Report summary: #MonetizingMisogyny research series

These reports are authored by Lucina Di Meco (all), Sarah Hesterman (Hungary and Tunisia), Nicoletta Apolito (Italy) and Denise Hirao (Brazil).

Report name

#MonetizingMisogyny

Who wrote these reports?

#ShePersisted works to address gendered disinformation against women in politics globally. They research digital harms and publish thought leadership on technology-facilitated gender-based violence facing women leaders and the patterns, motives and modus operandi of gendered disinformation campaigns. They support women leaders by providing key advice on building digital resilience, and design and implement comprehensive communications strategies for women in politics, including tailored training on how to respond to gendered disinformation and online abuse. They also advocate for improved digital standards, working in coalition with policy-makers, international and domestic institutions and networks to advocate for increased transparency and accountability from digital platforms.

#ShePersisted’s #MonetizingMisogyny research is the first of its kind in breadth and scope, assessing gendered disinformation and digital attacks targeting women in politics across five countries through a series of unprecedented case studies. This work is a result of over two years of desk research, personal Interviews, social media monitoring and quantitative analysis, encompassing partnership with over 50 women leaders and experts across the world to gather and analyse evidence of gendered disinformation and its impact.

The #MonetizingMisogyny research series highlights the weaponisation of social media platforms to disseminate gendered disinformation campaigns in Brazil, Italy, Hungary, Tunisia and India, frequently used by illiberal actors and networks with malign intentions to attack women who champion democracy, advocate for human rights and challenge autocratic actions. Social media platforms continue to provide a propaganda machine to authoritarians and illiberal actors, and their prioritisation of profit over the safety of their users serves to amplify harm targeting women in the public eye. As more and more women are dissuaded against political involvement as a result of online abuse, this research is timely in its findings and recommendations to ensure a future where women can speak out without fear of repercussions.

Best quote

There are political parties, movements and party leaders who use fake news to discredit and attack their political opponents. It is no longer a question of protecting the image of our political force or of fighting the spread of fake news: it is a question of defending the values of our democracy.

Alessandra Moretti, Italian Member of the European Parliament

Key takeaways:

1. Across the world, women in politics face gendered disinformation and other forms of online abuse and violence, forming a significant barrier to political participation and their freedom of expression.

2. Gendered disinformation must be treated as an early warning system for backsliding on progress towards securing women’s rights and the erosion of democratic principles and institutions. When gendered disinformation is utilised by foreign malign actors to exploit divisions in society and influence countries’ governments and citizens, it must be also understood as a threat to national security. Gendered disinformation is being employed by malign actors like Russia to exercise foreign influence under the pretext of defending what is often framed as “traditional values”, and tactics are often linked to anti-gender narratives, particularly prevalent in the European countries of Hungary and Italy.

3. Women who come from traditionally marginalised sections of society are made even more vulnerable, and those with intersecting identities are the target of some of the most violent, vicious gendered disinformation and online hate campaigns which have racist, in addition to sexist, undertones. For example, online abuse may be more intense depending on the religion or caste of a woman in India and the class or skin colour of women in Tunisia, or for Black, transgender or indigenous women in Brazil, and LGBTQI+ people in Hungary

4. Social media platforms have failed to protect their users or to deliver their early promises of being an equalising and democratising force. Time and time again, their research identified platforms failing to act, continuing to boost and amplify narratives through algorithms that make such content sticky and help it go viral. Their inaction includes ignoring takedown requests on threats of sexual violence and failing to invest adequate funding into non-English speaking countries in the Global South.

5. While there is no silver bullet to address gendered disinformation, there are policies and practices that can support addressing this problem and in-depth, targeted research is needed to test and refine them. There is a pressing need for independent research not funded by Big Tech, and for the reframing of legal frameworks to implement a focus on transparency and ‘duty of care’ for social media companies in response to the harm caused by their services and failure to act.

What’s in these reports?

Each case study provides an overview of the political context of the country, the situation for women’s political involvement, gendered disinformation tactics and the role of digital platforms in facilitating online abuse targeting women politicians. The research series’ framing document, ‘Monetizing Misogyny: Gendered Disinformation and the Undermining of Women’s Rights and Democracy Globally’, outlines key solutions, including recommendations for adopting globally-minded legislative frameworks and approaches and targeted, strategic and solution-oriented research and programmes on gendered disinformation.

The case studies further shed light on the consequences of allowing gendered disinformation to go unchecked, demonstrating how online attacks targeting women leaders have a reach extending far beyond the individual. False narratives, underpinned by misogynistic attitudes and gendered stereotypes, further entrench existing societal inequalities and can dissuade younger generations from running for office or working in the public sphere. As the erosion of democratic institutions continues, women’s rights and liberal values continue to fall in the line of fire, becoming a key strategy for authoritarians to obtain and consolidate power.

The summary report and the India, Italy and Hungary case studies are out now, so stay tuned for the release of the Tunisia and Brazil case studies coming this summer.

Why should you read these reports?

The status quo must change, and each case study lays the foundation for understanding the threat of gendered disinformation to women’s political participation and democracy, both in the context of individual countries and around the world. #MonetizingMisogyny demonstrates how crucial it is to ensure governments, civil society and philanthropy are bold in their demands for accountability from digital platforms. Big Tech’s self-regulation has entirely failed, and external stakeholders must step up and make coordinated efforts to defend women leaders at the forefront of the fight for human rights and democratic principles. The use of social media to silence, threaten and discredit women cannot go on, or democracy, women’s rights and their freedom of expression will continue to hang in the balance.

Who are these reports for?

The #MonetizingMisogyny research series is for all key stakeholders, including policymakers, researchers, experts and activists, women in the public eye or those wishing to defend them and anyone with a commitment to preserving democracy, championing human rights and ensuring digital platforms are safe places for women to express themselves.

🔗 Read the full series [here]((https://she-persisted.org/our-work/research-and-thought-leadership/). 🔗

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