Deleting your Instagram account won't solve the internet's hate problem

Leslie Jones, Alec Baldwin, Keira Knightly, Stephen Fry, Lena Dunham, Zelda Williams, Miley Cyrus andJustin Bieber.

The list of celebrities who've been driven away from digital public spaces where millions of us go each day to share bits of our lives with the world and our friends grows exponentially longer each year, it seems.

This week alone saw U.S. Olympic gymnastGabby Douglas, two supermodels, the mother of a murdered two-year-old boy and director Kevin Smith speak out against internetharassment, the latter on behalf of his 17-year-old daughter, who receives comments from strangers like "You're ugly as s--t... I sincerely hope you end up like Lindsay Lohan and dead."

It was Bieber, though, who made the week's biggest statement when he shuttered his own Instagram profile under an onslaught of hateful comments from fans of ex-girlfriendSelena Gomez.

A bold move for theCanadian pop star, to be sure. For starters, hehad one of the most valuable Instagram profiles in existence with over 77.8 million highly-engaged fans.

More relatable to most people, though, is that the 22-year-old performer really did seem to enjoy the platform. He was a prolific poster for years before his account went dark, and was known for sharing intimate photos and videos of himself with fans.

Even facing just a fraction of the hate hurled at some celebrities every day can be damaging to anyone, especially when it feels overwhelmingly unjustified.

Twitter, in particular, has long struggled withserious harassment issues, despite multipleinitiatives designed toaddressthe problem.

On Thursday, the company announced that it would soon begin rolling out new features that may help some users combat abuse, including a "quality filter."It remains to be seen if this will actually preventabusive comments, or merely "address harassment by limiting what users will see in their feeds when they're logged on," asBuzzFeed suggests.

Instagram is also nowtesting a feature that allows usersto filter comments. Ironically, though, it's currently only available toitsmost-followed users (like Bieber).

But what about regular people who encounter sustainedhate and harassment online? People who aren't celebrities, butreceive unwanted negativeattention simply for sharing an opinion that gets amplified beyond their control?

Dai, who asked to be identified only byher first name because of recent and unsettlingonline encounters, shared her opinion Monday onTwitter abouta controversial photo ofTV host Ellen DeGeneres riding Olympic running championUsain Bolt's back.

She was one of many people who were criticalof the image tweeted byDeGeneres,which was lambasted by someas racist.

What she hadn't expected when publishing a tweet to her approximately 1,850 followerswas that CNN would embed it in a news story, exposing her tothe website's vastreadership.

"It went crazy," Dai told CBC News of hernotifications, explaining that strangers were saying "everything from thatI don't deserve to exist, to thatI should hang myself... that I should commit suicide."

Screenshotsshared with CBC News bythe Toronto-based advertising industry professionalwere similarly abusive, showing replies thatcalledher names, attacked her gender, and overtly told her that she should takeher own life.

Would you say that to my face? If you disagreed with my opinion on a celebrity's tweet in real life, would you tell me to jump off a bridge?- Dai, Toronto woman mass-flamedfor comment on Ellen DeGenerestweet

Daiprotected her account almost immediately after becoming aware of the problem, but has spent daysblocking and muting the hundreds of people who attacked her initially, and who continue to use her handle still despite the fact that they can't see what she's tweeting.

That said, she didn't skip a beat when asked whether she considered a full-on account deletion.

"Absolutely not," she said. "That wouldn't be fair."

"Just because my opinion differs from yours doesn't mean that I don'tdeserve to share it, or that I don't deserve to exist," she continued. "It's like, would you say that to my face? If you disagreed with my opinion on a celebrity's tweet in real life would you tell meto jump off a bridge?"

Probably not, saysThierryPlante of MediaSmarts, aCanadian not-for-profitorganization for digital and media literacy.

"Theinternetand other electronic communication technologies have a lot of what we call 'empathy traps,"he told CBC News."Alot of the harassmentcomes fromessentially forgetting, at least on an emotional level, that you're dealing with an actual, real person on the other end."

Plante says that, whilesexist, racist, regular harassment like the kind seen in some Twitter communities can have effects on a person's mental health, shutting down yoursocial media profile because of vicious strangers isn't the only option especially if you otherwise enjoy a specific social networkor use it in the context of your career.

Don't feed the trolls, but do record them

As much fun as it may look to clap-back at haters like modelGigi Hadidon Instagram,conventional wisdom holds that you should never "feed the trolls" as in,you shouldn't reply to excessively harshmessages or engage with people who send them.

Plante agrees, with one caveat: "Indeed, you don't feed the troll.But you do record it."

He recommends taking screenshotsto "start building a record of what's happening." This material could prove crucial if ever you need to report someone to the authorities. Tweets can be deleted, but images of them can be stored on your hard drive for future reference

There are different tools designed forflagging and filtering abuse onFacebook, Twitter and Instagram. They may not alwayssolve the problem, but can be helpful in some situations. Likewise forconnecting withpositive people and what Plante calls "helpers and change makers"to help you police the harassment.

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It's also a good idea to read up on what's legaland what's not legalwhere you live in real life.

"Find thespecific definitions of libel, defamation or definition of threats online that arein the criminal code,"Plante says, "and you can report those with the evidence you havetopolice."

If you want to ditch the glossy world of Instagramfor good, hey you'd be far from the first. Just know that you also have the option to temporarilydeactivate your account (as Bieber may very well be doing)and come back to it later.

Sometimes, even just putting the phone down for a while and focusing on something other than the harassment can be a positive step. "You have to learn to step away, reduce your exposure," says Plante.

"When you sleep with your cellphone, you remove one of the safest spaces you have. Traditional bullying used to end when you got to your house. Now it has the potential to come with you to bed."