Female, other gender physicians, scientists most likely to report online harassment

Key takeaways:

• Women and other genders appeared more likely than men to report harassment based on gender.
• The majority (88%) of respondents experienced harassment on social media due to advocacy.

Most physicians and biomedical scientists surveyed reported experiencing online harassment via social media that appeared to worsen during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a research letter published in JAMA Network Open.

High levels of harassment could lead more physicians and scientists to limit social media use, resulting in further spread of misinformation unchecked by those most qualified to combat it, researchers concluded.

Personal attacks online

“Our original study was conceptualized in 2017/2018 where we collected data prior to the pandemic and were not surprised that the results revealed that one in four physicians who used social media reported being personally attacked,” Shikha Jain, MD, FACP, associate professor of medicine with tenure in the division of hematology, oncology and cell therapy at University of Illinois Cancer Center in Chicago and consulting editor for Healio Women in Oncology, told Healio.

With the seeming increase of targeted harassment on physicians, health care workers, scientists and public health officials during the pandemic, Jain said she and colleagues were interested in examining the levels of harassment reported after the beginning of the pandemic.

“Many of us use social media to disseminate evidence-based public health messaging and also use it to stay up to date,” she said. “We were anecdotally seeing a trend toward more harassment and more health care workers and scientists deciding to leave social media platforms due to this harassment.”

Jain and colleagues surveyed 359 U.S. physicians, biomedical scientists or trainees (33% aged between 35 and 44 years; 57% women) recruited via Twitter.

All responses were collected between July 18 and Aug. 21, 2022.

Survey results

Overall, 66% of respondents reported harassment on social media. Among them, 88% experienced harassment due to advocacy, 45% due to gender, 27% due to race or ethnicity, 13% due to sexual orientation and 6% due to disability.

Results additionally showed that women (67%) and other genders (58%) appeared more likely than men (13%) to report harassment based on gender (P < .001).

The majority (82%) of Black respondents, 69% of Hispanic respondents and more than half (52%) of Asian respondents reported harassment based on race or ethnicity compared with only 15% of white respondents (P < .001).

Researchers found that 64% of respondents reported harassment associated with comments made about the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, 31% of respondents reported being sexually harassed and 18% having their private information shared.

Researchers also found that 64% of respondents who experienced any online harassment reported that the pandemic altered the way they utilized social media.

Compared with respondents who did not use social media to post public health messages, those who did use social media appeared more likely to report online harassment (39% vs. 70%; P < .001).

“Many of us have been personally or professionally attacked due to the work we do on public health messaging and education on these social media platforms, so it was not a surprise to see the levels of harassment others were reporting and sharing," Jain said. "We also saw an increase in targeted and coordinated harassment that resulted in many of our colleagues making the decision to engage less on the platform or leave altogether.”

Greater good

Social media has become a significant part of many people’s lives and a way many individuals get their information, Jain told Healio.

“With the increase in misinformation and attacks on those who use these platforms to do a public service, such as disseminating data-driven, health care-related information, we are concerned that we will see a decline in the ‘good actors’ who spend their time doing this work for the greater good, and an increase in the ‘bad actors’ who use these platforms to push their own agenda,” she said. “This is extremely dangerous for public health and for the health of our communities. Many individuals are making decisions that they think are informed based on the data they are consuming on social media, when the information they are consuming may be disinformation driven by personal gain.”

More work is needed to protect those who are doing this work for public health, without pushing their own agendas for their own personal gain, Jain added.

“There needs to be more ways to identify and remove disinformation and lies on these social media platforms,” she said. “It is imperative for the medical community to actively participate in the collective effort of advocating for robust legislation to protect individuals from cyberstalking in the online realm. While the detrimental effects of cyberbullying and online sexual harassment are widely acknowledged, there is a deficiency in federal laws that address these issues, resulting in the responsibility falling on individual states.”

Compounding the problem, Jain said, is the ambiguity surrounding the distinction between free speech and a genuine threat to a victim, leading to inconsistent enforcement by local law enforcement agencies.

“Social media companies must be held responsible and demonstrate more resolute measures in removing users who breach their terms of service,” she said.

Looking ahead

Jain and colleagues plan to continue the work toward addressing these issues through organizations like [Illinois Medical Professional Action Collaborative Team (IMPACT)] and others that were developed with the purpose of educating communities on public health topics.

“The data is there, and we hope that using these types of studies, social media companies will realize the benefit to protecting those who use their platforms for the greater good, and also will take measures to protect those who use these platforms to provide public services like public health education,” she said. “As physicians, our voices have power and we can use these platforms to educate, advocate and improve the health of our communities. We can use social media to not only educate our patients and others, we can also use these platforms to advocate for change.”

Although harassment does occur, organizations, including This Is Our Shot and Shots Heard Round the World, exist to help when this type of harassment ensues, Jain added.

“Another great way to protect yourself online is to find a group of collaborators who can amplify your message and come to your defense if you are being targeted online,” she said. “As the recent chemotherapy shortage has shown — and the pandemic has amplified — our voices are needed now more than ever. I strongly encourage physicians to use their knowledge, education and platform for the greater good.”

References:

• Jain S. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.19682.
• Pendergrast TR, et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2021;doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.7235.
• Royan R, et al. J Med Internet Res. 2022;doi:10.2196/38324.
• Royan R, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.18315.

For more information:

Shikha Jain, MD, FACP, can be reached on Twitter: @ShikhaJainMD.