BBC journalist Faranak Amidi explains her strategy for fighting back against the online bullies.
ADVERTISEMENT
"[It]actually makes me nervous ... exactly the same way you know that if I was walking in a dark alley and I felt a man might be behind me and felt that something could go wrong."
That's how journalist Faranak Amidi desribes her feelings whenever she sees an unknown man has contacted her on social media.
The women's affairs journalist for the BBC World Service uses platforms like Instagram all day as part of her job to connect with women in Iran. It allows her to to engage with stories which are rarely covered in mainstream Farsi-speaking media.
But she says that alongside the empowerment of social media, she also experiences the dark side. She has been harassed repeatedly, threatened with rape and death.
She tells Euronews that she has hit back by reposting the hate in order to shame the perpetrators.
"Now it’s very interesting because every time a person sexual harasses me or bullies me under my Instagram post the other women actually come and react to it," she notes.