U.S. societal impact of online hate & harassment 2020

According to a January 2020 survey, over a third of online harassment victims in the United States stated that they had stopped, reduced, or changed their online activity due to online harassment. It was also found that 41 percent of internet users had personally experienced any kind of online harassment with 28 percent of respondents reporting to having experienced severe forms of online harassment such as physical threats, sexual harassment, stalking and sustained harassment.

Consequences of online hate and harassment according to internet users in the United States as of January 2020

Characteristic	Share of respondents
Stopped, reduced, or changed online activity	36%
Trouble sleeping, concentrating or feeling anxious	25%
Contacted platform for help	18%
Depressive or suicidal thoughts	11%
Took steps to reduce risk to physical safety	10%
Adverse economic impact	8%
Contacted police for help	5%
Contacted attorney to file a lawsuit	2%

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Release date

June 2020

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

january 17, 2020 to January 30, 2020

Number of respondents

1,974 respondents

Age group

18 years and older

Method of interview

Online survey

Supplementary notes

Eight hundred and seventy-six surveys were collected to form a nationally representative base of respondents with additional oversamples from individuals who identified as Jewish, Muslim, African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic or Latino, or LGBTQ+. For the oversampled target groups, responses were collected until at least 200 Americans were represented from each of those groups. We oversampled the Jewish population until 500 Jewish Americans responded. Data was weighted on the basis of age, gender identity, race, census region, and education to adjust for national representation.

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