Author: Claire Bowers UWE Bristol
In February 2024, six members of the UWE Bristol Team (Claire Bowers, Jack James, Katie Etherton, Dr Jennifer Holmes, Claudia McCready and Eve Smietanko) presented at the third annual colloquium of the European Society of Criminology Working Group on radicalisation, extremism, and terrorism at the University of Portsmouth. This week’s blog, authored by Claire and with input from all of the research team, takes a look at the important issues that this research seeks to explore.
Introduction
Issues of sexism and misogyny continue to be hugely topical within Policing. From acknowledged concerns of institutional misogyny in the Met, chronicled within the Casey report (2021), to the ongoing Angiolini Inquiry investigating how serving officers David Carrick and Wayne Couzens were able to commit such horrific crimes. This is reinforced by the recent College of Policing 2023 Action plan entitled ‘Tackling sexism and misogyny in policing’ whose review of published and unpublished evidence identified more than 200 ways in which sexism and misogyny are present in a policing context. Misogyny is a form of violence against women (Arsawati and Bunga, 2021) and gender-based violence is on the increase, partly due to the virtual space which did not previously exist (Singh and Singh, 2021; Yar and Steinmetz, 2024). As a group of six academics who teach on the policing programme, we are interested in the role that social media, particularly the platform ‘X’ formally known as Twitter, may play in fuelling this crisis.
Our research proposal, presented at the 2024 Annual Terrorism and Extremism Colloquium, was triggered by recent events in the media, and particularly the influence of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter/X in October 2022. At a cost of $44 billion on 28th October 2022, Musk announced to all “the bird is freed.” A self-declared ‘free speech absolutist’, Elon permitted the return of prominent public figures, such Donald Trump, Tommy Robinson, and Andrew Tate back to the site (Griffin, 2022).
Background to our research
The online sphere (Papacharissi, 2022) can be a place of community and acceptance, but it has also become a place where extreme views can thrive and flourish. Since the dawn of social media there has been concern around its policing of hate speech. In 2018, 23% of women polled across eight countries stated that they had experienced harassment or abuse online (Amnesty International, 2018). Of those women, 47% stated the abuse or harassment was sexist or misogynistic. We expect that this statistic is likely to have increased, something we hope to explore in our research.
Since social media has become mainstream, there has been increasing concern around online safety and what role companies such as Twitter should play. In the latter half of the 2010s, more safety advice and tools were added such as the ‘harmful reply’ nudge. Since the transition from Twitter to X there has been concern that the safety features are no longer as effective, with much of the team responsible for this facility being laid off when Musk took over (Brewster, 2024).
Studies have been carried out into the effect that Musk has had on X since his takeover. For example, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue completed research for BBC Panorama in 2023. This found that in the days after Musk’s takeover there was an increase in new accounts created, that followed known misogynistic and abusive channels. Interestingly misogynistic views were not dominant but often included in more clear ideologies around anti-liberalism and pro-free speech. The research showed that there is a potential link between Musk’s own ‘free speech absolutist’ stance and a more permissive environment where hate speech can flourish. Other forms of hate speech have increased on the platform, for example antisemitism has doubled since Musk took over X (Miller et al, 2023). Research also suggests that people hold positive views of figures such as Andrew Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynist (Radford, 2023), especially from younger populations. Polling data released by Skiner and Gottfried on behalf of IPSOS (2024) shows that young UK males are far more supportive of Tate than females and older males and surveys from 2022 illustrate that 56% of young male fathers also hold positive views of him (Internet Matters, 2023).
About our research
64% of women see sexism as a major problem in the UK (Young Women’s Trust, 2019) and research from Stop Hate (2023) show extensive increases (as high as 322%) in incident reports relating to gender. This persistent trend of research and high-profile cases have led to a momentum for change (Chattier, 2020) telling us that women have had enough.
There has been little research into misogynistic hate speech on the app since Musk’s takeover, and all of these appear to focus on the quantitative rise rather than the experience of its users. In our research we want to adopt a mixed methods approach, using both qualitative and quantitative methods to better understand the experiences of those using the platform.
