41% of U.S. adults have been harassed online in at least one of six ways covered in a Pew Research Center survey conducted in September 2020. About one-fifth of those Americans who have personally experienced online harassment say they believe they were targeted because of their religion. When looking at Americans overall – not just those who’ve been harassed online – that share is equivalent to 8% of the overall population. This represents a modest rise in those who believe they were the target of online harassment because of their religion since the Center last asked these questions in 2017.
Of those who say they faced online abuse, 23% of Protestants say they believe they were the target of online harassment because of their religion, compared with 15% of Catholics and one-in-ten of those who are religiously unaffiliated.
