In the lead-up to the UK election this summer, when a prominent politician such as Diane Abbott or Suella Braverman posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, it usually took between one and two minutes for someone to respond with abuse. In fact, more than 6% of all responses were abusive, and nearly 20% of that abuse was misogynist or sexually explicit.

“Every time we do research on this, people say ‘Oh, it’s just words online,’” says one of the University of Sheffield academics behind the research. “But we need to take this seriously. This can destroy people’s lives. It can destroy their careers. It can put people off going into politics in the first place.”

The researchers collaborated with The Guardian on a study of the online abuse received by five UK politicians: former prime minister Rishi Sunak, current prime minister Keir Starmer, left-wing MP Diane Abbott, right-wing MP Suella Braverman and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Between them, they received 85,000 abusive messages. The true scale is likely to be much worse: the researchers (who are remaining anonymous due to the threat of online abuse) estimate that their models could have missed around half of the overall abuse.

“It’s part of the job,” is another common response when the issue of abuse in politics is raised. It undoubtedly is. A 2016 study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union found that 82% of women parliamentarians around the world have been subject to psychological violence. In 2020, an Amnesty International study found that one in every seven tweets directed at female politicians in India was “problematic or abusive”. Other studies on the scale of online abuse received by women politicians have  been carried out in Nepal, Pakistan, Denmark, the Netherlands, Peru, Ireland and Uganda, among others. But should we accept that abuse is “part of the job”? And what broader effects is it having?

Researchers do not agree about whether women in politics tend to be subjected to more online abuse than men – and this certainly varies drastically across regions. But the nature of abuse undoubtedly differs. As one study states: “when you do receive abuse, the likelihood is much greater than for a man that this will focus on your body, not your politics”. This trend towards identity-based abuse is even more severe for female political leaders who belong to racial, ethnic, religious, or other minority groups, and those who speak out about feminist issues. In the lead-up to the 2017 election in the UK, Amnesty International found that 45% of all abusive tweets directed at 177 women MPs targeted just one: Abbott, the first Black woman to serve in the UK Parliament.

Abuse directed at anyone is clearly harmful. Yet there’s a persistent belief that politics has always required a thick skin, and so withstanding abuse is only a personal issue.

This is not the case. “If women tweet less they become less visible, their voices are heard less,” says Luise Koch, who researches online misogyny towards politically active women in Brazil. “Misogyny online is not just a personal issue – it poses a broader challenge to democracy in general, by silencing women. »

Here’s the Evidence

Globally, just 27% of MPs are women. With relatively little representation in government, it is perhaps no surprise that the 2024 SDG Gender Index has found that gender equality is stalling or going backwards for more than 1 billion women and girls worldwide.

Meanwhile, social media giants are investing less in content moderation and other protections for users. The level of abusive and misogynistic content on X (previously Twitter) since Elon Musk’s takeover has dramatically spiked. “We’ve seen a huge difference [since Musk took over]. It’s partly because there are fewer moderators,” says the University of Sheffield researcher.

It’s not just X. New research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate – the same organisation that Musk threatened to sue last year after it documented an increase in hate speech on the platform since his takeover – shows that Instagram failed to act on 93% of the abusive comments targeting high-profile US women politicians they reported, including death and rape threats. 

Until recently, the assertion that abuse was actually preventing women and those from minority groups from standing for election was hypothetical or anecdotal. But more and more research is demonstrating a clear deterrent effect on political participation. One recent UK study found “a significant depressing effect of sexist comments on women’s political ambition”. Another found that politicians choosing not to stand for re-election had received more abuse in the preceding year. In her research into the 2022 Brazilian elections, which has not yet been peer reviewed, Koch found that an increase in misogynistic attacks one week was associated with a decrease in female candidates’ tweets the following week – and that this was particularly pronounced for younger and left-leaning candidates, who received the most abuse.

“Structural sexism and direct abuse not only affects the well-being of female politicians, but also discourages them from pursuing their political careers, which in turn harms representation and democracy,”  Koch says.

And this effect isn’t just restricted to politicians, but to activists, journalists, indeed anyone expressing themselves. An enormous 77% of women in the UK are not comfortable sharing their views online because of fears they will be targeted with abuse. This isn’t exactly a recipe for a working democracy.

‘These platforms are political’

There are widespread calls for stronger regulation of social media platforms, and this will undoubtedly need to be part of the solution. But it’s not a simple problem to solve.

“There is this really tricky line between freedom of speech and what should be tolerated,” says the University of Sheffield researcher. Automated tools can only filter out certain types of abuse, and when users report issues, those complaints are often mishandled or ignored. Ensuring companies respond properly to user complaints about abuse seems like a basic requirement, yet even this isn’t happening consistently.

The complexities of moderation extend beyond this. As Kanksshi Agarwal, a policy researcher and founder of NETRI Foundation, India’s first incubator for women in politics, explains, “Platform regulation is a very sensitive issue,” she says. “These platforms are political. They are run by real people, real human beings who have political interests.” 

Then there’s the geographical bias. Most tech companies focus on tackling online abuse in the West. This has led to a “serious enforcement gap” in the Global South.

So, while tighter regulations are crucial, transparency may be even more important. Social media companies must be required to make their moderation practices and data publicly available so they can be held accountable. Unfortunately, the trend is moving in the opposite direction in some countries. For example, in 2023, Musk’s X began charging researchers for access to data. This is what hindered the Sheffield researchers from studying more than five politicians.

Communities of care

In a context in which abuse is worsening and effective regulation feels distant, it’s easy to feel hopeless about the future for women and marginalised groups in politics.
The challenge of combating identity-based abuse, which deters many from running for office, seems insurmountable when existing systems continue to fail them.

“This is why a lot of women from political families enter politics in India,” Agarwal says. “They know that when they are faced with hooliganism and threats and violence, they have a very powerful family to support them. People who don’t have this kind of background hesitate.” Surviving that kind of abuse takes a community, takes trust, takes support and money – and most political systems and communities don’t provide that. “We must think about what it takes to build a support infrastructure for women in politics,” she says.

Building that kind of support infrastructure is critical. Fortunately, a growing number of organisations are stepping in to fill the gap. #ShePersisted supports women leaders to build digital resilience while advocating for improved digital standards. The NETRI Foundation delivers programs to support women in India to run for office, including in the digital sphere. The public servant network Apolitical is both raising awareness on this matter and training women on how to cope with the impacts of abuse. Access Polity aims to create a “supporting infrastructure for women entering politics​”, with a focus on South America and Asia.

For too long, women have been expected to endure identity-based abuse and violence as “part of the job”. But true progress will only come when both structural change and community support are prioritised, allowing women and marginalised groups to participate fully and safely in political life.

“We need to both equip women with the tools to navigate a broken system, while simultaneously working to change that system,” Agarwal says.

Research Round-up

Here’s what else is making the news:

1. 🧶 No country in the world is on track to achieve gender equality by 2030. If current trends continue, global gender equality won’t be achieved until the 22nd century,
   according to the most comprehensive global measure of gender equality available to date.
2. 🔥 The number of women and girls facing domestic abuse in sub-Saharan Africa is set to almost triple by 2060 – an increase of more than 90 million – due to the severity of the climate crisis, according to a new UN report.
3. ⚽️ Almost half of women football fans in England and Wales have experienced sexist or misogynistic abuse at matches. Most have never reported it to authorities.

About The Evidence

The Evidence is a supplement to the Impact newsletter designed to help you understand gender inequality – and show how we might fix it. Impact is a weekly newsletter of feminist journalism, dedicated to the rights of women and gender-diverse people worldwide.

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