Introduction
With the popularization of the internet, online media platforms are becoming increasingly prominent. Using media platforms has become a daily practice in human lives. With the help of media, in today’s culture, influencers have an unparalleled ability to form narratives and drive public conversation. However, with this influence comes heavy responsibility. Unfortunately, some influential influencers ignore this.
The inflammatory rhetoric of some influencers is so targeted at a particular person or group of people that it can lead their followers to believe and follow such ideas (Parekh, 2006). Most of these comments are related to race, physical characteristics, and sexual orientation, and misogyny is one of them, which is a perception of the inequality of women in society, and it is a reflection of sexism in society.
A widespread problem is the spread of harmful ideologies, especially misogyny in cyberspace. Misogynistic hate speech not only reinforces gender differences but also contributes to a hostile environment, especially for women.
Influencers make female-harmful statements, which is driving misogynistic and hateful sentiments towards women in society. These statements reinforce the social construct of gender inequality, and their followers may even attempt to reinforce their influence by punishing those who refuse to accept the inferiority of women.
The Rise of Influencers and Misogynistic Discourse
Online media platforms have been integrated into people’s lives and have become a part of way to get the emotional needs. Nowadays, people experience a fast-paced life, they face various kinds of pressure and have an increasingly strong need for entertainment that is simple and quick. As an emerging form of entertainment, influencers have attracted a large number of followers with its relaxing atmosphere, unique personality, and rich content. By watching the videos or pictures of influencers, people can quickly obtain visual stimulation and pleasure.
In the past, people who had significant influence and gained lots of followers were often people with a certain social status and who had particular talents, such as politicians, athletes, singers, actors, and so on. Now everyone to become a producer and disseminator of information. In the digital media era, people are no longer satisfied with passively receiving information, but also responding and participating in the creation of content online. As the influence of the Internet gradually expands and people are accessing information and interacting through platforms, many ordinary people also have the opportunity to present themselves and gain a large number of followers (Kim et al., 2023). Influencers, as part of them, have become important figures in contemporary society by sharing their lives, skills, knowledge, and so on.
The development of media technology has provided the infrastructure for the rise of the influencer economy. Mobile devices such as smartphones and laptops make it easy for people to search for information they are interested in and to receive influencer content from platforms anytime and anywhere. In addition, the emergence of various media platforms has provided a stage for influencers to present themselves and spread their influence. They often accumulate a large number of followers on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Their ability to have millions of followers instantly gives them considerable influence over public opinion and discourse. However, this influence is not always used responsibly, as some influencers spread hate speech, including misogyny.
Misogyny, defined as hatred or contempt for women, manifests itself online in a variety of ways, ranging from inadvertent sexism to outright harassment and threats. Early on, users of the male gender made rude comments or even personal attacks on the appearance or sexual attractiveness of users of the female gender, verbally harassing, intimidating and denigrating women (Jane, 2017). As media platforms have evolved, the number of attackers and targets has increased dramatically, as has the number and types of channels used for attacks. Hate speech about misogyny can be sent directly to private emails, comment sections on platform posts, and more.
Meet Andrew Tate
Andrew Tate is a former professional boxer. He styled himself as a charismatic playboy online and is famous for his controversial views on masculinity, relationships, and women. Presenting himself as an expert on relationships, he offers his mostly male fans tips on how to present their masculinity and attract women. He is one of the most famous figures on TikTok, and his videos have been viewed 11.6 billion times (Das, 2022). Tate has gone from near-obscurity to one of the most watched people in the world in a matter of months. In July 2022, his name was searched for more times on Google than searches for Donald Trump or Kim Kardashian (Das, 2022).
His rapid rise to fame was no accident, Tate and his followers were constantly interacting, and he had his followers select the most controversial clips to upload on various media platforms for maximum views and engagement. His reach quickly extended beyond his social media followers and even drew attention and coverage from mainstream media, sparking popular debate about the responsibility of influencers in shaping social norms.
