An Unrepresentative Democracy: How Disinformation and Online Abuse Hinder Women of Color Political Candidates in the United States

Abstract

As more women have sought political representation by running for elected office, we have seen demonstrated increases in online harassment and abuse, including targeted mis- and disinformation campaigns. Researchers argue that these attacks are attempts to limit women’s ability to participate in electoral politics and suppress their voices in a variety of settings. While women in general may be subject to significant mis- and disinformation and abuse online, an intersectional approach which recognizes that women of color have to contend with multiple sources of oppression at the same time and that this impact is unique, can better illuminate the additional challenges faced by women of color in general and women of color political candidates specifically. We identified two key research questions: (1) Are women of color political candidates more likely to be subject to mis- and disinformation and online abuse compared to other types of candidates? (2) What are the impacts of mis- and disinformation and online abuse of women of color political candidates? We focus on both mis- and disinformation and online abuse because they are part of the larger problem of violence against women in politics and both are often aimed at undermining the political efficacy of women in public spaces.

More Tools, More Control: Lessons from Young Users on Handling Unwanted Messages Online

“…The individuals receiving the most unwanted content tended to be African American men or boys, in line with prior work that shows that men and African American people can be subjected to some forms of online abuse more than other groups (Thakur et al, 2022;Vogels, 2022;Moody, 2023). This pattern extended to sexual content too, which was the most common form of unwanted messages in the study.…”

“…They also only allowed friends or people they knew offline to follow them: This finding follows prior literature that states that high-profile accounts have faced a lot of hate and abuse online, implying that higher profile accounts have higher stakes (Daehlen, 2021). This suggests that unwanted messages can contribute to a chilling effect, as prior work has pointed out with other population groups (Thakur et al, 2022):…”

“…A finding in this study that requires further examination and research is the potentially disproportionate experience of unwanted messages on messaging platforms among African American men and boys. Prior research has exemplified similar disproportionate experiences of harm online, such as sexting scams targeted at teen boys (Moody, 2023) and disinformation targeted at women of color politicians (Thakur et al, 2022).…”

Stalking, harassment, gendered abuse, and violence towards politicians in the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery era

“…If this is the case, then the damage to our democratic institutions may be considerable. This seems to be playing out in the international reports of online abuse and threats of violence deterring elected representatives from participating in politics, especially for women ( 35 – 37 ).…”