LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Ligestillingsudvalget 2020-21
LIU Alm.del Bilag 27
Offentligt

Social work in

new media

The angry

internet

A threat to gender equality, democracy & well-being

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Published by

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Layout:

Designhood

Print:

Lasertryk.dk

Images:

dreamstime.com

Screenshots:

4chan.org, 8chan.org, Discord, incels.co, Reddit,

SubredditSats.com, Twitter, 4stats.io, 8kun.top, looksmax.me, Gab.com,

Authors:

Christian Mogensen & Stine Helding Rand, Centre for Digital Youth Care

Subcontractor

Analyse & Tal a.m.b.a.

Professional review:

Tobias Bornakke, Mikkeline Thomsen, Asger Neergaard,

Esther Chemnitz

Advisory groups:

Michael Bang Petersen, Lasse Lindekilde, Lumi Zuleta, Helena Hansen,

Lene Stavngaard, Emma Holten, Rasmus Munksgaard,

Esther Chemnitz, Frederik Kulager, Natasha Al-Hariri, Maia Kahlke-Lo-

rentzen, Daniel Sallamaa, Jón Ingvar Kjaran, Elísabet Yr, Lisa Kaati, Taran

Knudstad, Eirik Riise, Marjan Nadim, Audun Fladmoe.

Centre for Digital Youth Care is responsible for the editorial content

of this publication. The content is approved by The Nordic Council

of Ministers.

The report is funded by The Nordic Council of Ministers.

Published November 2020

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

The Angry Internet

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Content

Executive summary

Introduction

Methodology

Results & discussion of analysis 14

Choosing an abusive brotherhood

The Right(‘s) Misogyny

Is there cause to worry?

The (anti)democratic effect

What can be done?

Cultural analysis and

preliminary conclusions

Recommendations

Recommendations in the analogue sphere

Recommendations in the digital sphere

Recommendations in the structural sphere

Recommendations for future research

The Manosphere

Nordic feelings

The Nordic Manosphere

Arguing against animosity

General challenges of

aggressive communities

Spillover

“Crabs in a bucket”

Freedom of (misogynistic) speech

Incels, and everybody else

Women - according to incels

Anti-feminism or misogyny?

Why hate?

Perception of masculinity

MRAs

MGTOWs

PUAs

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

The Angry Internet

Forums of interest

Twitter 53

Hashtags

Dog-whistling

Qualitative methodology

Field observations

Interviews with experts

Quantitative extent analysis

Focus groups

Advisory groups

Reddit 55

Subreddits

4chan 57

Headlines & Histories

Shitposting in the name of free speech

Limitations

Deciphering misogynistic neologisms

Estimating Nordic origin

Noise and false positives

100

101

102

8chan & 8Kun

Rhetorical pins and needles

Inclusivity

Exclusivity

Terror, massmurder and misogyny

7-, 16-, End-, Dream-chan, and many more

Incels.co

Emotionally Homeless

References

Academic literature

News articles

Websites

Forums

104

105

Looksmax.me

Gab

Communication platforms

Sub-conclusion

Appendix

Interviewguide

Advisory groups

Danish advisory group

Nordic advisory group

106

107

Mapping the extent of

online misogyny within the

Nordic countries

Methodological principles

Data ﬁltering: Isolating the Relevant

Body of Data

Misogynistic and Nordic Search Keys

Extending the Nordic Search Key

with Other Strategies

Qualitative Coding of Sample

List of experts

List of subreddits

Figure 6

108

109

111

Methodological illustration

Table 1 - Data-preparation: Step-by-step

procedure for each platform

Table 2 - Calculating the Estimates:

Step-by-step procedure for each platform 85

Results 86

Twitter

4chan

Total

Table 3: Quantitative results

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Executive Summary

Executive

summary

The Nordic Council of Ministers

has in 2020 requested an

assessment of the extent of online

misogyny and antifeminism in the

Nordic countries.

This request emerged out of two primary concerns:

ffmrstly a democratic concern regarding a skew in

participants, topics, and tone in online public de-

bate and the backlash against gender equality, and

secondly the recent international terrorist attacks

with clear traces and connections to misogynistic

forums online (e.g. Toronto 2018, Christchurch 2019,

Bærum 2019, boogaloo-shootings 2020). There

is an interest to see whether an actual movement

is on the rise in the Nordic countries, and, if so, to

understand the potential democratic and societal

implications. Additionally, it is the wish of the Nordic

Council of Ministers that recommendations to deal-

ing with this issue be put forth.

