How Do We Deal with Trolling and Negative Press?
Managing harassment as a heritage board and as individuals.
What is this advice about?
At Historic England, we know that heritage boards struggle with how to handle issues such as online harassment and racism. We recognise that the heritage sector faces a specific set of challenges.
This advice is designed to guide heritage organisations and individual trustees on dealing with trolling, negative press, or other similar types of unwanted attention.
It forms part of a wider strand of work on heritage board diversity. For more advice in this series, see the 'Inclusive governance boards and diverse trustees' section of the Inclusive Heritage Advice Hub.
What are the key points?
- Trolling and harassment can happen to anyone. Trustees are a matter of public record and so are particularly at risk
- Preventative methods can help stop situations from escalating. For example, closely monitoring social media and other communication channels
- Clear codes of conduct and terms of service should be easily and readily available. Policies should be followed rigorously to ensure the correct actions are taken
- Media training may be a valuable investment for your board members
- In all cases, documentation and evidence gathering is key
How does trolling or harassment affect heritage boards?
Harassment refers to behaviours that intentionally target an individual or group, causing distress or fear.
The general legal principle is that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. Online harassment and cyber-bullying can take a wide variety of forms, including 'trolling' (sending menacing or upsetting messages), identity theft, 'doxxing' (making personal information publicly available), cyber-stalking, harassment, and sending malicious communications.
Suggested actions or responses include:
- Regular monitoring of your organisation's online presence can identify any potentially defamatory or harassing comments or messages and help prevent problems from arising. Google Alerts is a helpful tool for tracking your online reputation
- Report and request the removal of content that violates the terms of service or community guidelines of the hosting platform (for example, Facebook)
- Ensure that you have a digital communications policy in place covering acceptable online behaviour and potential legal implications of sharing slanderous or libellous content on social and professional platforms such as X, LinkedIn and Facebook. Make sure your employees, volunteers and trustees are aware of the policy. Cross-reference this with your social media policy and other relevant policies, such as your code of conduct or equality policy
- Provide social media training for team members who are responsible for sharing content. Your organisation's reputation depends on it. It is not a job for the intern or youngest team member simply because they 'get' or understand social media. Implement crisis management and communications policies and processes if you don't already have them, such as determining who from the executive team is responsible outside of working hours and which board member(s) will be involved if incidents occur
General guidance
If you are subjected to online defamation or harassment, there are several legal approaches to resolving the issue effectively:
- Act quickly by gathering evidence. Taking screenshots, downloading posts, or saving emails/messages to serve as evidence is crucial, as content may be edited, modified, or deleted later
- A simple request to the person or organisation who posted the offending content, asking them to remove it or to issue an apology, may resolve the situation in some cases
- Consult experienced legal professionals for advice on an appropriate course of action if a simple request doesn’t have the desired outcome
Also of interest
