ActionAid, 'social platforms must answer for hatred against women'

Opening a profile on Instagram with a male name and doing a search with the word 'football', then scrolling through 15 videos, clicking five 'likes' and in less than a minute and a half the algorithm proposes toxic content, i.e. reels or posts with stereotyped gender roles or open hostility towards women such as: "Having a girlfriend is like raising a little girl. You have to plan activities to keep her busy, so she doesn't get bored and ruin your life for fun".

This is what emerges from the first research in Italy on misogynist and anti-feminist narratives on social media by ActionAid entitled "Suggested for you. Manosphere, femosphere and primary prevention of gender violence in Italy". The first misogynistic video of hate propaganda against women, explains the organization, arrives in ten minutes, after 122 videos scrolled and three searches on football, video games and finance.

The pilot study reconstructed how anti-women content is composed in 100 Instagram profiles and 50 TikTok and Facebook profiles through digital mapping, also creating four experimental profiles (two male and two female) and analyzing 1,400 videos on Instagram based on different searches. According to ActionAd, the contents of the manosphere - online communities that talk about men by presenting feminism as an enemy and men as victims of female empowerment - are now a widespread Internet culture and are recommended by the algorithm in the same way as entertainment, sports and life advice.

"Preventing male violence against women means acting - explains Katia Scannavini, co-secretary general of ActionAid - on the culture of contempt that fuels it, where misogyny produces real consequences. We need institutions, schools and communities to assume responsibility. Digital platforms must also account for the mechanisms with which they spread content and their consequences".