Social media: a rising threat to journalists’ freedom

Social media has made democracies more democratic by giving everyone a voice. But it also makes cyberbullies with large followings dangerous enough to make the lives of journalists so unbearable, that they quit. The internet and powerful social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and Google now host brutal cyber-attacks against journalists. Twitter has even earned the nickname “Toxic Twitter” because of this. Unesco, the United Nations agency that deals with free media, and other global free media advocates, see this as a rising threat to media freedom. In a worrying trend called cyber-misogyny, women reporters are often the targets of scathing, sexually humiliating, online abuse. The more followers the cyberbullies have, the more damage they can do. How do we protect these courageous reporters who risk their lives in the pursuit of truth for us? How do we stop this extreme intolerance of freedom of speech? Read the full story at https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-08-06-twitter-and-the-rest-of-social-media-are-a-rising-threat-to-media-freedom-and-i-am-part-of-their-roadkill/

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