Introduction

The proliferation and adoption of technology has had a profound impact on the digital security of communities across the globe. But, not all of these effects have been positive.

In 2017, over one half of American businesses reported experiencing a cyberattack in the preceding year.¹ A Pew Research Center study also found that a majority of Americans (64 percent) have personally experienced a major data breach, through avenues such as credit card fraud, compromised Social Security numbers, and hacked email and social media accounts.²

Addressing the growing repertoire of threats to digital security, which can be defined as the safety of an individual’s digital identity, online data, and well-being related to hardware and software, is not an easy task. This is especially true given that the current definition of security against digital threats is generally limited to topics of cyber warfare, hacking information systems, financial and economic crimes, and internet governance. As the number of digital threats and attacks against individuals and communities increase, reciprocal response frameworks and tools need to be established and expanded. In order for this to be successful, the definition and scope of digital security efforts need to be broadened to include threats and protections related to digital safety, such as online abuse, at the individual and community level.

Digital safety is increasingly becoming a concern for online users. A 2017 Pew Research Center study found that 41 percent of adult internet users have personally experienced harassment online.³ These negative online experiences particularly impact minority and marginalized communities. Factors such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and religious preferences routinely play a role in these cases. For example, three out of four women around the world and 67 percent of young adults in the United States have been subject to some form of online abuse or harassment.⁴ In addition, one in four African Americans and one in 10 Hispanic Americans were targeted with harassment on account of their race or ethnicity, compared to only 3 percent of white Americans.⁵

In this report, we focus on threats to digital safety, such as instances of online abuse and harassment that impact vulnerable and marginalized communities. Typically, disruptions and threats to an individual’s digital security, especially their digital safety, have profound impacts on that individual’s willingness to utilize technology. In addition, when thinking about the collective impact that silencing individual voices has in a democratic society, the effects become particularly worrisome. In a world that is no longer distinctly separated into the physical and virtual spheres, it is entirely possible that the targeting and threatening of vulnerable and minority communities online can mirror the silencing and marginalization of these groups in the physical world. In effect, several core pillars of democratic society—speech, expression, equity, privacy, and freedom from harm—are threatened by such attacks.

The definition and scope of digital security efforts need to be broadened to include threats and protections related to digital safety, such as online abuse.

In the United States, debates on how to effectively protect vulnerable communities online from abuse and harassment often creates tension with the need to safeguard free speech rights provided by the First Amendment, especially since hateful speech is protected speech. On a global level, these debates create tensions with the need to safeguard free expression rights provided by frameworks such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This report outlines approaches for how individuals and communities, the private sector and the public sector can augment their digital safety while avoiding impinging on the civil right to free speech or the human right to free expression.

This report focuses on three vulnerable and/or minority groups: youth, women, and ethnic and racial minorities, with the aim of comparing and contrasting the digital safety risks and threats these communities face. While other communities, particularly religious minorities, the elderly, and the LGBTQ community also face significant threats to their digital safety, the scope of this report is narrowed for several reasons. First, based on a preliminary research sprint of each of the aforementioned communities, more longitudinal and geographically relevant information was available on the three selected groups.⁶ Second, it was more effective to build on existing research than construct a new research agenda in a more nascent area of this field, especially considering limited time and resources. However, given the intersectional nature of many digital safety threats, some case studies engage multiple dimensions of identity and the challenges facing members of intersecting communities. In addition, although digital safety is a broad concept that engages the three selected communities in numerous ways, the scope of this report has been narrowed to focus on digital safety threats related to online abuse and harassment. This category of digital safety threats was selected based on the availability of research and the experiences of those interviewed for this report.

Further, this report focuses primarily on the domestic environment in the United States, across federal, state, and local levels. Some international examples are included as a resource for further research. Similarly, findings from the preliminary research sprint that relate to other vulnerable communities have been included to highlight some of the challenges that fall outside of the formal scope of this report.

The research in this report was conducted over a period of eight months (from November 2017 to June 2018) using a range of methods, including reviewing existing cybersecurity, digital security, and digital safety literature, conducting interviews with 30 cybersecurity, digital security, and digital safety experts representing some of the leading organizations in the field—including consultations with internal experts at New America—and attending over a dozen workshops, conference events, and trainings on digital security, digital safety, and human rights in the digital age. The aim of this research was to identify the organizations, programs, best practices, platforms, and policies that are being effectively deployed to support vulnerable communities in the digital space, while also identifying gaps in these existing support structures. In the future, these findings can be used to identify ways to more effectively deconstruct silos between advocacy groups, and increase meaningful collaboration across communities, which can aid in filling unmet needs.