Online Abuse Defense 101

Digital attacks threaten free expression. This introductory session equips participants with practical tools and strategies to defend against online abuse. Taking a holistic approach to digital safety, we’ll give an overview of how to prepare, respond, take care of yourself, and support others.

Duration: 1 hour

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What To Do If You’re Harassed Online

In this digital safety workshop, we’ll share strategies for navigating online abuse if it happens to you or someone you know. We’ll discuss practical tips for documenting and reporting abuse as well best practices for being an effective ally and building a supportive cyber community. This session is grounded in our Flexible Response Protocol, informed by our 8+ years of working with writers under attack. 

Duration: 1 hour

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Doxing Defense: Clean Up your Digital Footprint

Learn to better protect yourself from online attacks by cleaning up your digital footprint. In this interactive workshop, we will ‘think like doxers’ to discover what private information about us is available online and what we can do to remove it or reduce its visibility. We’ll talk about data brokers, data breaches, password hygiene and more. Participants will leave with their own digital safety action plan. 

Duration: 1 hour

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Doxing Defense: Take Charge of Social Media

Take charge of your social media accounts with proven strategies and best practices. We will guide you through safety settings and tools on popular social media platforms that you can use to defend against harassment, tighten your security, and protect your privacy. Participants will receive a digital safety checklist to use as an ongoing resource. 

Partners can choose 2-3 platforms for us to discuss that are most relevant to their community from the following: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky, Venmo, LinkedIn, TikTok. This training can stand alone but is best combined with Clean Up Your Digital Footprint.

Duration: 30 minutes

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How To Deal with Harassment Via Email, Text, and Calls

In this workshop, we take a deep dive into tools that can be used to defend against harassment via email, text or calls. We will dig into strategies that you can use to separate your personal and professional life and to build resilience in your communications long term. 

Duration: 30 minutes

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Building Resilience: Map your Support Networks

In this workshop, participants use pod-mapping, a practice developed in transformative justice organizations, to figure out how to mobilize their community to get support and help others in the face of harassment, threats, and other forms of intimidation. 

Duration: 30 minutes

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Employer Best Practices Workshop: Support Staff and Freelancers Facing Online Abuse

Having an online presence is increasingly critical for writers of all kinds. As the online landscape becomes more volatile, organizations that work with and serve writers have to navigate online hate and harassment. Abusive tactics like doxing, hacking, impersonation, and brigading can silence writers and their allies, which directly undermines efforts to create more diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environments. In this session, PEN America collaborates with an organization’s leadership team to map out concrete strategies for how to better protect and support staff and freelancers in preparing for, responding to, and mitigating the damage of online abuse, threats, and other forms of intimidation.

Duration: 1-2 hours, with consultation on policies, protocols, etc. as necessary

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For Journalists: How To Navigate a Polluted Media Landscape

Journalists are on the front lines of truth-telling and fostering a healthier information environment. As gatekeepers of verified information, they play a critical role in identifying, debunking, and contextualizing falsehoods. Bad actors not only target journalists themselves, but the field as a whole, aiming to undermine credible media sources and erode public trust. This session lays out the disinformation threat landscape and helps newsrooms adopt and model best practices in verifying information. 

Duration: 1 hour

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“You got us thinking about these issues in new and more ambitious ways. You were engaging in your presentations with the broader staff. You showed them that we can be proactive. It’s an overused phrase, but you empowered everyone. You also made management feel more comfortable by making us aware that there are no easy answers or solutions. That alone propelled us to do more work on this—far more. We’ve been engaged ever since you left, and we cite your work and role often. In short, thank you.”
—Brian McGrory, Editor-in-Chief, The Boston Globe

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“As a journalist who sometimes writes about sensitive topics, online harassment has become part of the job. But that doesn’t mean it’s normal. PEN America’s training gave me the tools and resources I need to mitigate and manage this ongoing problem, even as a freelancer. Online harassment discourages reporters, journalists, and writers from sharing their stories—it censors us because of the emotional and mental labor it adds to the job. I’m grateful for PEN’s acknowledgment of this issue so we writers feel more empowered to do what we do.”
—Kristin Wong, Journalist, Authors Guild

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“PEN America’s online harassment defense training helped us think about how to prepare for harassment and how to better respond when it happens. The training made us rethink some of our policies and approaches. One of the most useful parts was the chance for staff to hear their colleagues’ experiences and share their strategies and tips. In addition, the Online Harassment Field Manual is an excellent resource for both staff and freelancers.”
—Megan Wiegand, Managing Editor, Slate Magazine

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“Online abuse is a very real issue in the journalism field today, and we need to be proactive in preparing women, who are disproportionately targeted. The training PEN America provided was thorough and thoughtful, and highly relevant. The trainers brought a compassionate and gentle approach to a difficult topic that seemed to put students at ease.”
—Willow Bay, Dean, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

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“I wanted to quickly email to say: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Not only have you all given free trainings for really important skills, but this training in particular will be so incredibly helpful after several libraries in my system were hit with intense anti-LGBTQ+ trolls on social media last year. This escalated to stalking and harassment. I have several librarian friends that I’ve forwarded this to who will really value it.”
—Anonymous

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“I just wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you for such a wonderful seminar! I’ve learned so much and will make the necessary changes immediately. After my piece came out last year, I had such a terrible storm for three days—it was really traumatizing. I won’t let it silence me, but I do live in fear of it happening again. Your seminar absolutely helped strengthen my resolve to get back out there.”
—Anonymous, Reporter, Journalism & Women Symposium