Based on Farley et al.’s (2026) scoping review in Behavioral Sciences, one of the fastest growing yet least discussed inclusion challenges may be happening outside the workplace itself.
As organisations increasingly encourage employees to engage online, whether as leaders, experts, academics, journalists, or advocates, social media has become an important space for visibility and influence. Yet it has also become a significant site of harassment. Farley and colleagues reviewed 35 studies spanning politics, education, journalism, healthcare, social work and sport to understand how employees experience harassment on social media, what increases risk, and how organisations respond.
The review found that social media harassment takes many forms, including threats, insults, intimidation, stalking, misinformation, sexual harassment, racism, and hate speech. While the labels vary, the underlying experience is remarkably consistent: employees are targeted through behaviours intended to distress, intimidate, silence, or undermine them.
What makes this particularly relevant to inclusion is that harassment is not experienced equally.
Women were more likely to experience gendered and sexualised abuse, including rape threats, unwanted sexual content, and gender-based insults. Ethnic minority individuals often experienced abuse connected to their identity, particularly when discussing issues relating to inequality or inclusion. Those in highly visible roles, or those speaking publicly about divisive topics, appeared especially vulnerable.
The findings suggest that social media harassment can create a powerful chilling effect. Individuals may reduce their participation, self-censor, avoid certain platforms, or withdraw from public conversations altogether. In other words, harassment does not simply affect wellbeing, it can shape whose voices are heard and whose perspectives are absent.
This matters because inclusion is not only about creating opportunities to contribute. It is also about ensuring people can contribute without fear of hostility, intimidation, or personal attack.
Perhaps the most concerning finding was the limited evidence that organisations are responding effectively. Across several studies, employees reported feeling that responsibility for managing harassment was largely placed on them. Advice often focused on ignoring abuse, developing resilience, or managing their own reactions, rather than organisations taking active steps to protect and support employees.
For leaders, this raises an important question.
As organisations increasingly encourage employees to build professional visibility online, are they providing the support, guidance, and protection needed when that visibility attracts abuse?
Creating inclusive workplaces may require us to think beyond what happens inside organisational walls and consider how inclusion is experienced across the wider digital environments where work increasingly takes place.
Farley, Russell, Brooks and Coyne’s review reminds us that psychological safety does not end when employees log on to social media. In many cases, that is where some of the greatest inclusion challenges begin.
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