By Guy Bentley
Half of all misogynistic tweets are sent by women, according to a new study from the left-leaning think tank Demos.
The UK think tank monitored the aggressive use of the words “slut” and “whore” as indicators of misogyny over a three-week period.
Researchers found Twitter was riddled with misogynistic comments, discovering 6,500 unique users were swamped by 10,000 abusive tweets in the UK alone.
When Demos looked at sexist abuse on Twitter internationally, it found more than 200,000 tweets using “slut” and “whore” were sent to 80,000 people in the same period.
Demos used algorithms to ensure their research captured explicitly abusive tweets instead of self-depreciation or friendly banter. The study adds to the organization’s previous work showing women are subjected to more abuse and harassment on Twitter than men.
But the evidence is still unclear as to who suffers from more online vitriol, with a study from the Pew Research Center in 2014 showing men were more likely to be called offensive names, physically threatened and harassed for a sustained period.
Source: Pew Research
“It is clear that just as the digital world has created new opportunities for public debate and social interaction, it has also built new battlegrounds for the worst aspects of human behavior,” said Alex Krasodomski-Jones, Researcher in the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos.
“This study provides a birds-eye snapshot of what is ultimately a very personal and often traumatic experience for women. While we have focused on Twitter, who are considerably more generous in sharing their data with researchers like us, it’s important to note that misogyny is prevalent across all social media, and we must make sure that the other big tech companies are also involved in discussions around education and developing solutions,” Jones added.
The study was released just as UK members of parliament launched their Reclaim the Internet campaign, in response to concerns over hate on social media.
“The truth is nobody knows what the best answers are. There is more when there is criminal abuse, for example, rape threats, that the police should be doing but what is the responsibility of everyone else? What more should social media platforms be doing?” Labour MP Yvette Cooper, told the BBC.
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