‘I decided to fight back’ - Erin Molan’s war on anonymous trolls
The Sky News documentary, Haters Online: Erin Molan fights back is available now in full, for our subscribers. We trace her painful, inspiring journey. WATCH THE VIDEO
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As a TV host and high-profile former sports presenter, Erin Molan is no stranger to robust criticism from the general public.
But like thousands of Australians, the 39-year-old has, for many years, been subjected to relentless online attacks from nameless, faceless trolls that couldn’t possibly be construed as legitimate criticism and which could only be described as vile online abuse of the worst kind.
Molan has spent the past few years waging her own war against Australia’s worst cyberbullies and her advocacy for the cause helped convince the Federal Government to pass tough new laws designed to make those who attack others online accountable for their vile behaviour.
She also continues to use her media profile to raise awareness of the pervasive nature of cyber-bullying, to amplify the stories of its victims and shine a light on the devastating, and sometimes deadly, consequences of cyber abuse.
With the release of the Sky News investigative documentary Haters Online: Erin Molan Fights back, we take a look back at Erin’s painful personal journey as a victim of online bullying and champion for change.
Subscribers can watch the powerful documentary, in full, in the video player above.
THE ABUSE BEGINS
Molan started her broadcast career on community TV in Canberra before moving to Sydney to take a job with Channel 9 in 2010.
In 2012, Molan began appearing regularly on the network’s The NRL Footy Show and in 2014 was made a permanent panellist - which is when, she says, the abuse began.
“Not things like we don’t like watching you, but things like we want to ensure you die, I’ll hit you with a bus,” she told a parliamentary inquiry into social media and online safety.
“These things were so horrific. What they said they would do to me if they ever saw me made me fear for my safety essentially and made me nervous about going outside.
“People would send me things that they would hope to do to either me or my child. It started to get really heavy.”
FACEBOOK TROLL CONVICTED
In April 2018, a man using Facebook’s Messenger app began bombarding Molan with a series of violent and abusive messages, attacking her for her role on the NRL Footy Show and saying he wished Molan would have a stillborn baby and “die in the process”.
Molan told The Daily Telegraph the abuse left her feeling afraid the man would “hunt” her down and kill her.
As The Daily Telegraph reported, Molan blocked the man but he continued his tirade of abuse using several alternative identities.
Molan reported the abuse to Facebook, which replied to say that the messages were not “abusive or offensive enough” for them to take action.
She also reported the abuse to police and a man was subsequently charged and convicted.
Molan later revealed she was prompted to go to police after being woken by a loud bang in the middle of the night and thought the troll had broken into her house.
The noise turned out to be a shelf falling off a wall, but Molan was left shaken.
“I was hysterical,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
“I thought he had smashed in a window or broken in the door. I started screaming thinking he was going to hurt me or my child.”
‘I LOST A LOT OF FAITH’
Recounting her sickening ordeal during the parliamentary hearing, Molan spoke of her frustration at Facebook’s unwillingness to act.
“I think I lost a lot of faith out of that interaction and that experience, to be honest,” she said.
“The more I developed an interest in this area, and the more I read and the more I learnt, the more I realised just how little they really cared about the welfare of, basically, their customers, who are the people who use their accounts.
“To Facebook I reported some horrific messages from an account, and the account kept being recreated. I would block it; it would be recreated.
“I remember Facebook sending me a reply to one of the report mechanisms that I’d used for this message. I was pregnant at the time and the message was about trying to kill my child within my stomach, and they came back and said that it didn’t meet the threshold for inappropriate behaviour.”
Addressing the same hearing a couple of days later, The Australian reported, Facebook’s director of policy Australia and New Zealand, Mia Garlick, said the company was unable to find Molan’s initial complaint but took “appropriate action” when police became involved.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to locate that original complaint and so I think a police report was made and we worked through that process to make sure we were taking appropriate action,” Ms Garlick said.
“The types of threats that she received absolutely violate our policies and it’s absolutely distressing to hear of her experience.”
‘THIS HAPPENS TO EVERYDAY AUSTRALIANS’
Erin Molan, by her own admission, is no “snowflake”.
As her father Jim, a retired army general told The Daily Telegraph, “Erin is as tough as nails”.
Which just goes to show, Molan explained in her evidence to the parliamentary committee, that online bullying can harm even those with the thickest skin.
