Young DJ slams ‘vile’ trolls after being told she was ‘too ugly to get raped’
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A DJ was told she "too ugly to get raped" after being targeted by "vile" Twitter trolls.
Natalie Higgins, 23, said she felt "sick" after receiving a torrent of abusive responses to her posts.
The broadcast journalist, who covers Harrogate and the Yorkshire Dales for Greatest Hits Radio, said she was particularly shocked at the response to a TikTik video about the safety of women at night in the wake of Sarah Everard's death.
Twitter user "Bobo Joe" wrote: "Nah, she's too ugly to get raped, she's probably safe."
While another wrote: "I think you'll be OK."
Natalie told Yorkshire Live the comments angered her, but that reporting them to Twitter was pointless as the platform claimed the comments do not violate its rules.
"It made me feel sick that someone would think that it's okay to say that," said Natalie, who is originally from Rotherham in Yorkshire.
"I don't know if that comment was directed at me or the person in the video but either way it's disgusting."
She added: "If my parents saw this, they'd be heartbroken."
Online abuse directed at women and journalists is unfortunately not uncommon.
A survey conducted by the National Union of Journalists in November found more than half of respondents had experienced online abuse while nearly a quarter had been physically assaulted or attacked.
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Natalie said she often receives misogynistic comments or highly disturbing tweets which she finds hard to ignore.
"One comment I got on Twitter was 'looking at your pictures, you seem like a nice person and the type of person you want to take out to dinner but then I read your tweet and if I was to f*** you, I'd do it with a gag in your mouth so I couldn't hear what you were saying'," said Natalie.
"Everyone's got different opinions but just because we [journalists] are conveying the message, we are the ones getting attacked for it," said Natalie.
"Fair enough if you don't agree with a story or the person that's been interviewed but the comments are always specific to the person who wrote the article rather than what's being said in it."
She added: "I find it hard to bite my tongue but at the same time if you don't say anything it's as if you're just sitting back and letting it happen."
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