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The Dark Side Of Social Media For Black Women

Social media has become an unavoidable part of our day-to-day lives. With information available at our fingertips, it is no wonder it’s become almost second nature to engage with the digital world. However, as each and every one of us are far more accessible than we have ever been, the internet has become an increasingly hostile place with the privilege of anonymity and the ability to hide behind our screens. Seyi Akiwowo, founder of Glitch, was kind enough to chat with us about the recent Amnesty Troll Patrol Report, her time in politics and her subsequent advocacy to end online abuse. 

In December 2018, Amnesty International published its report regarding targeted abuse online, detailing the volume of abusive and violent tweets sent to women across 2017 on Twitter. It collected data from 778 women-identifying journalists and politicians based in the U.K and the U.S.A from a multitude of ethnic and class backgrounds, as well as surveying over 1.1 million tweets.