Women are victims of a global disinformation campaign, say researchers

Researchers say there is “gender misinformation,” targeting women around the world.

A campaign of gender misinformation “. So many researchers define a practice that unites fake news and misogyny. It consists of damaging the credibility of women, tarnishing their reputation with false information, in order to harm their careers, as reported by theFrench media agency through the prism of numerous studies.

Powerful women on the front lines

These campaigns of fake news gender issues would be conducted especially against women in political circles. Then the cell fact check of the news agency demonstrates this with numerous authoritative examples: fake photos showing the Ukrainian first lady sunbathing topless, fake video captions accusing Pakistani feminists of ” blasphemy “, or a clip of Nancy Pelosi in slow motion describing her as” drunk “.

But I’m Michelle Obama, former first lady of the United States, or even Brigitte Macron who are targeted by campaigns claiming they were born male, amid transphobia.

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According to the study, these campaigns are usually organized by their opponents. And if they accept, it is in particular because of sexist stereotypes, which suggest that women politicians are unreliable, too emotional or not intelligent enough to hold an official function.

The role of Facebook

However, in 2020, several US lawmakers wrote a letter to Facebook, accusing it, along with other platforms, of failing to moderate hateful content and disinformation targeting women. “ Make no mistake, these tactics, which are being used on your platform for malicious purposes, are meant to silence women and ultimately undermine our democracies. the letter says.

For its part, Facebook has acknowledged that online abuse against women is a ” serious problem and pledged to work with policy makers to limit the damage caused by this gender disinformation.