#Feminazis on Instagram : Hate Speech and Misinformation, the Ongoing Discourse for Enlarging the Manosphere

Tarullo, Raquel and Calvo, Dafne and Iranzo-Cabrera, Maria (2024) #Feminazis on Instagram : Hate Speech and Misinformation, the Ongoing Discourse for Enlarging the Manosphere. KOME, 12 (2). pp. 91-110. ISSN 20637330

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Abstract

Social media platforms have become spaces for the viralisation of hate speech and misinformation. Paradoxically, tools that were once used for activism and conversation on behalf of vulnerable communities, nowadays work to gather and reproduce analogous worldviews on polarising issues. This research analyses the behaviour of the protagonists of the conversation around #feminazis on Instagram, as well as the characteristics of the content and the degree of interaction they generate. For this purpose, computational and qualitative social science methods have been applied to a sample of 9,300 posts published between 2021 and 2023. The results show disorderly participation by anonymous accounts, women and self-described feminists, social organisations, and pseudo-media. Content opposed to elective termination of pregnancy, and misogynistic messages lead the conversation, but there are also publications that attack other progressive ideologies. Disinformative content is linked to decontextualisation and manipulation of information to go viral, transnationalising hate speech towards feminism and their supporters, framed as a homogeneous group. It is concluded that this space, created by the platform itself, contributes to the enlargement and institutionalisation of the manosphere.

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