We are documenting hatred and harassment. "TERF" is a slur used to justify harassment and violence.
Deborah Cameron, a sociolinguistics professor, explains that we can reasonably decide if a word is a slur by asking certain questions such as, “Is the word commonly understood to convey hatred or contempt?” and, “What other words does the word tend to co-occur with?”
"Cameron looked at a collection of tweets in which the term TERF is used and noted, that it, “quite often shows up in the same tweet as other words whose status as slurs is not disputed, like ‘b*tch’ and ‘c**t’. Other words that occur more than once or twice in these tweets include ‘disgusting’, ‘ugly’, ‘scum’ and a cluster of words implying uncleanness (‘smell’, ‘stink’, ‘garbage’, ‘filth’)—which is also a well-worn theme in racist and anti-Semitic discourse.” –Source
Further Reading:
On an Alleged Case of Propaganda: Reply toRachel McKinnon | archive
The Word TERF | archive
TERF: It’s time for you to drop this expression of misogyny from your vocabulary | archive
The Scolds Bridle of JK Rowling | archive