New research from Glitch – a charity dedicated to ending online abuse – has revealed the horrific prevalence of misogynoir across many social media platforms.

Digital misogynoir, a term developed by Dr Moya Bailey, refers to specific hate directed at Black women due to their gender and race.

The Digital Misogynoir Report, created with the support of AI company Textgain, analysed almost 1 million social media posts across five platforms, and is the first in-depth examination of digital misogynoir on social media. 

The research, which found that an alarming 20% of social media posts were highly toxic towards Black women, comes as the government is exploring how to best address gender-based online violence, with a campaign from Glitch and their partners to have women and girls “named and protected” in the Online Safety Bill.

Glitch’s shocking report uncovered that misogynoir serves as a foundation for hateful narratives including white supremacy, antisemitism and ‘the great replacement theory’.

Within the dataset, Glitch found over 9,000 more highly toxic posts about Black women than about white women, showing the racialised nature of online abuse.

Despite widespread examples of digital misogynoir, the policies, research and actions of major tech companies have “largely ignored the racialised and gendered nature of online abuse”, according to the report.

To address the issues raised by Glitch, the report lays out clear action points for different stakeholders, including tech companies, governments and social media users themselves.

For example, social media users must “actively challenge racism, sexism and misogynoir when they see it, demand safety interventions from tech companies and treat their behaviour online as equal to their behaviour offline”.

“This report illuminates the ways misogynoir shows up in online spaces; the way it spreads and intersects with other forms of white supremacy; and, most disappointingly, how it is still missed in content moderation by tech platforms,” says Seyi Akiwowo, founder and CEO of Glitch.

“Tech companies must take responsibility for the ways their ‘build first, think later’ approach actively harms Black women – online and offline,” she adds.

“Our report offers a roadmap for dismantling digital misogynoir and improving the lives of Black women, acting as a stepping stone towards transformative frameworks for joy-centred safety for all, instead of merely surviving violence online.”

Image: Getty