Adopted by AHA Council June 2019; revised June 8, 2025.
Historians have the right to expect that discussion of their historical work will be conducted in a civil manner, free from harassment and intimidation. That right is violated by those who target scholars online, especially via social media, with hate speech; online threats; doxing, trolling, and cyberattacks; and other forms of harassment.
The AHA offers the following recommendations to support members who have become, or fear they may become, targets of online harassment.
Preparatory Measures: Safeguard Your Online Identity
Strengthen the security of your online accounts, especially email and social media accounts, and your computer and mobile devices. Consider consulting a cybersecurity expert.
Regularly review the security and privacy settings on publicly accessible websites and platforms that share your personal information, including data or images you or acquaintances have posted.
Research the security and reporting protocols of the social media platforms and other platforms you use. If you are uncomfortable with their content moderation or reporting policies, consider deactivating your account and deleting past posts.
Build a community of friends and colleagues you can turn to for support. Contact your professional organizations for guidance.
If you are employed by an institution: Ask your employer to establish and/or review security protocols that employees should follow. These protocols may include securing email and social media accounts and in-person events. Familiarize yourself with the resources your employer provides to those facing online harassment.
If you are not employed by an institution: Ask friends and colleagues if they can share their institutions’ security protocols and resources provided to those facing online harassment.
Actions to Take When Confronting Online Harassment
Immediately report to your local police department any threat you believe to be significant and credible.
Block the harassers on all platforms. Do not engage with them.
Report the harassment to the platform(s) being used for harassment.
Document the harassment. Save screenshots of social media posts and PDFs of emails.
Activate your community of friends and colleagues to screen emails, monitor and report social media posts, report abusive messages to the appropriate authorities, save documentation of the harassment, and provide other support.
Update the privacy settings on your social media and other public accounts to the level you are comfortable with, at least temporarily. For example, you could choose to share your posts with known contacts only, or limit what members of the public can view. You might also consider deleting old social media posts or restricting access to them.
If you are employed at an institution: Inform your supervisor, your employer’s security and IT offices, and any other relevant offices. Insist that they deploy the institution’s resources in your defense consistent with institutional policies.
AHA Resources
The AHA encourages all historians to carefully review the AHA’s Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct, which addresses dilemmas and concerns about the practice of history that historians have regularly brought to the American Historical Association seeking guidance and counsel. The Statement includes the following:
Historians celebrate intellectual communities governed by mutual respect and constructive criticism. The preeminent value of such communities is reasoned discourse—the continuous colloquy among historians holding diverse points of view who learn from each other as they pursue topics of mutual interest. A commitment to such discourse—balancing fair and honest criticism with openness to different ideas—makes possible the fruitful exchange of views, opinions, and knowledge wherever those exchanges take place, from scholarly books and articles to social media and face-to-face encounters. At the same time, it’s important to bear in mind that unmediated platforms, are perhaps more likely to generate conflict, often through misunderstanding. The AHA encourages communication that maintains the principles of mutual respect and constructive criticism.
In 2022, Alexandra F. Levy published “Trolling History: Social Media Harassment from Abroad” in Perspectives on History. Levy interviewed several historians who had dealt with ongoing online harassment.
Additional Resources
PEN America, “Online Harassment Field Manual”
- Abusive tactics
- How to prepare (including against hacking and doxing)
- How to respond (including assessing threats, blocking/muting/restricting, and documenting)
- Practicing self-care
- How to be an ally
PEN America, “Digital Safety Snacks,” which includes “step-by-step videos to help you defend yourself against online abuse.”
PEN America, “Online Abuse & Digital Safety”
Antoon De Baets, “Attacks on History: A Human Rights Framework” (The Palgrave Handbook of Attacks on History, 2024)
Faculty First Responders, which is a “a small mutual aid organization focused on direct action to defend and expand academic freedom.”
Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Resources and Toolkits
Nina M. Flores, “Tweets, Threats, and Censorship: Campus Resources to Support Faculty Through Incidents of Targeted Harassment,” National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, 2025.
Lily Hay Newman and Matt Burgess, “How to Protect Yourself From Phone Searches at the US Border,” Wired, 2025.
Researchers Support Consortium, offering “resources, guides, and templates for academic institutions to protect and support researchers and scholars affected by external campaigns of intimidation and harassment.”
South Asia Scholar Activist Collective, “Hindutva Harassment Field Manual”
Viktorya Vilk, “What to Do If You’re the Target of Online Harassment, Slate, 2020
Related Resources
November 25, 2024