China: CFWIJ Stands With Journalist Leta Hong Fincher Who Has Been The Target Of Misogynistic Trolling

Threats
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Location: China
Date: July 20, 2020

Over the weekend journalist and author Leta Hong Fincher has been on the radar of a trolling campaign over her tweets on the mass sterilization of Uyghur and other Muslim women in Xinjiang.

The trolling stemmed from a thread of tweets Leta posted about the assimilation campaign of the Chinese government. Leta is happily involved in a mixed-race marriage herself, however the trolls took her tweets which provided much depth without context.

A self proclaimed feminist herself, Leta detailed the misogyny in the Chinese Han culture in her books titled “Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China” and “Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China”.

We spoke to Leta on the disturbing and organized troll attacks she faced.

“I've already blocked hundreds of people who trolled me about it but I believe more than anyone else, Carl Zha is responsible for misrepresenting me and encouraging his followers to attack me by doing a screenshot of my first tweet completely without context and cutting it off from my thread, which provides context for the first tweet. 

He tries to portray me as being against interracial love when I myself am mixed race and in an interracial marriage. Most people looking at his tweet attacking me can't see that my first tweet is just the beginning of a long thread discussing the Chinese government's persecution of Uyghur, Kazakh and other Muslims in Xinjiang. 

I had already blocked Carl Zha a long time ago for trolling me, but he has so many followers that he is able to continue monitoring my Twitter feed and gain access to my tweets to encourage his followers to attack me. Many people tweet about the cultural genocide taking place in Xinjiang, but trolls tend to be very misogynistic so women - especially women of color - disproportionately bear the brunt of these kinds of attacks. 

Companies like Twitter and Facebook need to build far more robust protections against widespread misogynistic, racist trolling and create a safer environment for their users.” 

Carl Zha and his followers further went on to attack anyone standing with Leta, “I just found out that one person who defended me and asked people to report Carl Zha is himself being inundated by trolls as well, who are attacking and reporting both me and him for harassment. This is how someone like Carl Zha intimidates and silences other voices. I have received quite a few private messages of support because very few people will publicly call out Carl Zha for fear of being harassed themselves.” informed Leta CFWIJ on the attacks.

CFWIJ founder Kiran Nazish condemned the troll attacks impeding journalists from performing their work.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism finds the misogynistic attacks towards Leta and anyone who is critical towards the Chinese government’s policies despicable. Women journalists will not be intimidated and silenced by organized efforts of trolls. We acknowledge the need for criticism for the betterment of societies.

 

The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.

If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.

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