The female boss of Uber has announced that she can no longer look at her social media accounts because of abusive trolls.
Jo Bertram told an audience at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women event in London that the frequency of abusive, sexist attacks had meant she no longer logs into her Twitter account and has to ask a colleague to check it for her.
Bertram, who is the UK, Ireland and Nordic general manager for the ridesharing app, shared a sample of the comments she has received from angry taxi drivers.
One cabbie that he hoped Bertram would “get run over by a Toyota Prius” while a female driver compared her looks to that of convicted paedophile Jimmy Saville.
Bertram said that the hate had forced her to permanently resign herself to a life offline because it brought her down so much to read the troll’s comments.
Not only has Bertram removed herself from the social world but she has tried to stop her employees seeing the tweets too.
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Bertram advised the room full of women to deal with attacks online by depersonalising them: “If you are going to make changes there is always going to be someone who doesn’t like that change. However having said that, even if you can rationalise it in your head, it is not always so easy to rationalise it in inside.”
She continued: “Unfortunately it is probably a small group who are not representative of the group at large or the industry at large but it is important to remember that it is not personal.”
The Fortune event brings together the world’s most prominent female leaders in business, government, media and the arts.
Other guests include the CEO of Save The Children, Helle Thorning Schmidt, Education secretary Nicky Morgan and Mary Portas.
