June 26, 2025
The X-Podcast: Real Conversations About Mental Health
A Conversation About: Online Stalking and Harassment
Listen to all episodes at https://blubrry.com/studio_talk_mental_health/
Episode #58 Online Stalking and Harassment
My public statement 2/25/24 on my professional social media accounts:
Official Public Statement Regarding My Online Stalker and Harassment.
2/28/24 Update: In a good-faith effort, I have agreed to remove this original update in exchange for securing my safety and well-being, my family’s safety and well-being, and the safety and well-being of my clients. It will remain archived as documentation.
According to Durham University
https://reportandsupport.durham.ac.uk/.../what-is-online...
The Definition of Online Harassment is:
Online harassment can be defined as the use of information and communication technologies by an individual or group to cause harm to another person repeatedly.
This may involve threats, embarrassment, or humiliation in an online setting. This includes expressions of discriminatory attitudes and beliefs, such as sexism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, or ableist prejudices. It also includes online sexual harassment, cyberstalking, and image-based sexual abuse or other unwanted online conduct of a sexual nature.
Online harassment is also known as cyberaggression, cyberbullying, cyber-harassment, cyberhate, cybervictimisation, and deviant online behaviour. It takes place in various contexts, including social media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Twitter), SMS, instant messaging (via devices, email provider services, apps, and social media messaging features), and email.
Examples of online harassment include spreading rumours, ridiculing, and/or demeaning others harassing others because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or transgender identity seeking revenge or deliberately embarrassing a person online engaging in unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature via text, email, or other electronic and/or social media, including using intimate images or recordings of another person impersonating others, even through their accounts, with malicious intent sending inflammatory, inappropriate, rude, and/or violent messages or comments about someone to provoke responses from other users exposing others to unwanted or offensive content in digital groups or meetings.
https://reportandsupport.durham.ac.uk/.../what-is-online...
Thank you for your concern and supportive messages. We hope to resolve this matter soon without incident.
Xiomara A. Sosa
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=definition%20of%20cyberstalking%20
Stalking impacts nearly 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men in the United States. Yet, there is no stalking hotline, no stalking crisis centers, and it is often difficult for stalking victims to recognize what they are experiencing and/or know where to go for help. Our task at the Stalking Prevention, Awareness, & Resource Center (SPARC) of AEquitas is to “help the helpers”, making sure that the victim service providers (including domestic violence shelters and rape crisis agencies), campuses, law enforcement agencies, and other places where stalking victims come for help and support have the training and resources they need to better respond to victims and survivors.
What is online harassment?
According to Durham University
https://reportandsupport.durham.ac.uk/support/what-is-online-harassment?fbclid=IwY2xjawLKFWxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFCVEFaMmo4TjZpTG1XeUF6AR7pVpypmffjrxXgmidBuf67Z9NXPIF4gFs6XuheHWA42vedLLAU-mgf643yEw_aem_1LK8pN11UUWoTJUUK-cJzg#:~:text=impersonating%20others%2C%20even%20through%20their,in%20digital%20groups%20or%20meetings
Online harassment can be defined as the use of information and communication technologies by an individual or group to cause harm to another person repeatedly.
This may involve threats, embarrassment, or humiliation in an online setting. This includes expressions of discriminatory attitudes and beliefs, such as sexism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, or ableist prejudices. It also includes online sexual harassment, cyberstalking, and image-based sexual abuse or other unwanted online conduct of a sexual nature.
Online harassment is also known as cyberaggression, cyberbullying, cyber-harassment, cyberhate, cybervictimisation, and deviant online behaviour. It takes place in various contexts, including social media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Twitter), SMS, instant messaging (via devices, email provider services, apps, and social media messaging features), and email.
Examples
- spreading rumours, ridiculing, and/or demeaning others
- harassing others because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity
- seeking revenge or deliberately embarrassing a person online
- engaging in unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature via text, email, or other electronic and/or social media, including using intimate images or recordings of another person
- impersonating others, even through their accounts, with malicious intent
- sending inflammatory, inappropriate, rude, and/or violent messages or comments about someone to provoke responses from other users
- exposing others to unwanted or offensive content in digital groups or meetings
Effects
The kinds of unwanted behaviours described above can provoke a range of physical, psychological, and emotional effects:
- stress, anxiety, and/or panic attacks
- loss of self-esteem
- feelings of powerlessness
- changes in sleep and eating patterns
- hypervigilance and increased anxiety
- fear for personal safety
- Reduced academic and professional performance
What is cyberstalking?
According to womenslaw.org
https://www.womenslaw.org/about-abuse/abuse-using-technology/ways-survivors-use-and-abusers-misuse-technology/cyberstalking
What are Smear Campaigns and Reputational Abuse?
https://youtu.be/za-a9h4fP7o?si=QeX5t3MnlhOH4_N1
Callie Sorensen YouTube channel
REPUTATIONAL ABUSE IS A FORM OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE that most people never see coming — until it’s too late. When someone rewrites your story, spreads lies, turns people against you, and makes you look like the problem, that’s not gossip. That’s a smear campaign, and it’s strategic, controlling, and devastating.
Transcript
Introduction to Reputational Abuse
Many people talk about smear campaigns, how someone spreads lies to destroy your name, ruin your credibility, and turn people a...
