Even when comments, tweets, messages and other forms of communications don't involve direct threats, language is frequently relentlessly denigrating and hateful, creating an ambient hostility that is sometimes difficult to ignore.
But French-speaking Quebeckers feel a sense of cultural threat about language which, by many statistical accounts, gets whittled away year by year by English.
The conception of lying as a threat to language, as it is formulated in the literature, is based on a series of unrealistic assumptions.
In the end, Ms. Acerra says, after five years of "enduring threats, foul language, ridicule and unfounded criticism," she received help from her union.
A well known teenager who terrorised a neighbourhood in my constituency was given an Asbo by my local council and the police after a series of incidents involving threats, foul language and harassment.
The current threat to language-learning risks widening the social divide still further: there is a danger that the social confidence and career advantages which bilingualism bring will be restricted to children whose parents actively support or finance their languages education.
Titled "Murderers and Torturers Alive and Well in Santa Cruz," they contained the photographs, home addresses, and phone numbers of 13 UCSC faculty members, along with "threat-laden language" condemning animal research, says Captain Steve Clark of the Santa Cruz police.
While some messages were supportive, many included threats using language that gay communities have cited as homophobic - pledging not to listen to his music and promising to stop following him on social media until he "stopped being gay".
His recent "tweeting" battle with Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck over comments about the CBA negotiations were also piled high with insults, threats, and language often used by those who have a vocabulary of a stone.
This could be a lewd status, hate speech, a threat, spam, or language that's meant to bully someone.
