Leeds doctor and campaigner calls for urgent action to protect women from 'dangerous' online abuse

Dr Hannah Barham-Brown, 32, has recently been appointed as deputy leader for the Women’s Equality Party and has been named one of the most influential disabled people in the UK.

She said women are "massively" disproportionately affected by online abuse and has called for a change in the way that women in public life are perceived.

Amnesty International research found that online abuse of women is ‘widespread’ in the UK, with one in five women having suffered online abuse or harassment.

The study suggests that although people of all genders can experience violence and abuse online, the abuse experienced by women is often sexist or misogynistic and creates a hostile online environment that silences women.

Dr Barham-Brown said this abuse can have devastating consequences on the mental health of those receiving it.

She said: “You do get a lot of backlash, both on social media and on newspaper websites. I’ve learnt never to read below the line.

“I get occasional comments about the fact that I’m disabled, like that I’m a benefits scrounger, which is very odd as I work extremely long hours for the NHS.

“It can really affect you and these trolls do have a way of finding your weak spot and poking it.

"Online abuse massively, disproportionately affects women. If you look at the world of politics, it's women and BAME women who are most commonly attacked."

Dr Barham-Brown has called for social media companies and mainstream political parties to do more to stamp out abuse and suggests keeping a record of any repeated comments to be able to report it if necessary.

Blocking trolls and deleting her account from 'hitlist' Twitter lists has helped, but Dr Barham-Brown said balancing the need to engage with people online and protecting herself from abuse is difficult.

She added: "It is very challenging as you want to hear from a range of perspectives and you don’t want to kill debate or block everyone who disagrees with you.

"But the second I’m made to feel uncomfortable or attacked, I’ve now got a very low threshold for blocking and reporting people. Because it’s just not worth the stress on my mental health.

“I’m a lot more cautious about what I put out there now.

“I’ve always been very open about my physical and mental health problems, because I think it’s important to see other people with health conditions going on and succeeding and role modelling the opportunities that are out there for us.

"But it does always make me second-guess myself, do I really want to put out that I experience anxiety and depression sometimes, or could people use that against me in the future?”

Dr Barham-Brown said abuse against high-profile women has had "terrible" consequences, pointing to the physical threats faced by MP Dianne Abbot and Lancaster MP Kat Smith and the tragic murder of Jo Cox in 2016.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) updated its guidance in 2017 and said the impact of online abuse can be 'equally devastating' as shouting it.

But Dr Barham-Brown thinks more should be done to protect women from abuse online.

She said: "Both online and offline, the experiences of women who are taking on public roles is just unacceptable and now it's dangerous.

"The CPS needs to be a bit hotter on online abuse. It's almost like if it's online it isn't real and we rarely see prosecutions around that.

"But it all needs to come around part of a wider conversation on the role of women in public life and attitudes towards women in public life.

“There’s the argument that all is fair in love and war - but no, actually. This is politics and it’s just meant to be a job, it’s not meant to take over your whole life and make you feel at risk or in danger.”

The Yorkshire Evening Post's Call It Out campaign is sharing real life experiences of abusive online behaviour and asking our readers to help play their part in reporting it to account admins, social media platforms and, where needed, the police.

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