Online abuse has become part of the day-to-day experience of politicians in the UK.
Women especially experience harassment, abuse and intimidation via email and on social media. Previous analyses have argued that Twitter (now X) is a particularly toxic place for women where women MPs are more likely to be stereotyped and their role as politicians questioned. Our own research shows that, even though levels of outright violence and misogyny are low, there is a concerningly high level of rude and disrespectful language portraying women from both Labour and Conservatives as lacking the capabilities and integrity to be politicians.
We have analysed all tweets sent to twelve high-ranking women MPs of the two main parties in the British parliament during one week in 2022, one of the most recent hectic years politically speaking, characterized, among other things, by the presence of three different Prime Ministers (Johnson, Truss and Sunak). Concretely, we analysed the tweets received by these MPs during one week in November 2022, an ordinary parliamentary week outside of electoral campaign and cabinet reshuffle frenzy. In this dataset of 5,458 tweets, we found explicit linguist forms of insults, attempts to silence the MP (basically calling on them to ‘shut up’) and explicit references to physical harm wished on them. We also came across examples of microaggressions or tweets that appear polite or innocuous but subtly convey hatred using polite language (i.e., language that does not include insults, silencing or direct references to harm and violence).
In addition to its form, we were also interested in the purpose, or function of the abuse, whether, for example, the tweet questioned the capabilities of the MP as a politician (calling them dumb or incompetent), their integrity (calling them hypocrites or liars, or accusing them of corruption), their position in politics (calling for their resignation or removal), or their policies, or whether it explicitly addressed their gender or other identity traits.
“Knock on my door, I will wait”; “Burn in hell”; “I wish you get sick…”
Beyond the level of abuse, we find most worrying, especially for the women MPs themselves, the tweets that include a wish for these women to encounter any sort of physical harm. While their number was relatively low (less than one percent of the abusive tweets), we expect they are just the tip of the iceberg. Explicit threats are often sent through private messages or email, or they are reported and therefore removed either by the users themselves or by the platform, or whole accounts are suspended.
We have seen remnants of that in our research and therefore expect that some of the most violent tweets had already been removed before we were able to retrieve them. The same applies to references to sexual violence that we, to our surprise, did not find. It shows that at that time measures to reduce hate and violent speech on platforms were working, an important reminder in a time when social media platforms roll back content moderation.
“[…] now is the time to sack her. She is a disgrace and has no place in government.”
Even though overall percentages are quite similar between Labour and Conservative MPs, a closer look reveals some interesting differences. We find a higher level of microaggressions sent to Conservatives, which suggests that, while the overall level of abuse is similar among both parties, the language used often is more aggressive when targeting left-wing women MPs. This matters because, at the time of data collection, the Conservatives were in government. Our findings suggest that government responsibility exposes MPs of the governing party more to specific types of abuse that, even if subtle, questions their capabilities as politicians and their policies, as well as their position in politics, calling for their resignation, a clear attempt to challenge women’s space in government.
In line with the political power of their party, Conservative MPs were more often exposed to these types of harsh criticism. In contrast, MPs of left-wing parties, like Labour, which are often more open to issues of diversity, open floodgates of identity-based abuse, targeting the gender, race or social class of politicians.
“[…] bitter twisted woman.”
A concerning trend we observe in our research is the high degree of derogatory and offensive language. More than half of the abusive Tweets included some sort of insults towards these women politicians. Indeed, the vast majority of tweets classified by us as abusive is characterised by insults (see our Figure 1). It is not uncommon that the opportunity to connect with constituents via X comes at the price of being called a “disgrace, disgusting, twat or scum,” to give just a few examples. This high degree of insulting language, in combination with attempts to silencing them or a wish for them to suffer any sort of physical harm denotes an overall disrespect for those dedicating their time and lives to public office. It makes us wonder who will be brave enough or have the resilience to run for elected office in the future.
We now have a great opportunity for politicians, institutions and researchers to collaborate in creating solutions to this societal problem. By jointly developing measures that go beyond platform regulation and work towards designing effective institutional safeguards and protocols, as well as impactful awareness campaigns, we can create safer environments for women in politics.
