Levels of hate towards the LGBTQ+ community are “alarming”, former Lloyd’s CEO Dame Inga Beale said on Wednesday as she shared reflections on social media and other abuse she received while in the top job at Lloyd’s.
“I remember when the Brexit vote came through, and suddenly hate crime, particularly against the LGBTQ+ community started to rise,” Beale said.
Speaking during the online Dive In panel session, Beale likened tactics used by some groups on social media to “guerrilla warfare”.
She also disclosed that she felt pressure from multiple sides, including “top down”, particularly when looking to tackle culture in the market while in post.
“I had abuse from all sorts of people, but actually also top down a little bit,” Beale said. “I had them saying ‘you shouldn’t be talking about that so much’.
“They sort of did it politely, but I felt pressure from everywhere to sort of want to put me back in my little box and fortunately there was enough movement and support that enabled me to move forward.”
Beale, who is bisexual, was out during her time in the Lloyd’s market – she served as CEO from 2014 to 2018 – and has previously disclosed abuse and harassment that was directed at her while in post.
In the Dive In session, she described being sent anonymous letters – “some handwritten, typed, once a person cut the letters out of a magazine, they said I should kill myself, I didn’t deserve the job, very terrible things” – as well as receiving comments on social media.
“I deleted Twitter,” Beale said. “I wanted to be out there, because the younger generation said to be a part of everything you need to be online.”
The former Lloyd’s boss acknowledged that she was in a “privileged” position, with a communications team able to “keep track of things and make it not visible to me”.
This did not, however, “stop people from being abusive,” Beale said.
Abuse was not limited to platforms like Facebook or Twitter, Beale said, recalling a response to one of her LinkedIn posts in which a professional had responded “vomit, vomit, vomit”. During her tenure at Lloyd’s, multiple fake LinkedIn accounts were set up in her name, Beale said
As for how she dealt with the abuse she received, Beale said it was a case of keeping “work and personal life very separate”.
“I wasn’t quite prepared for it, because before I took the role I wasn’t on social media and I didn’t have [such] a high-profile role,” Beale said.
“[Had I stepped into the role today] I would be so much better prepared, had my armour on, if you will – [at the time] I felt like Arnold Schwarzenegger, feeling like I had to keep going, no matter what comes at you, just keep going.”
Looking forward, the former Lloyd’s CEO, who serves as a director and non-executive director for businesses including WTW, Clyde & Co and Crawford & Company, said she had hopes that the Online Safety Bill will make it harder for anonymous perpetrators of abuse.
“Hopefully, that new bill, when it comes out, will also give extra powers about preventing online abuse or taking action against abusers, because at the moment, there seems to be a lot around ‘well, it’s not illegal to say something so you can’t take any action against them’,” Beale commented.
Beale was joined on the panel by moderator Eva Echo, a trans woman, Gender Intelligence spokesperson and Birmingham Pride head of communications and engagement, and Max Slack, a trans man, content producer and self-styled influencer.
Both shared their experiences of online hate and abuse – and the difficulties they had faced in getting content taken down or users sanctioned.
“When I first came out as trans, I experienced a lot of unwanted attention from men, and they’d be sliding into my DMs and leaving really inappropriate comments,” Echo said. “And it wasn’t until I started following more like trans men or gender non-conforming people that I realised that it’s not just trans women; it affects all of our community.”
Social media platforms were typically unhelpful, according to Echo.
“When it comes to platforms, I’ve reported comments, I’ve reported death threats of all sorts,” she said. “And sometimes I do wonder, why do I even bother? Because nothing really happens. And if anything, they turn it around on you.”
For Slack, who said he no longer uses Twitter due to the lack of “nuance” offered by its 140-character post limit and users who “just want to be angry”, Instagram has become more of a “safe space” with algorithms directed at finding users with similar interests. However, he pointed out that in some ways this could create an “echo chamber”.
Slack also disclosed that receiving abuse on video platform TikTok that had led to him turning down paid jobs.
“If you work in marketing at all, you will see people saying TikTok is the new Instagram, TikTok is the new Google – TikTok, TikTok, TikTok, all your money should be here,” Slack said. “And I’m looking at it as a trans creator, who, every time one of my videos goes viral, or gets more than a couple of thousand views, I get a torrent of hate.”
To tackle online abuse, panellists suggested better education was needed, as well as legal reform and action by social media platforms.
Businesses and the corporate world could also have a role to play, according to Slack.
“The only way that they [platforms] are going to start taking that seriously is if they start getting pressure from people, but also companies and groups of people like this, who are saying: actually, this isn’t acceptable, and we don’t feel comfortable using a platform that allows people to experience this kind of abuse,” Slack said.
As for what those receiving abuse can do to try to mitigate the impact on themselves, Slack said: “It’s OK to take a break.”
“The other thing I would remind people is that if there is ever a brand, or a company involved, raise it to them, because people have a lot more respect, particularly when it can come into their role,” Slack said. “If you’re in a work environment, for example, do raise it to HR, raise it to the people team, or raise it to someone who you know is an ally in the environment that you’re in, because people will help you.”