Tate’s comments were controversial because his online discourse was full of vitriol towards women, as he often made negative comments that demeaned women’s intelligence, appearance, and worth, promoted the objectification of women and traditional gender roles, and expressed harmful stereotypes and attitudes. He spoke about hitting and strangling women, ruining their property, and stopping them from leaving. His views included “Women belong in the home, they can’t drive, and they’re a man’s property.” According to videos he posted online, he also stated that rape victims must “take responsibility” for their assaults and dated women aged 18 to 19 so that he could “make an imprint” on them. Despite the fact that many people criticize his comments, Tate continues to make no secret of his views, showing harmful attitudes towards women and contributing to the prevalence of misogynistic hate speech on the internet.
What makes influencers like Tate particularly insidious is their ability to normalize misogyny online. Many of Tate’s videos don’t seem malicious or even somewhat comical at first glance. In his trademark outspoken style, he pokes fun at men who drink tap water instead of sparkling water and people who own cats. “Real men have dogs,” he says. Other content flies the flag of male self-improvement. Much of the misogynistic hate speech isn’t invasive, angry or insulting, and it contributes to the normalization of toxic behavior online by presenting misogynistic views as acceptable or even desirable (Flew, 2021). This not only creates a hostile environment for women but also increases gender inequality in wider society.
Impact of Influencers on Misogynistic Hate Speech
The impact of influencers such as Andrew Tate on misogynistic hate speech online can grow larger as online platforms drive it. By normalizing and showing harmful attitudes towards women, influencers contribute to the marginalization and discrimination of women by media users in the digital public sphere. Their behavior also has real-world implications also has real-world implications if it accumulates to a certain scale, and online misogyny can translate into offline violence and discrimination against women.
- In order to resonate with their audiences, influencers sometimes exaggerate or exacerbate the portrayal of gender stereotypes in their content creation, such as portraying women as less strong than men or envying other women because of their appearance. By reinforcing and reproducing these stereotypes, influencers contribute to the normalization of misogynistic attitudes among their followers.
- In the pursuit of engagement and popularity, influencers will use expressions that objectify women in their content. They will promote themselves through sexually suggestive images, insulting language, and promoting beauty standards that are too harsh for women. These marketing strategies contribute to the commodification of women’s bodies and reinforce the idea that women are objects of consumption rather than individuals worthy of respect.
- Some influencers actively participate in or promote content that contains misogynistic hate speech to convince others to agree with them. Whether through collaborating with like-minded individuals or sharing content created by others, they contribute to the spread of hate speech. This not only exposes their audiences to misogynistic views, but also legitimizes such speech in online communities.
- Influencers often have considerable influence over their followers in their fan communities, and the positive and consistent response of followers creates the ability to silence or dismiss dissenting views. This creates an extreme online environment where the same ideas are repeated over and over again, allowing the polarization of misogynistic attitudes to go unchallenged and even be reinforced. Followers also feel pressured to conform to the views of the influencer, further increasing harmful perceptions of gender roles and relationships.
- Influencers who themselves participate in or condone misogynistic hate speech, either online or offline, share these personal experiences in a light-hearted manner. By downplaying the seriousness of such acts or portraying them as acceptable or even desirable, they contribute to the normalization of misogyny and violence against women.
- The women who have been attacked, after receiving negative statements about themselves for a long period of time, are prone to treating themselves through the same kind of perceptions, gradually identifying with those perceptions, and consequently losing their self-esteem (GÓRKA, 2019).
Addressing the Issue
Regulation and control of misogynistic hate speech by influencers is essential. With the growing concern about harmful behaviors and conduct by users of online platforms, the world’s governments need to begin to formally regulate this aspect of hate speech on online platforms.
Online platform companies should also take responsibility for improving their design and services to create a better platform environment (Woods, 2021).
