The forum (with usernames like “not_a_whiteknight” and “september11”) rallied together to brainstorm fake panels, workshops, and speakers to fool the feminist community. They then proceeded to sell tickets for $50 each on Sellify and hoped to re-direct conference attendees to a gay bar on the first day of the conference. The feminist community was not nearly fooled.

Last night, trolls filled the #femcon2015 feed. Today, I logged on and saw not only the fake Twitter account was deleted, but feminists and allies took over #femcon2015.

FemCon2015 proves the Internet is not yet a safe space for women, and likewise, self-identified feminists. Misogyny exists online in alarming numbers. While the feminist community was able to identify this scam, still “the trolls are winning.” I can’t help but imagine what happens when these trolls step away from the comfort of their keyboards.

Last year, TomDispatch published an excerpt from filmmaker Astra Taylor’s book, The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age. (Interestingly enough, I found out about this piece through an episode of Reddit’s podcast that featured three female computer scientists.) The essay particularly tackles how “open” the Internet actually is:

The Web is regularly hailed for its “openness” and that’s where the confusion begins, since “open” in no way means “equal.” While the Internet may create space for many voices, it also reflects and often amplifies real-world inequities in striking ways.

The Internet is a huge resource, especially for those that wouldn’t otherwise receive this kind of information, but it’s too soon to deem it a “safe space.” The Internet only reflects the realities of our everyday lives. Corporations fight against the idea of net neutrality for their own profit. Click bait dominates online media, including our Google search results and the news we receive on our Facebook feeds. The government has the power to monitor virtually everything we do. Likewise, the Internet reflects the status of women and the inequalities we face:

Racist, sexist, and homophobic harassment or “trolling” has become a depressingly routine aspect of online life.

The digital divide of gender is so common that we accept trolling is normal. In the past year, I’ve attended a few workshops dedicated to coping with online harassment and every time, I left them disempowered. While panelists mediated the conversation of how to cope with trolling, I couldn’t help but think of the harsh reality: women I look up in my industry — writers, activists, journalists, business leaders, filmmakers— can face harassment just by identifying as a feminist. In fact, during a women’s media conference last month, trolls took over our event’s hashtag on Twitter.

In response, Creatix Tiara suggests feminists and allies organize their own events at local gay bars during the Fake FemCon week (August 19th to 21st). If you’re interest in hosting your own FemCon event next month, Creatrix has offered to compile a list of these events through her Tumblr blog. Although maybe we shouldn’t hold these events exclusively at gay bars, but this sounds like a good way to “cope,” if you ask me.