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How Many Text Are Harassment?

Bullying is wrong. Cyber Harassment is a new form of harassment in a digital age. Email, blogs, Facebook, cell phone text messaging, Whatsapp, etc. are all possible domains for harassment. The employment laws in related to harassment and discrimination does not draw a distinction between discriminatory remarks that were published online or offline. In many cases text harassment is tied to sexual harassment or other forms of workplace harassment and workplace discrimination.

Read the blog post Legal Protections Available Against Sexual Harassment to learn more about legal protections available in case of a sexual harassment.

 

Click here to learn more about workplace harassment and workplace discrimination in general.

Text Harassment – The New Frontier

For a text message to be considered harassing, the most important thing to take into account is its content and how you feel when you read it. Even if the person sending you the message is someone close to you, including family members, the text can still be considered harassing, depending on what it says. It doesn’t even have to be threatening—it’s enough if it’s spam-like or abusive. Here are some things that make a message harassing:

 

  •     Repeated or unwanted contact

  •     Threats of violence or harm

  •     Threats of property damage

  •     Unwelcome sexually-charged texts, which can result in sexual harassment

  •     Anything else that makes you feel upset, anxious, or scared

  •     Receiving a text from a number you’ve previously blocked

Is It Harassment to Text Someone Repeatedly?

The short answer is yes. When you keep sending repeated text messages, it can count as harassment. Keep in mind, though, that there are some exceptions. For instance, a friend of yours asking if you’re okay may send repeated messages if you’re not answering. Naturally, this would not be considered harassment.

 

The first thing to do if you want someone to stop texting you is to tell them to stop. If you did, and they continue to send you messages, then you have every right to complain. If these unpleasant messages are followed by harassing phone calls, you can end up in even greater trouble, so you should act on it as soon as possible to avoid further complications.   

It's important to understand that if you find a particular behaviour offensive, humiliating or intimidating, then it is harassment. It doesn’t matter how the harasser or anyone else perceives the behaviour. People may have different ideas about what is offensive, and within reason, and it’s up to you to define what’s acceptable and what’s not for them.

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Depending on the circumstances, any of the following could be harassment:

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  • Unwanted, inappropriate content that is displayed or post on the company web forum or chat groups

  • Unwanted, inappropriate content put on a computer, sent by email, or put on a website, blog or on social networking, even if it’s not on a property not owned by the company as long as it’s reasonable foreseeable that the employee being harassed and his or her colleagues would be made aware of such content.

Save harassing texts

To accuse someone of harassing you via text messages, you will need those texts as proof, so never delete them. As soon as you start noticing that there’s something wrong in the texts from a particular person, start saving them, no matter how much you might want to delete or forget about them. It is also advisable to arrange them chronologically, so it can be clear how the harassing behavior developed. Sometimes, a single message might be a deciding factor, so losing one is enough to lose the entire case.

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