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Fight fire with fire
LEADERS
Editorial Editor-in-chief Sumit Paul-Choudhury Executive editor Graham Lawton Head of production Julian Richards Art editor Craig Mackie Editor at large Jeremy Webb
News Chief news editor Niall Firth Katarzyna Bialasiewicz/Getty
Editors Sally Adee, Jacob Aron, Penny Sarchet, Jon White, Chelsea Whyte Reporters (UK) Andy Coghlan, Jessica Hamzelou, Michael Le Page, Matt Reynolds, Timothy Revell, Clare Wilson, Sam Wong, (US) Leah Crane, Aylin Woodward, (Aus) Alice Klein
Features Chief features editor Richard Webb Editors Catherine de Lange, Gilead Amit, Catherine Brahic, Julia Brown, Daniel Cossins, Kate Douglas, Alison George, Joshua Howgego, Tiffany O’Callaghan, Sean O’Neill
Culture and Community Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings, Frank Swain
Subeditors Managing subeditor Eleanor Parsons Vivienne Greig, Tom Campbell, Hannah Joshua, Chris Simms
Design Kathryn Brazier, Joe Hetzel, Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills
Picture desk Chief picture editor Adam Goff Kirstin Kidd, David Stock
Production Mick O’Hare, Alan Blagrove, Anne Marie Conlon, Melanie Green
Contact us newscientist.com/contact General & media enquiries Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1202 [email protected] UK 110 High Holborn, London WC1V 6EU Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1200 Australia Level 11, Suite 3, 100 Walker Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060 Tel +61 (0)2 9422 8559 US 45 Prospect Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 Tel +1 781 734 8773
© 2017 New Scientist Ltd, England New Scientist is published weekly by New Scientist Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387 Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Williams Gibbons (Wolverhampton)
Fight fire with fire To stop the trolls, targets of online hate must come forward IT ISN’T news that the internet is awash with hateful content. But it is still shocking to put yourself in the shoes of somebody who has been on the receiving end. Game designer Zoë Quinn’s experiences during the Gamergate affair were extreme, but are a chilling lesson in how internet hate campaigns can ruin lives (see page 42). The psychological drivers of online abuse are well understood. Anonymity emboldens some people to post things that they would hesitate to say. Trolls can get swept up in a mob mentality, the thrill of transgression, or the twisted belief that it is all a bit of harmless fun.
These are not excuses. Online abuse is a crime, pure and simple. One long-standing problem is that the law is slow to catch up. Quinn recounts how the police were often powerless to act. In some places, that is changing. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in England and Wales has stated that online hate crimes are the same as real-world ones. Posting material motivated by “hostility or prejudice” is just as illegal as shouting racist abuse or daubing islamophobic slogans. For the perpetrators that could mean jail: incitement to religious or racial hatred carries a sentence of up to seven years.
Welcome change SOCIETY takes a keen interest in women’s bodies, especially during their fertile years. Yet when the menopause comes around, the conversation goes quiet. Aside from trivial quips about hot flushes and “the change”, menopause remains taboo. This isn’t simply men skirting around the issue. A recent survey found that half of UK women go
through the menopause without consulting a doctor. Why? Over a third of them believed it was something they just had to put up with. If women suffer in silence, it’s unsurprising that many are blindsided by the severity of their symptoms, especially problems with memory and concentration. New research into these symptoms provides a wake-up
That is an overdue clarification, but it still leaves much to be desired. The new CPS guidelines don’t explicitly cover misogynistic abuse; the law is also toothless to tackle brokers who buy and sell personal information and hence enable abusers to discover where their targets live. But perhaps the biggest change needed is in public perception. Online abuse is shockingly common, but rarely prosecuted. The CPS has invited victims to change that. But unless people come forward, the scale of the problem will remain hidden, and the tyranny of the mob will go unchallenged. n
call that menopause amounts to a lot more than hot flushes. The changes echo some of those seen later in life, in both men and women, as the brain succumbs to Alzheimer’s (see page 36). Rather than being depressing news, the findings should lead to menopause and its attendant health problems being taken more seriously. They may even be a cue for more grown-up conversations about a phase of life that affects us all, one way or another. n 2 September 2017 | NewScientist | 3
