Death threats. Racist taunts. Vows of violence. Inside the increasingly personal attacks targeting Canadian female journalists from a far-right blogger.
Coulter, who writes about First Nations issues and is known for her frequent, controversial comments, was targeted by an anonymous male online mob after the CBC revealed her identity as a “white, middle-class, mainstream Canadian woman.”
The anonymous mob, whose website said it was launched at a Conservative Party event, said of her: “The more we learn about you, the more enraged we get. Your life is in shambles, that’s her problem.” (Coulter was not at the Toronto Conservative Party event.)
The online taunting came after her new book, “The Power of Nightmares: Life After the Great War,” which examined the first Canadian casualty of the war, a young woman, from war-related injuries.
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She was 19.
A CBC reporter who has covered this type of online abuse said it will continue.
“Every piece of content that she chooses to put out, whether that’s talking about a documentary – this type of harassment is just part of what’s going on,” said Kate Elliott.
“The online world is a wild, wild place: It’s a dark, dark world, and it’s a place where you are judged for the content of what you say and do. It’s also a place where you can be cyberbullied, where you can be attacked.”
Elliott said she has been subjected to racial and derogatory comments online, but she did not believe that the type of online abuse directed at Coulter was a recent development in the blogosphere.
She also warned that the bullying was only going to get worse, with the number of right-wing and racist individuals more than doubling since the Harper government came into office.
“Every time you make a comment on a social media site, there is always that expectation that the words that you are using are going to be scrutinized, judged, and judged.”
The online hatred did not stop after Coulter published the story about the young War veteran. Within hours, it was up to the 12th-most-liked post on