Jessica Pegula reveals grandparents fear as she echoes Iga Swiatek, Caroline Garcia social media concerns
Jessica Pegula has admitted she worries that family members might see “horrible” comments directed to her on social media amid renewed calls to stamp out online abuse.
Former world No 4 Caroline Garcia has brought the subject back to the forefront of discussions after a detailed post earlier this week, which called out some of the abuse she had received in recent weeks.
Garcia received support from the likes of Pegula and Paula Badosa online, while Iga Swiatek revealed her own fears on Thursday.
Speaking in more detail after her US Open round two victory over Sofia Kenin, Pegula admitted she did not “really care” about abuse directed towards herself.
However, she did admit concerns that family members – in particular her grandparents – may see abusive comments.
“Honestly, I don’t really care because I know they’re all crazy,” said the world No 6.
“But I feel bad when my grandparents or my, I don’t know, are on my Instagram and I see horrible comments.
“There’s a girl who does my social media and she was like, ‘You know, you get a lot of really negative messages.’ I laughed because it’s so normal for me. I was like, ‘Oh, no, don’t worry, it’s nothing.’
“She was really concerned about the fact that I was getting death threats on my Instagram page.”
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Iga Swiatek admits she ‘doesn’t feel safe’ as ‘hate’ flows in her direction
WTA star slams ‘damaging’ social media abuse and calls for change
Speaking earlier on Thursday, Swiatek admitted that she did not always “feel safe” due to some of the comments directed towards her online.
“I’m only kind of seeing the messages from my close ones, the ones that I already accepted, but for sure there is a lot of hate,” she said.
“Because I feel like we can’t be on the internet and feel like kind of safe anymore. You have to really be careful about what you’re reading and who you’re following.”
Garcia, who was beaten in the opening round of the US Open by Renata Zarazua, had in the aftermath of that contest shared messages she received – and called social media companies to take further action.
She commented: “I’m just a normal girl working really hard and trying my best, I have tools and have done work to protect myself from this hate. But still, this is not ok.
“Maybe you can think that it doesn’t hurt us. But it does. We are humans. And sometimes, when we receive this messages we are already emotionally destroyed after a tough loss. And they can be damaging.
“Also, if someone decided to say this things to me in public, he could have legal issues. So why online we are free to do anything? Shouldn’t we reconsider anonymity online?”
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