https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/12/the-dark-side-of-guardian-comments "As part of a series on the rising global phenomenon of online harassment, the Guardian commissioned research into the 70m comments left on its site since 2006 and discovered that of the 10 most abused writers eight are women, and the two men are black. "
It's not surprising to me. Sadly. Though I think the guardian can be slightly heavy handed in its moding it does at least allow people to comment on most articles - other sites often close down comments when they think they will run against the editorial position. I only once got a comment removed, attacking their arts reporter Jonathan Jones. Which was probably just about justified, but then again he is an awful person who writes terrible, vacuous, articles. Not sure if this excuses me.