How gendered disinformation on social media harms Kenyan women seeking political office
Source: Global Voices
Gender-based violence has crept up in the digital era in the form of online violence against women and girls, especially affecting women with political ambitions. Part of this violence entails gendered disinformation. This form of disinformation uses gender stereotypes to attack women and influence debates by promoting certain political, social or economic goals. It seeks to intimidate, discredit, humiliate and embarrass women, and push public debates.
According to Byte Bullies, a report by feminist think tank Pollicy, two out of five women candidates experienced sexual harassment on their X (formerly Twitter) accounts during the 2022 Kenyan general election. Added to this, 55.7 percent of Facebook accounts belonging to women candidates received some form of online violence compared to 35.4 percent for Facebook accounts of men candidates. Online violence manifested in the form of sexual harassment, hate speech, trolling, body-shaming and disinformation.
Seemingly, a woman’s personal life supersedes her résumé. “A closer look at the keyword network of sexual comments revealed underlying themes of comments attacking women’s appearance with words like “old” and “ass,” as well as themes of discouragement with words like “pathetic” and “nonsense.” Data also showed the two greatly targeted women candidates as being Anne Waiguru (who was vying for the position of governor for Kirinyaga County) and Martha Karua (2022 candidate for the position of deputy president.),” according to the Byte Bullies reports.
Read here the full article published by Global Voices on 25 April 2024.
Image by Global Voices
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Gender-based violence has crept up in the digital era in the form of online violence against women and girls, especially affecting women with political ambitions. Part of this violence entails gendered disinformation. This form of disinformation uses gender stereotypes to attack women and influence debates by promoting certain political, social or economic goals. It seeks to intimidate, discredit, humiliate and embarrass women, and push public debates.
According to Byte Bullies, a report by feminist think tank Pollicy, two out of five women candidates experienced sexual harassment on their X (formerly Twitter) accounts during the 2022 Kenyan general election. Added to this, 55.7 percent of Facebook accounts belonging to women candidates received some form of online violence compared to 35.4 percent for Facebook accounts of men candidates. Online violence manifested in the form of sexual harassment, hate speech, trolling, body-shaming and disinformation.
Seemingly, a woman’s personal life supersedes her résumé. “A closer look at the keyword network of sexual comments revealed underlying themes of comments attacking women’s appearance with words like “old” and “ass,” as well as themes of discouragement with words like “pathetic” and “nonsense.” Data also showed the two greatly targeted women candidates as being Anne Waiguru (who was vying for the position of governor for Kirinyaga County) and Martha Karua (2022 candidate for the position of deputy president.),” according to the Byte Bullies reports.
Read here the full article published by Global Voices on 25 April 2024.
Image by Global Voices
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