Credible Threat

Credible Threat is extraordinary in its foregrounding of the professional, interpersonal, and mental health costs of digital misogyny. It's even more extraordinary in its analysis of the collective costs of these individual attacks; they reinforce structural inequalities, weaken digital discourse, and erode free speech. If we care about protecting democracy, we must care about creating safe and equitable spaces online. With deep expertise, empathy, and resolve, this book shows us how, and reveals ways to cultivate a healthier world for all. -- Whitney Phillips, Syracuse University I wish we lived in a world where Credible Threat was a less timely and important book. Sobieraj systematically documents how women engaging in public life online are subjected to threats and harassment, and how these routinized attacks shape who participates and how. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the state of digital politics and civic life today. It is particularly essential reading for men, laying bare the daily hostilities that our peers face without our notice. -- David Karpf, George Washington University Professor Sobieraj's research takes the reader on a journey through the experiences of women living in a paradox, where social media is too valuable to give up, but too painful to endure. Their stories, woven together with deep sociological analysis, chart new ground for research on networked communication and political participation. Incisive and compassionate, this book explains how gender, technology, and the choices made by platform companies shape online interactions and, in turn, intensify identity-based attacks. -- Joan Donovan, Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy Misogyny and online harassment are problems not only for the women who endure them, they're a problem for the character of public life and the health of democracy. They're our problem. Credible Threat is the book we need: in it, Sarah Sobieraj offers a vital contribution to the debate with precision and care, gives those who face abuse a real voice in it, and makes clear the potentially devastating implications. -- Tarleton Gillespie, Microsoft Research Through her careful interviewing of victims of digital harassment and sophisticated intertwining of public sphere and feminist theory, Sobieraj's sobering intervention details how digital misogyny is a systemic problem with longstanding implications for women's participation in democracy, with offline inequities reinforced online, often as deliberate, coordinated efforts that aim to objectify, degrade, and silence women. -- Nikki Usher, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign