AOL Ignores Pleas for Help
As appeared in the Advocate
America Online has a message for gays being harassed online: ignore it. If the harassment includes threats of violence: how about three months free.
At least that’s the message the giant repeatedly tells lesbian members of its “golden gals” chat room. For more than two years extremists have harassed and, at times, threatened to gay bash chatters. At least a dozen women have complained loudly to AOL, but their hundreds of emails and numerous calls for assistance have largely been ignored.
AOL acknowledges receiving the complaints, but asserts that it’s investigating. AOL wouldn’t say how long the investigation might take. It also continues to encourage the women to use its ignore feature and has offered many chatters free service. Meanwhile, one longtime harasser continues to brazenly threaten the women and has found personal information on several members. “It’s absolutely appalling to think they can’t remove these guys, especially considering the personal nature of some of the attacks,” says Jamie Gates, of Knoxville, TN. “We’ve complained and the best answer they can tell us to wait a year for their legal department to do something.”
Industry watchers say the women have been victimized. “I’m surprised AOL hasn’t done something about this,” says spokeswoman Cathy Renna of GLAAD. “Many times it comes down to interpretation, but this seems pretty apparent to me.” GLAAD has offered to assist the women bring the harassment to an end.
Ironically, AOL’s sister company HBO will air an October 23rd special called “Hate.com” that investigates hate organizations that continue to flourish online. “It’s appalling that [AOL Time Warner] can air a special documentary on the topic and not even keep their sites safe,” says Laurie M., another Golden Gal member.
