WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- More than half of Americans, 53 percent, said they were subjected to online hateful speech and harassment in 2018, showed a survey released Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a nonprofit organization.
Meanwhile, 37 percent of Americans have experienced severe online harassment, including sexual harassment, stalking and physical threats, the survey showed.
For a third of Americans, online abuse was in response to their sexual orientation, religion, race, ethnicity, gender identity or disability, the survey found.
"This was significantly worse than we expected," said Adam Neufeld, ADL's vice president of innovation and strategy.
"This is an epidemic and it has been far too silent," he was quoted by a USA Today report as saying.
About 80 percent of those surveyed believe the U.S. federal government should strengthen laws against online hate and harassment and improve training and resources for law enforcement.
The ADL survey of 1,134 Americans was conducted in December by YouGov, a public opinion and data analytics firm.