What do we want to find out?
- We want to explore whether there is a link between Musk’s ‘free speech absolutist’ stance and the perceived rise in hate speech.
- We want to explore firsthand experiences of users potentially exposed to this harmful narrative and the impact it has on them and society.
- We want to establish the current rates of misogynistic hate crime and incidences and how they are being recorded.
We look to achieve this through:
- Examining content from X after Musk’s acquisition in October 2022.
- Surveying X users on their experiences.
- Information requests from all Police forces in England and Wales about their recording of such crimes and incidences.
Why is this research important?
Violence against women and girls.
Online misogynistic narratives drive gender-based Hate Crimes which disproportionately affect women and girls, used as a form of intimidation and suppression reflected in worldwide trends of prevalence of violence against women. Obtaining a true picture of experiences of users on platforms such as X helps us to better understand the problem to inform policy moving forward.
Impact on mental health
The research shows women’s mental health is being negatively impacted, with experiences of sexism correlating with reduced wellbeing and life satisfaction. Research from the Young Women’s Trust shows that young women are 5 times more likely to have clinical depression. Our research will consider whether these impacts are the same for users on X.
Anti-feminist communities and radicalisation
The online ‘manosphere’ (Van Valkenburgh, 2021) environment is associated with ‘cyber hate’ and online harassment. It is a space where radicalisation can take place and misogynistic views can be validated and confirmed. It is a breeding ground for confirmation bias. Our research will consider whether there is evidence of this on X.
Polemical gender discourse
Unnecessarily, this topic can generate an ‘us and them’ paradigm which is divisive and compounds the problem. This perpetuates and justifies the need for some, further misogynistic challenge, particularly online. Taking the stance that challenging misogyny is ‘women taking on men’ is disproportionate and a narrative exploited by misogynists. Our research will examine X to see if there is evidence of this type of discourse.
Limiting women’s voices and visibility online with additional ‘emotional labour’
Incidences of misogyny experienced through online engagements consciously serve to limit women’s online voices and visibility (Aliche, 2023). To deal with this, women adopt a two-tier strategy: “moral persuasion” or “going hard” to deal with online abuse. With the emphasis being on women to change and regulate their behaviour, this approach constitutes serious ‘emotional labour’ and despite its utility, remains unsustainable in fighting online misogyny. We will consider whether this is the experience of users on X.
We do not fully understand the true extent of the issue.
Pre-existing research shows that online sexually aggressive behaviours tend to be downplayed and are often not reported. Cyber-sexual violence is deemed as less serious (Vizcaíno-Cuenca, Romero-Sánchez, and Carretero-Dios, 2024). We hope that this research will shine a light on and help us to better understand the extent of incidences that go unreported as well as the impact of these experiences.
Concluding Thoughts
Elon Musk is known for saying “the point of freedom of speech is allowing those whose views you disagree with to express those views,” This is true, safeguarding freedom of speech is essential, but this must be balanced against enabling hatred against others or putting them in danger. It is simply not acceptable to claim freedom of speech protection when it is perpetrating, justifying, and breeding harm. The question is, where do we draw the line?
Investigating sexist and misogynistic narratives on high profile platforms such as X and the impact on its users is an important area to investigate, so that we can improve our understanding of these issues and begin to think about how we, as a united society can take steps towards achieving a more egalitarian and safer society for both men and women. We look forward to sharing our findings at the conclusion of this research.
References
Alichie, B. O. (2023) “You don’t talk like a woman”: the influence of gender identity in the constructions of online misogyny, Feminist Media Studies, 23:4, 1409-1428 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2022.2032253?scroll=top&needAccess=true [Accessed 31 January 2024]
Amnesty International, 2018 Toxic Twitter – women’s experiences of violence and abuse on Twitter, Toxic Twitter – Women’s Experiences of Violence and Abuse on Twitter – Amnesty International [Accessed 30 January 2024].
Arsawati, N. and Bundga, D (2021) Misogyny as Violence in Gender Perspective. International Journal of Business, Economics and Social Development. [online].Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 19-27, 2021. [Accessed 27 February 2024].
