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Most Internet users are familiar with trolling-aggressive, foul-mouthed posts designed to elicit angry responses in a site's comments. Less familiar but far more serious is the way some use networked technologies to target real people, subjecting them, by name and address, to vicious, often terrifying, online abuse. In an in-depth investigation of a problem that is too often trivialized by lawmakers and the media, Danielle Keats Citron exposes the startling extent of personal cyber-attacks and proposes practical, lawful ways to prevent and punish online harassment. A refutation of those who claim that these attacks are legal, or at least impossible to stop, Hate Crimes in Cyberspace reveals the serious emotional, professional, and financial harms incurred by victims.

Persistent online attacks disproportionately target women and frequently include detailed fantasies of rape as well as reputation-ruining lies and sexually explicit photographs. And if dealing with a single attacker's "revenge porn" were not enough, harassing posts that make their way onto social media sites often feed on one another, turning lone instigators into cyber-mobs.

Hate Crimes in Cyberspace rejects the view of the Internet as an anarchic Wild West, where those who venture online must be thick-skinned enough to endure all manner of verbal assault in the name of free speech protection, no matter how distasteful or abusive. Cyber-harassment is a matter of civil rights law, Citron contends, and legal precedents as well as social norms of decency and civility must be leveraged to stop it. The free flow of information and expression facilitated by the Internet can bring out the best in people-and also the worst. Hate Crimes in Cyberspace is a call to action and thought-provoking roadmap to realizing the Internet's full potential as a place of discourse and engagement for all. -- Jonathan Zittrain, author of The Future of the Internet-And How to Stop It In this important book, Danielle Citron proposes a civil rights agenda for the digital age-new legal tools that will protect equal opportunity and human dignity in digital spaces. She explains how we can protect individuals from online harassment and abuse without undermining freedom of expression. This is pioneering legal scholarship. -- Jack M. Balkin, Yale University Citron brings clarity and rigor to a difficult area of law and policy-dealing with cyber harassment and stalking-that is in desperate need of both. Her book is a must-read for anyone interested in balancing free speech and privacy, and finding protection from the damage that online trolls can do. Citron masterfully guides us toward much needed solutions. -- Emily Bazelon, Senior Editor, Slate Citron addresses a significant, timely topic in this impressively comprehensive, expertly researched book. Drawing upon leading legal and sociological works, the author explores the nature and consequences of cyber harassment and cyber stalking. Citron's approach is particularly effective because she introduces a series of actual cases in which victims' lives and livelihoods have been damaged by deliberate, malicious invasions of privacy over the Internet. In addressing legal remedies for digital hate attacks, Citron invokes lessons from the civil, women's, and employee rights movements. Moreover, she emphasizes ways in which victims can employ civil and criminal legal means of catching and punishing perpetrators of these crimes. Still, the law is dilatory in recognizing and addressing the challenges presented by digital hate; thus, law enforcement agencies and the courts have much to learn about protecting rights in the digital age... An excellent analysis of the social impact of Internet hate crimes. -- Lynne Maxwell * Library Journal (starred review) * An impassioned call for equal rights for women on the Internet... Citron introduces three women and describes how their personal, educational and professional prospects were wantonly destroyed by cybermobs attacking them through posts on social networking sites and emails sent to prospective schools and employers, messages containing scurrilous lies and graphically detailed threats to rape and murder them. Their efforts to stop or punish these activities were frustrated by the posters' anonymity, indifference on the part of law enforcement and legal loopholes protecting the websites hosting the attacks. Central to their predicaments is a widespread attitude that considers the Internet a lawless playground with no effect on the real world and that belittles the concerns of women and minorities facing a torrent of mindless hate when they attempt to use the Internet to advance their interests and careers. Citron compares this to the dismissive attitudes about sexual harassment in the workplace and domestic violence prevalent 40 years ago, and she argues that driving this vicious behavior from the Internet should be a major 21st-century civil rights initiative. The author has given careful thought to how the standards of civilized conduct expected everywhere else in our culture can be brought to bear on the Internet consistent with First Amendment concerns and without damaging the Internet's capacity for robust debate, activism and innovation. Along with proposals for reducing the social acceptability of Internet abuse, Citron offers well-considered and modest changes to communications law and judicial procedure that could go a long way toward opening the Internet to safer and wider use by currently victimized groups. Her suggestion that anonymity online should be treated as a privilege that can be lost by violations of a site's terms of service is particularly constructive... Frightening and infuriating, this demand for legal accountability for Internet barbarism deserves widespread exposure and serious consideration. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * A very important book...that addresses the dark and dangerous side of the Internet. Hate Crimes in Cyberspace by Danielle Keats Citron delves into myriad stories that swing from unfortunate to horrific, highlighting the negative experiences people have suffered as a result of behavior made possible by the anonymity the Internet provides, and/or made exponentially more severe due to the medium's vast and instant reach... It's enough to make you want to go offline for a very, very long time. * Bridg-iT blog * [An] excellent new book...which dives into the negative consequences of connectivity and suggests legal and ethical remedies that may help people who are the targets of abuse and harassment... I think the book deserves to get a wide audience, particularly as legislatures and tech companies struggle to grapple with the consequences of connectivity. While [Citron] writes from the informed perspective of a legal scholar and researcher, the prose is clear and her approach should be accessible to lay audiences... Citron connects the experiences of women and minorities in the 20th century and the civil rights laws that were enacted to prevent or penalize discrimination against people on the basis of race or gender, with the challenges that confront people in the 21st century. -- Alex Howard * TechRepublic.com * It is the first systematic account of the problem, and how to counter it. Citron proposes practical and lawful ways in which to punish online harassment and also demonstrates the emotional, professional and financial damage incurred by victims. -- Katharine Quarmby * Newsweek * To be sure, police and prosecutors regularly fail to enforce existing laws when it comes to online abuse, either because they don't take the abuse seriously or because they lack the technological skills to find the perpetrators. But while better training and more resources are certainly necessary, Citron argues persuasively that the law itself needs to evolve as well. -- Michelle Goldberg * The Nation * There sometimes seems to be a river of hate on the internet, flowing steadily through

Hate Crimes in Cyberspace