In the current report these concerns are sought

answered. Through a combination of qualitative and

quantitative measures, an estimate of the extent of

online misogyny among Nordic men is reached.

Based upon a comprehensive dialogue with ffmeld

experts from the project’s advisory groups, three

large social media platforms, Twitter, Reddit, and

4chan, each representing to a varying degree

both mainstream and underground misogynistic

communities, were selected and subsequently

analysed for misogynistic content.

Each platform was analysed using an assem-

blage of different search strategies. At the center

of these assemblages were two search keys, the

misogynistic search key and the Nordic search

key, developed in collaboration with experts and

representatives from the different Nordic coun-

tries over the course of several iterations. The two

search keys contained words, phrases, terms,

names, places, and neologisms stating a relation

to the misogynistic ideology, and the manosphere

or to Nordic countries respectively. Through this

approach over 100.000 potential misogynistic

content pieces of Nordic origin (posts and com-

ments) were harvested from the three platforms.

Subsequently, a representative sample of 10% was

manually coded to assess the level of accuracy

for the search strategies and estimate the total

number of active Nordic users.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

In this report it is concluded

that specific Nordic misogyny is

present on all three platforms

though the amount varies from

platform to platform - from 0.4%

on Twitter, over 1.6% on Reddit, to

5.0% on 4chan

. Based on these

numbers, it was estimated that a

total of up to 850 active Nordic

users had posted misogynistic

and antifeminist content on

the three select forums during

the last year. Further, Nordic

users appear to be posting as

independent individuals, with

no visible systemic movement or

organization underlying the users’

engagement. Hence, the Nordic

participants do not appear to

constitute a delimited subculture

or movement.

While the estimated amount of up to 850 Nordic

aggressively misogynistic users can seem trivial

The numbers reffnect the percentage of analyzed content

in a political

qualitative inclusion criteria for

take into

living up to the

perspective, it does not

determining

account how many passive consumers of the

misogyny and nationality. Thus, the percentages reffnect the

amount of Nordic misogynistic content in the misogynistic

850’s rhetoric there is. These passive consumers

“communities”

being desensitized to the violent and

are at risk of

here investigated.

anti-progressive rhetoric used by the 850.

Through qualitative interviews and ffmeld obser-

vations the analysis identiffmed spillover effects

of misogynistic content, in the form of phrases,

neologisms, ideologies, and worldviews, migrat-

ing into ‘mainstream social media’. This spillover

effect risks establishing a discourse of acceptance

toward misogynistic rhetoric, which in turn could

deter women (especially young) to refrain from

participating in the public online debate.

One important point established in interviews with

participants on aggressively misogynistic forums,

and through observations on the same forums,

was that many of the users had originally sought

emotional and social support from the forums.

Later these supportive structures had given way to

narratives thought to be less “un-manly”, dealing

less with vulnerability and unhappiness, and more

with vengeance, assertiveness and ideas of (taking)

power (back). Some of these forums were formu-

lated in perspective of a “men vs. women” idea,

and as such had a (male) user base already feeling

alienated from the usual inter-gender socializing.

The users often describe themselves as “losers” or

(socially) unattractive, but seem to lack pro-social

and pro-male communities, outside of these.

In order to deal with the issues of misogyny the

following main recommendations

are put forth:

•

Forming partnerships with the most trou-

bled forums to educate current moder-

ators, or by installing volunteers, to help

establish and reaffirm the support systems

that these online communities are for many

of their users.

By mitigating the echo- cham-

ber effect that these forums can often hold,

and by trying to build bridges to the society

that the users feel have shunned them, the

brunt of the harmful “us-and-them” rhetoric

and mindset could be avoided.

Building literacy and developing a more

equal perspective on the possibilities and

capabilities of each gender.

Such engage-

ment should target both children, youth, adults,

and professionals, through a greater focus on

gender, gender identity, and gender develop-

ment. Furthermore, this can lead to changing

and expanding gender norms and ideals to

become more inclusive and to create room for

diversity and standing up against traditional

and stereotypical gender roles.

Requiring identity authentication in order

to create accounts on social media plat-

forms would diminish the amount of fake

accounts considerably.

Additionally, such

engagement will also hold users to a certain

standard, seeing as they would not be com-

pletely anonymous. This, of course, is only

relevant on platforms where an account is

needed to post content.