Molan explained how the relentless attacks had left her feeling shameful and embarrassed and full of self doubt.
“When you’re subjected to something so often and for so long, and it’s so repetitive and awful, even the strongest people in the world can start to believe that maybe a bit of it is true.”
“You never think that it will impact in the way that it does. As I said, I’m not just talking about people in the public eye, personalities and reality stars. They should all be afforded the same protection as everyone else.
“This happens to everyday Australians, and it started happening to me.
“I had always considered myself to be a pretty strong, resilient person. I come from pretty good stock, if I say so myself. Dad and mum are incredibly strong and resilient humans. We were raised to really value what matters in life, to be good people and to be tough essentially.
“When I started to feel the way I started to feel about it made me realise that, if I’ve managed to overcome everything I have overcome in my life … what about the other people in this country and all over the world who don’t have those support systems in place? How do they get up every morning when they are subjected to this?”
ERIN FIGHTS BACK
Reflecting on her experience in a recent column for The Daily Telegraph, Molan said the abuse she was subjected to for so many years “took me to some very dark places”.
“I was ashamed of how badly it affected me. I was embarrassed that, at times, it became crippling. But then something happened. I decided to fight back. I’d had enough.”
Speaking before the parliamentary select-committee, Molan explained that “the real catalyst” for her decision to speak out was the case of former Brisbane Broncos coach Anthony Seibold, who resigned his position after he was subjected to a slew of vicious and unsubstantiated rumours on social media.
“What really resonated with me in his story — he was targeted in some really vile attacks on social media — was the fact that he was not even on social media himself,” Molan said, adding that victims of abuse were often advised to leave social media.
“Why should I have to get off because someone tells me they’re going to rape my two-year-old child? Why do I have to get off a platform I use professionally because someone is threatening to rape my child? Get them off the platform.
“Anthony Seibold has spoken openly about his situation. His life was almost ruined — elements of it were ruined — by things written online about him that were not true. He’s not on social media.”
CAMPAIGN FOR CHANGE
Since going public with her own story, Molan has joined other high-profile victims of cyber-bullying to campaign for change.
Speaking to Sky News, Molan said online trolls were able to operate with impunity but they deserved to face the full force of the law, just like people did in real life.
“The issue we have with people being anonymous online is there are no consequences as yet for their actions,” Molan said.
“You think about how you interact in everyday life if I’m walking down the street right now, if I punch someone in the face I know that first of all I’ll be identified, I’ll be arrested there are consequences.
“When you’re anonymous online there is no fear for any repercussions.”
In June, 2021, the federal parliament passed the Online Safety Act, which gives authorities new powers to force social media companies to reveal the identities of anonymous tolls so they can be held accountable for their actions.
Writing on social media after the act was passed, Molan said the new law would “save lives”.
“This new legislation will ensure the laws that exist in real life will now exist online,” she said.
“It will help keep our children safer — and every Australian adult.
“It will help hold perpetrators to account — remove their anonymity and create genuine real life deterrents. It will force big social media companies to act.”
SKY NEWS DOCUMENTARY
Molan joined Sky News Australia in January, 2022 and in October she hosted a special one-hour documentary on cyber-bullying called Haters Online: Erin Molan Fights Back.
As The Australian reports, the documentary features harrowing first-person accounts from people who have been subjected to vile abuse online, with sometimes-tragic consequences.
After being subjected to a barrage of abuse online herself for many years, Molan deleted the Twitter app from her phone in 2021 “when things got really, really bad”.
“I didn’t shut down my account because I knew that would mean there’d be more stories about that which would then in turn generate more abuse,” Molan said.
Molan decided to log back into the platform for the documentary to show viewers “just how much this stuff can damage and how hurtful it is”; a moment that saw her break down in tears.
“I feel physically ill now, and it’s not because I’m not resilient or not strong, but what this represents is so much pain and there’s a reason why I don’t look at comments and don’t look at things because it’s the way that I’ve survived this for so long,” she said.
“But this is a way I guess to demonstrate and to validate for other people out there who are going through this just how damaging and how much words can really hurt.”
Don’t miss our cyber-bullying content special. Browse real stories about online bullying – a must-read for every parent + watch the Sky News Haters Online: Erin Molan Fights Back documentary, in full, in the video player above, from October 22.
Originally published as ‘I decided to fight back’ - Erin Molan’s war on anonymous trolls
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