Sabrina Javellana became one of Florida's youngest elected officials in 2018 when she won a seat on the Hallandale Beach City Commission at age 21. As she served and finished college, she adjusted to life in the public sphere, often drawing ire for her progressive views, reports the . While the internet isn't known for kindness to women in the public eye, an anonymous message about a 4chan thread took a darker turn for Javellana.
"Hi, just wanted to let you know that somebody is sharing pictures of you online and discussing you in quite a grotesque manner," it read. Javellana went on to discover a forum devoted to her with photos and crude comments—including one image stolen from her social media that was doctored to make her look nude. And that was just the start.
writer Coralie Kraft sits down with Javellana to learn about the fallout from this type of harassment, which at the time didn't have much legal recourse. Fearing that the images would go viral, Javellana changed the way she dressed, opted out of obtaining teaching certification, and decided not to run for office again. "It's just hard enough being .
.. a young woman in my position, and I don't want that to be all people think of me as," she told .
"That's what I was really worried about." But when a state senator moved to make a law about deepfakes, she finally came forward with her story—and the harassment has only intensified. Read the full account .
(More stories.).
