Middle-aged mums are the most likely to troll social media influencers, an Instagram star has told MPs.
Em Sheldon, who documents her lifestyle to more than 117,000 Instagram followers, warned the relentless daily attacks could lead to more depression and suicide.
The 27-year-old said how there were people in a ‘dark space of the internet’ who saw it as their ‘sole mission to ruin our lives’.
Many become obsessed and write abuse about them all day, she said, becoming particularly ‘angry’ when they started earning money through adverts.
But the ‘saddest part about it’ was that it predominantly came from ‘grown women’ with children and decent jobs.
Instagram star Em Sheldon (pictured), who has more than 117,000 followers on the platform, claims online abuse is sent by grown women with ‘very good jobs and seemingly very good lives’
Ms Sheldon was speaking to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, who are looking into the growth of ‘influencer culture’ and its effect on society.
The inquiry will also consider whether there is sufficient regulation around how influencers advertise products to their social media followers.
Ms Sheldon said there was an assumption that because a person was putting their life online they ‘deserve’ such attacks.
‘I am very concerned that there will be more suicides and more depression because in which other industry are you allowed to be constantly relentlessly attacked every single day just for existing?’ she said.
‘It could be something crazy like just me walking my dog and people are just so angry.’
The abuse appeared to increase when influencers began to do well financially – particularly when they began advertising products, she said.
‘They don’t like that people are making money. There is a whole dark space of the internet where people sit all day, every day, literally writing about us.’
But the perpetrators, whose intention was to ‘ruin this person’s life or destroy their business’, mostly tended to be middle-aged women, she said.
‘This isn’t men who are doing this. These are grown women with actually very good jobs and seemingly very good lives who are doing this and that’s the saddest part about it.’
Ms Sheldon said the online threats she receives have been so severe that she no longer felt safe enough to go out for a run by herself.
‘People think they have a right to know where I live, who my friends and families are and so on’, she said.
Labour MP Alex-Davies Jones said she had noticed a similar trend after being contacted by an influencer in her community who had shown her the ‘sewer of abuse’ directed at her on a forum.
The 27-year-old said how there were people in a ‘dark space of the internet’ who saw it as their ‘sole mission to ruin our lives’
While several were anonymous accounts, the committee member said: ‘From what I can see the majority is middle-aged women with families. It’s horrendous.’
Her comments follow widespread revulsion at the racist abuse directed at black England footballers in the wake of the Euro final defeat.
Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho were targeted after they missed penalties at the end of Sunday’s match against Italy at Wembley.
After the match finished, social media users targeted Saka, who is just 19 years old and has Nigerian heritage, with monkey emojis. Another wrote: ‘Hate you’.
Pictured: The vile abuse suffered by England star Bukayo Saka on Sunday night following the defeat
Twitter yesterday revealed how it has removed more than 1,000 racist posts targeting England football stars following the defeat.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, also described the online attacks as ‘abhorrent’ and said its team were working to remove the comments.
But Instagram users who were reporting the racist messages said they later received messages back saying the posts will not be removed as they’re ‘not in breach’ of its community guidelines.
The government is set to introduce its Online Safety Bill later this year, which will enforce stricter regulation around protecting young people online and harsh punishments for platforms found to be failing to meet a duty of care.
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The Bill, which was published as a draft on May 12, will enforce regulation around Facebook and other online social media firms to remove harmful or illegal content.
Ofcom will be given the power to fine companies who fail to comply up to £18 million or 10 per cent of their annual global turnover, whichever is higher – a figure which could run into billions of pounds for larger companies.
Source: Daily Mail
