Whenever a creator (usually a guy) tells me he's been harassed on social media and it wasn't that big of a deal, it almost always turns out he was getting hate comments. Hate and harassment are not even close to the same thing, so let's talk about that.

Whenever there is a thing that exists and is popular enough, people will define themselves in relation to it. They might like it, and wear a shirt with it on it, or they will not like it and talk about how it sucks.

When someone says Celebrity XXX sucks, that isn't about the celebrity, it's about building and expressing identity. It's a bad way and should be avoided, but it's super common. It's not pleasant to be on the end of it, but it's pretty unavoidable for a public figure.

Importantly, when someone says "Celebrity XXX" they don't expect to have an impact on the celebrity. They /might/ but that's not why they're doing it.

Harassment, on the other hand, is when **the goal is to impact the person**. To make them feel less safe. To discourage them from making content. To exert control on them with cruelty and manipulation. Sometimes organized groups of people, sometimes just one person.

This is not even in the same category as hating, it's so much more fucked up and scary. To think they are the same thing reinforces the idea that harassment isn't that big of a deal and that "I can deal with it, why can't they."

We need to understand the difference because we need to treat them differently. We need harassers to know they're much worse than haters. We need creators to be able to clearly communicate what's happening. And we need platforms to treat these problems totally differently. </>