Bewster, T. (2024) Musk’s X Fired 80% Of Engineers Working On Trust And Safety, Australian Government Says. Forbes. [online] 10 January. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2024/01/10/elon-musk-fired-80-per-cent-of-twitter-x-engineers-working-on-trust-and-safety/?sh=6c469b1c79b3
Chattier, P. (2020) The Women’s movement: so much momentum, but still miles to go. ABT Associates [blog] 7 April. Available from: https://abtgovernance.com/2020/04/07/the-womens-movement-so-much-momentum-but-still-miles-to-go/ [Accessed 01 February 2024]
Griffin, A. (2022) Who has Elon Musk unbanned from Twitter? From Trump to Andrew Tate. The Independent. [online] 21 November. Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/elon-musk-twitter-ban-trump-tate-west-b2229716.html
Institute for Strategic Dialogue (2023) BBC Panorama research: Misogyny and abuse on Twitter before and after Elon Musk’s takeover, BBC Panorama research: Misogyny and abuse on Twitter before and after Elon Musk’s takeover – ISD (isdglobal.org) [Accessed 30 January 2024].
Internet Matters (2023) New research sees favourable views towards Andrew Tate from both teen boys and young dads. Internet Matters. [online] 28 September. Available from: https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/press-release/new-research-sees-favourable-views-towards-andrew-tate-from-both-teen-boys-and-young-dads/#:~:text=Over%20half%20of%20young%20dads,also%20positive%20about%20the%20influencer.
Skinner, G and Gottfried, G. (2024) Masculinity and women’s equality: study finds emerging gender divide in young people’s attitudes. IPSOS. [online] 1 February. Available from: https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/masculinity-and-womens-equality-study-finds-emerging-gender-divide-young-peoples-attitudes#:~:text=One%20in%20five%20(21%25),aged%2060%2B%20(2%25).
Miller, C., Weir, D., Ring, S., Marsh, O., Inskip, C. and Prieto Chavana, N., 2023 Antisemitism on Twitter Before and After Elon Musk’s Acquisition. [online] Beam Available from: Antisemitism on Twitter – 15 March (beamdisinfo.org) [Accessed 30 January 2024].
Papacharissi, Z. (2002). The virtual sphere: The internet as a public sphere. New Media & Society. [online] 4(1), 9-27. [Accessed 27 February 2024].
Radford, A. (2023) Who is Andrew Tate? The self-proclaimed misogynist influencer. The BBC [online] 4 August. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64125045
Singh, D. & Singh, V. (2021) An Increase in Gender-based Violence during COVID-19. Journal of midwifery and reproductive health. [Online] 9 (2), 2762–2766.
Stop Hate UK (2023) [online] Annual Statistical Review 2022-2023 https://www.stophateuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Annual-report-22-23.pdf [Accessed 31 January 2024]
Van Valkenburgh, S. P. (2021). Digesting the Red Pill: Masculinity and Neoliberalism in the Manosphere. Men and Masculinities. 24(1), 84-103. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1097184X18816118 [Accessed 31 January 2024]
Vizcaíno-Cuenca, R., Romero-Sánchez, M., & Carretero-Dios, H. (2024). Making Visible the Myths About Cyber-Sexual Violence Against Women: An Analysis of Social Reactions Toward Victims on Twitter. Journal of interpersonal violence. [online] Advance online publication. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38243759/ [Accessed 31 January 2024]
Yar, M. and Steinmetz, K. F. (2024) Cybercrime and Society. 4th ed. London: Sage.
Young Women’s Trust (2019) [online] Impact of sexism on young women’s mental health https://www.youngwomenstrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Impact-of-sexism-on-young-womens-mental-health.pdf . [Accessed 31 January 2024]
You can access the survey here
Editorial team
Paul Williamson (Editor-in-Chief); Claudia McCready (Lecturer); Eve Smietanko (Joint Programme Leader & Senior Lecturer); Ian Lowe (Senior Lecturer) & Micah Hassell (Senior Lecturer).
If you would like to contribute as a guest blogger, please contact the team at Police.Blog@uwe.ac.uk