Biz Poll: Internet Misogyny and Chvrches' Lauren Mayberry’s Op-Ed

This week, Chvrches' Lauren Mayberry wrote an editorial in the Guardian on misogyny on the Internet that she and many of her peers (and, of course, many more outside of the music industry) face daily. While Mayberry acknowledges the importance of social media in her band’s success, she asks a salient question: Why must engaging with her fans involve the high risk of dealing with hate speech?

Mayberry's Op-Ed was prompted by her Facebook post which included a screen shot of a message propositioning her and a note asking “guys” to “stop sending emails like this.” The post, which now has over half a million likes, attracted comments ranging from “the disgusted and supportive to the offensively vile.”

“This isn't rape culture. You'll know rape culture when I'm raping you, bitch" read a post cited by Mayberry. Another said "I have your address and I will come round to your house and give u anal and you will love it you twat lol". A more resigned post read “It's just one of those things you'll need to learn to deal with. If you're easily offended, then maybe the music industry isn't for you."

While it's easy to condemn "offensively vile" posts, it's harder to accept that this is the status quo for the industry we work in and harder still to come up with effective solutions to combat hate speech on the web. Though there have been many efforts to establish anti-trolling, -cyberbullying, and -cyberstalking policies -- with or without misogynistic undertones -- no satisfactory solution has yet been reached.

In the interest of continuing the conversation and seeking solutions following Mayberry's thoughtful post, we've outlined several possible policy options to reduce hate speech postings. What we'd like to know is: which one or combination of the following possible solutions -- if any -- do you think should be implemented? Feel free, as always, to add your own policy solutions in the "other" section of our poll and/or add your thoughts in the comments section.

 BIZ POLL RESULTS:
With the plethora of breaking news a few weeks back, we asked our readers which story would have the greatest impact on the future of the music business. About half of our readers -- 48% -- responded that Clear Channel's partnership with Warner Music Group on performance royalties would have the most impact on the biz making it the No. 1 response.  Apple launching its iTunes Radio product and new iPhones was No. 2 with 25%. No 3 was news that MSG was looking to sell Fuse and launching a $300 million joint venture with Irving Azoff followed closely by news that the major labels were suing SiriusXM over performance royalties from pre-1972 recordings. And that was before news of Vivendi considering spinning off its entertainment holdings, the AEG Live-Michael Jackson verdict and the Twitter IPO broke.