Media platform companies have campaigns to review user-generated content, with professional moderators analyzing the content before or after it is sent. Media platforms now rely on three main areas to control negative content like hate speech: artificial intelligence, user reporting and human experts. In order to better maintain the platform environment, AI and human experts need to meet certain criteria, such as the user’s local cultural environment, language system, the user needs to know, relevant laws and other guidelines about the platform (Roberts, 2019).
Media platform companies need to hold influencers accountable for their content in order to minimize the impact of influencers on misogynistic hate speech online. Companies should make them understand that freedom of speech does not mean the freedom to engage in hate speech against individuals or groups. Platforms also need to implement policies like punishments for hate speech to ensure that influencers who engage in misogynistic speech are held accountable for their actions.
The business model of media platform companies requires a lot of browsing and interaction from users to generate profit, and often negative emotions such as anger or hate attract more attention. Algorithms push this type of content to increase user activity, and this drives extreme content and hate speech. Platforms need to design better models to minimize hate speech pushes and user engagement.
In addition, schools and governments should pay more attention to educating the public and students about the effects of online misogyny. They can educate them about the effects of online misogyny and develop critical media literacy skills that help people identify and challenge hate speech perpetrated by influencers. Learning how to tolerate differences is also important. In today’s society, more and more people are unable to tolerate diversity, they will have negative feelings when others are different from themselves (GÓRKA, 2019).
By working together to promote inclusivity and respect in digital spaces, users can create a safer and fairer online environment for all.
Conclusion
Media users shape the social identity they want to present on online platforms, as well as search for and follow similar users and groups and interact with them. Influencers display such content in order to attract users, and frequently update their content to guide and interact with users in order to increase their followers and maintain relationships with them. So it plays an important role in shaping public discourse, including attitudes towards gender and women. However, some influencers, such as Andrew Tate, spread hate speech such as online misogyny, creating a toxic online public sphere for media users to express their ideas.
To address this issue, it is important to hold influencers accountable for their actions, promote positive opinions, and foster media literacy among the public. Professionals in different fields and policy decision-makers also need to take action by improving rules and assuming a normative and regulatory role. Finally, by increasing media users’ knowledge of cybersecurity and hate speech, and by challenging harmful attitudes and behaviors, these actions can lead to a more inclusive and respectful online environment for all.
Reference List:
Das, S. (2022, August 6). Inside the violent, misogynistic world of tiktok’s new star, andrew tate. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/06/andrew-tate-violent-misogynistic-world-of-tiktok-new-star
Issues of Concern. (2021). In T. Flew, Regulating platforms (pp. 91–96). Polity.
Jane, E. A. (2017). Misogyny online : a short (and brutish) history. SAGE Publications Ltd.
Kim, D. Y., Park, M., & Kim, H.-Y. (2023). An influencer like me: Examining the impact of the social status of Influencers. Journal of Marketing Communications, 29(7), 654–675. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2022.2066153
MAREK GÓRKA. (2019). HATE SPEECH – CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES IN PUBLIC SPACE. T.A.S.K. Quarterly, 23(2). https://doi.org/10.17466/tq2019/23.2/e
Parekh, B. (2006). Hate Speech. Public Policy Research, 12(4), 213–223. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1070-3535.2005.00405.x
Roberts, S. T. (2019). Behind the Screen : Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media . Yale University Press,. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300245318
Woods, L. (2021). Obliging Platforms to Accept a Duty of Care. In Martin Moore and Damian Tambini (Ed.), Regulating big tech: Policy responses to digital dominance (pp. 93–109).
Images:
CobraTate (2022) ‘Professional misogynist’: Why controversial influencer Andrew Tate was banned by Facebook and Instagram, SBS News [image] https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/professional-misogynist-why-controversial-influencer-andrew-tate-was-banned-by-facebook-and-instagram/fr1gzdrw5
Serene Lim (2022) Misogyny as a commodity in digital space, GenderIT.org [image]
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