A female Politico reporter was targeted by a Donald Trump supporter with a vile, anti-Semitic death threat on Twitter, just the latest incident in an election season marred by the harassment of female journalists and rampant racism.
Hadas Gold, a reporter who runs Politico's On the Media blog, was sent an edited picture of herself with a bullet hole in her head and a Star of David on her chest.
"Don't mess with our boy Trump or you'll be first in line for the camp," @HeatherBrownfl3 sent Gold through direct message. "Aliyah or line up by the wall, your choice."
According to BuzzFeed, the threat was reported and the account was suspended.
"Politico notified Twitter of the threatening and vile tweets, and Twitter acted promptly to suspend the account. There were many more tweets and emails, some even more vile if that is imaginable. A police report is in the process of being filed," a spokesperson for Politico told BuzzFeed.
The threat to Gold is, unfortunately, not unusual. Supporters of Trump, white supremacists and the alt-right have used Twitter, Reddit and 4chan to harass and coordinate virtual attacks on journalists, Jews and people of color using a series of memes and coded language.
Women in the media are particularly vulnerable to harassment and sexism, as evidenced by the vitriol faced by Mic reporter Melanie Ehrenkranz when she tweeted about the leaked audio of the Republican presidential nominee boasting about sexually harassing women.
The harassment and violent rhetoric is unlikely to wane, as Trump continues to incite supporters with claims that the election is being rigged by the media and Democrats.
While the account that threatened Gold has been suspended, there are hundreds of similar ones still active, continuing to harass people online.