Digital violence has unfortunately become increasingly common in science communication in recent years. Communicators who publicly share information and views on scientific topics on various (social) media channels are repeatedly exposed to such attacks, including personal ones, such as condescending comments, hate speech or smear campaigns. Especially the communication of socially emotional or controversial topics, such as animal experimentation, poses great challenges for communicators. Unfortunately, this often leads to scientists and scientific institutions withdrawing from science communication altogether because they are afraid of hate speech and other forms of digital violence.
In order to help science communicators in Germany against attacks, the Federal Association of University Communication (Bundesverband Hochschulkommunikation) and Wissenschaft im Dialog is launching the new platform Scicomm-Support. On its website, it offers a collection of guidelines, recommendations for action etc., as well as free personal, legal and psychological advice by telephone. In the future, this contact point will also offer training against digital violence.