📖 Content moderation glossary
What is online harassment?
In short
Online harassment is abusive behaviour directed at a specific person, often repeated or coordinated, that aims to intimidate, humiliate or silence them, through insults, threats, unwanted contact or exposure of personal information.
Harassment is defined less by a single message than by a pattern: the same user replying insultingly to every post of a journalist, dozens of accounts targeting one commenter, or threats sent after a public statement. It can include doxxing, sexualised comments and impersonation.
Example: a reporter publishes an investigation. Over the next days, the comment section and her social media posts fill up with messages mocking her appearance, questioning her private life and hinting at where she lives. Each comment alone may look borderline; together they are harassment.
For media, brands and public bodies, protecting staff and community members is both a duty of care and a condition for open debate. Effective moderation looks at context and repetition, hides the abuse quickly and escalates threats. OpenModeration hides clear violations automatically and doubtful cases, often the subtle ones, are handled by the OpenModeration team.