be my last) cyber-rape threat
https://www.takebackthetech.net/write/my-first-wont-be-my-last-cyber-rape-threat
Photo by A.Currell, Flickr, Some rights reserved

3. “I was only able to make a connection once all of them started to
send me similar threats and messages. They started sending me rape
threats in mid June 2012, it was the same period that they tried to
hack my personal and professional accounts to remove the
information that I published about them on internet and social media.
I reported them during the same time in July 2012 to FIA.”
- Ayesha, Ayesha’s story
https://www.takebackthetech.net/write/ayeshas-story
Photo by victoriapeckham, Flickr, Some rights reserved

4. “My own 'mentions' tab on Twitter is generally flooded with unoriginal misogynist,
heteronormative responses, ranging all the way from claims that I'm a feminist
because I'm ‘too ugly to land a man’ to claims that I'm actually a ‘confused lesbian’,
all the way to threats of ‘corrective rape’ because I choose to tweet -- just tweet --
about issues such as childhood sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and other forms of
sexualised violence. I've received vile, detailed messages from random strangers
who decide to tell me my home address and then live out their rape fantasies
online by telling me in graphic detail which parts of my body they would like to do
things to.”
- Urooj Zia, She's begging to be raped – Twitterverse for Feminists in Pakistan!
https://www.takebackthetech.net/write/shes-begging-be-raped-twitterverse-feminists-pakistan

5. “Comments about me. About my kids. Accusations about
me. Homophobic comments. Abelist Comments. And, of
course, rape. Just charming.”
“All told he used, that I can find in my records, 70 + emails and IP addresses on my
blog. I know I just deleted many more. And of course there the many, many names
off the blog where he’d show up where ever my name was mentioned on the
internet to post about me under one his many aliases. If I did an interview? He was
there. If some site linked to something I wrote? He was there. When Kelly and I did
the podcast, he was there. He was more subtle in those places. Mostly. There was
still the palatable nutsy rage but without the sexual or abusive language.”
- Sue, DC Women Kick Ass
http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/30910472373/troll
Photo by tiegeltuf, Flickr
Some rights reserved

6. “When text threats are not enough harassers will resort to pornographic drawings
as weapons to make sure their threats of sexual assault are clear. These are just
two of the many rape drawings featuring my likeness which have been spammed to
my email, posted to my Facebook page and sent through other social media like
Twitter and YouTube.”
- Anita, Image Based Harassment and Visual Misogyny
http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/07/image-based-harassment-and-visual-misogyny/

7. On July 5th 2012 an interactive domestic abuse style “game” entitled “Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian” was
uploaded to the NewGrounds website by one of the site’s users. It invited players to “punch this bitch in
the face” and with each click a photoshopped image of me would become progressively more bloody
and battered until the screen turned completely red.
- Anita, Image Based Harassment and Visual Misogyny
http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/07/image-based-harassment-and-visual-misogyny/

8. Photo by nicolas - ‫,نيكولس‬
Flickr, Some rights reserved
“I do not understand how these men can so easily, so casually,
threaten to rape a woman. How can they possibly think it’s no big
deal if a woman’s body is violated against her will? Even if they do not
understand the psychological trauma of rape victims, surely they must
be aware of how terrible rape is! The guy initially attacked me for
criticizing religion, this religion he’s so quick to defend, does it really
say it is okay to rape a woman?”
- Ghausia Rashid Salam, My first (won’t be my last) cyber-rape threat
https://www.takebackthetech.net/write/my-first-wont-be-my-last-cyber-rape-threat

9. So for anyone who thinks that ignoring a troll makes them
go away? It doesn’t. And anyone who thinks this is a matter
of using the banning button or block or ignore button? It
isn’t. And for anyone who thinks that if you don’t talk
about it you can keep the troll under control? It doesn’t.
- Sue, DC Women Kick Ass
http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/30910472373/troll

10. “This is about the internet. And no, I’m not leaving the internet to let anyone win.
[...] Sometimes I would get sad when I was batting away dozens of hate-filled things
while in my timeline my male comedian friends were just joking along having fun - as
we all should be. And I felt like I was alone on the playground and I wanted them to
speak up for me. [..]”
“I wanted my male comedian friends to write, in
public, about things they have expressed to me in
private about how much they feel for the women
in their life who are still spoken to this way”
- Jen, Let’s drown out the bad voices (revised)
http://jenkirkman.tumblr.com/post/36829074561/lets-drown-out-the-bad-voices-revised

11. “The problem is very real. Misogyny is very real. Violence
against women, cyber violence against women, cyber
harassment, is very real. Until we acknowledge this, it will
continue on in this form, and no solution will be found as
long as keep denying its existence.”
- Ghausia Rashid Salam, My first (won’t be my last) cyber-rape threat
https://www.takebackthetech.net/write/my-first-wont-be-my-last-cyber-rape-threat