Editorial Editor-in-chief Sumit Paul-Choudhury Executive editor Graham Lawton Head of production Julian Richards Art editor Craig Mackie Editor at large Jeremy Webb
News Chief news editor Niall Firth Katarzyna Bialasiewicz/Getty
Editors Sally Adee, Jacob Aron, Penny Sarchet, Jon White, Chelsea Whyte Reporters (UK) Andy Coghlan, Jessica Hamzelou, Michael Le Page, Matt Reynolds, Timothy Revell, Clare Wilson, Sam Wong, (US) Leah Crane, Aylin Woodward, (Aus) Alice Klein
Features Chief features editor Richard Webb Editors Catherine de Lange, Gilead Amit, Catherine Brahic, Julia Brown, Daniel Cossins, Kate Douglas, Alison George, Joshua Howgego, Tiffany O’Callaghan, Sean O’Neill
Culture and Community Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings, Frank Swain
Subeditors Managing subeditor Eleanor Parsons Vivienne Greig, Tom Campbell, Hannah Joshua, Chris Simms
Design Kathryn Brazier, Joe Hetzel, Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills
Picture desk Chief picture editor Adam Goff Kirstin Kidd, David Stock
Production Mick O’Hare, Alan Blagrove, Anne Marie Conlon, Melanie Green
Contact us newscientist.com/contact General & media enquiries Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1202 [email protected] UK 110 High Holborn, London WC1V 6EU Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1200 Australia Level 11, Suite 3, 100 Walker Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060 Tel +61 (0)2 9422 8559 US 45 Prospect Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 Tel +1 781 734 8773
© 2017 New Scientist Ltd, England New Scientist is published weekly by New Scientist Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387 Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Williams Gibbons (Wolverhampton)
Fight fire with fire To stop the trolls, targets of online hate must come forward IT ISN’T news that the internet is awash with hateful content. But it is still shocking to put yourself in the shoes of somebody who has been on the receiving end. Game designer Zoë Quinn’s experiences during the Gamergate affair were extreme, but are a chilling lesson in how internet hate campaigns can ruin lives (see page 42). The psychological drivers of online abuse are well understood. Anonymity emboldens some people to post things that they would hesitate to say. Trolls can get swept up in a mob mentality, the thrill of transgression, or the twisted belief that it is all a bit of harmless fun.
These are not excuses. Online abuse is a crime, pure and simple. One long-standing problem is that the law is slow to catch up. Quinn recounts how the police were often powerless to act. In some places, that is changing. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in England and Wales has stated that online hate crimes are the same as real-world ones. Posting material motivated by “hostility or prejudice” is just as illegal as shouting racist abuse or daubing islamophobic slogans. For the perpetrators that could mean jail: incitement to religious or racial hatred carries a sentence of up to seven years.
Welcome change SOCIETY takes a keen interest in women’s bodies, especially during their fertile years. Yet when the menopause comes around, the conversation goes quiet. Aside from trivial quips about hot flushes and “the change”, menopause remains taboo. This isn’t simply men skirting around the issue. A recent survey found that half of UK women go
through the menopause without consulting a doctor. Why? Over a third of them believed it was something they just had to put up with. If women suffer in silence, it’s unsurprising that many are blindsided by the severity of their symptoms, especially problems with memory and concentration. New research into these symptoms provides a wake-up
That is an overdue clarification, but it still leaves much to be desired. The new CPS guidelines don’t explicitly cover misogynistic abuse; the law is also toothless to tackle brokers who buy and sell personal information and hence enable abusers to discover where their targets live. But perhaps the biggest change needed is in public perception. Online abuse is shockingly common, but rarely prosecuted. The CPS has invited victims to change that. But unless people come forward, the scale of the problem will remain hidden, and the tyranny of the mob will go unchallenged. n
call that menopause amounts to a lot more than hot flushes. The changes echo some of those seen later in life, in both men and women, as the brain succumbs to Alzheimer’s (see page 36). Rather than being depressing news, the findings should lead to menopause and its attendant health problems being taken more seriously. They may even be a cue for more grown-up conversations about a phase of life that affects us all, one way or another. n 2 September 2017 | NewScientist | 3