From Solidarity to Structure: Online Violence, Academic Freedom, and the Limits of Resilience

ABSTRACT

Universities increasingly encourage academics to engage publicly through media appearances, social media, and impact‐oriented scholarship. Yet these same spaces have become sites of harassment, intimidation, and attacks on academic expertise. Drawing on qualitative interviews with academics who experienced online violence, this commentary examines a paradox that emerged across participants' accounts: when institutional responses were absent or inadequate, support often came from colleagues, professional networks, and wider communities of solidarity. While these networks helped scholars resist silencing, they also revealed the limits of resilience as a response to threats against academic freedom. We argue that universities must move beyond symbolic commitments by developing meaningful responses to online violence and confronting how their own decisions and procedures may reproduce or intensify harm.