When Kerala-based journalist Sindhu Sooryakumar moderated a news debate about Smriti Irani speaking against the celebration of Mahishasura Jayanti, an orchestrated effort of online trolling was perpetrated against her.

Just like Sindhu, numerous women journalists have been at the receiving end of vicious trolling that includes body shaming comments, threats of rape and even death threats.

At the Bengaluru Literature Festival organised at the Lalit Ashok on Saturday, a panel of women journalists moderated by veteran journalist Ammu Joseph spoke about the abuse they faced online and how they coped with the trauma.

“The online space is very much like real life, trolls which operate in vernacular language are not detected by Twitter because it does not understand the languages. It is a double-edged sword. Do you file a police complaint? Do you want to clamp down on free speech by banning trolls or find other ways to deal with it?” questioned journalist Laxmi Murthy.

The panel also touched upon possible solutions to tackle the problem of abusive trolls.