•

The numbers reffnect the percentage of analyzed content

living up to the qualitative inclusion criteria for determining

misogyny and nationality. Thus, the percentages reffnect the

amount of Nordic misogynistic content in the misogynistic

“communities” here investigated.

For a more detailed list see the “Recommendations” section.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Executive Summary

It was estimated that

a total of up to 850

active Nordic users had

posted misogynistic

and antifeminist

content on the three

select forums during

the last year.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Introduction

The Nordic Council of Ministers

has in 2020 requested an

assessment of the extent of online

misogyny and antifeminism in the

Nordic countries.

This request has arisen due to

mainly two factors: 1. democratic

concerns regarding a skew in

participants, topics, and tone

in online public debate and the

backlash against gender equality,

and 2. recent terrorist attacks

with clear traces and connections

to misogynistic forums online

(e.g. Toronto 2018, Christchurch

2019, Bærum 2019, boogaloo-

shootings 2020, etc.). There is an

interest to see whether an actual

movement can be traced in the

Nordic countries, and, if so, what

implications this has politically,

democratically, societally, and

interpersonally. It is the wish of the

Nordic Council of Ministers that

recommendations to dealing with

this issue be put forth.

The focus of this report is not on the perpetrators

of school shootings or other acts of terrorism, and

the extent of such issues. Nor is it on perpetrators

of hateful messages directed at female journalists,

and the extent of such issues. Rather, the focus of

this report is on the culture of misogyny online in

the Nordic countries, and the effects this has on the

willingness of participants to engage in certain ac-

tions, but also, in a broader perspective, the effects

on democracy and the backlash on gender equality

including in the wake of #metoo. The focus of this

report has been on misogynistic utterances and

groupings of a radical and extreme nature.

The current report will therefore focus on three

aspects in order to shed light on misogyny and

antifeminism in a Nordic context:

What is the manosphere?

Where do the men in question meet?

How widespread is the manosphere in the

Nordic countries and is there a spillover effect

of certain ideologies to mainstream society?

As such, a description of different movements and

subcultures within the manosphere along with an

analysis of the motivation behind being drawn to

such forums and online spheres will be presented.

Furthermore, descriptions of forums of interest

where misogynistic and antifeminist views are

expressed and cultivated will be brought, along

with analyses as to the culture within these forums

and what these forums have to offer their users in

a broad, international perspective. The extent of

online misogyny in the Nordic countries is estimat-

ed along with an assessment of whether or not a

concrete movement can be traced.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Furthermore, the extent of spillover from the

misogynistic environments to mainstream society

will be analyzed. It is enticing to understand the

digital anti-feminist movements in a scale of terror

attacks, murder, and international news bulletins:

Virgin Rampage, Rage of The Virgin, “Like a war

scene”, Van Massacre and so on. The headlines

are designed to catch our attention and make us

focus on the atrocity of the attacks. Applying their

approach in an effort to understand the scope of

the effect of the digital anti-feminist movement

will be detrimental, as it will draw focus to only the

most extreme cases.

Current research shows, that internet and tech-

nology is still thought of as a man’s world

1&2

, in

both schools, workplaces and society as a whole.

Corollary, the counter-movement to the fourth

wave of feminism

is extremely prevalent in online

communities, in which the rhetoric attributed to

women’s rights and any feministic egalitarian

movement is both extremely condescending and

often aggressive. Few of these forums are speciffm-

cally targeting women’s rights, but are designed to

elaborate and build men’s rights and further men’s

well-being, but many do so by formulating a ffmght

against women and oppressive feministic societies.

It is important to note that the furtherance of

men’s rights and well-being is not mutually

exclusive with that of women’s.

In these digital environments, both the symptoms

of a non-equal world, and the social tools to keep it

as such are found. In this report both aspects will be

researched, and political, societal, and pedagogical

initiatives that could mitigate both will be suggested.

Methodology

In order to assess the scope of the issue of online

misogyny in the Nordic countries, data has been

gathered both qualitatively and quantitatively

through multiple methods: ffmeld observations, in-

terviews with experts, quantitative extent analysis,

focus groups, and advisory groups

. The methods

have complimented and informed one another,

and several have been employed simultaneously,

creating the possibility of constantly testing new-

found insights through different data gathering

measures. For instance, the outset of the quanti-

tative analysis was made after extensive observa-

tions, literary analysis and interviews, as a scientiffmc

way to prove, test and qualify the preliminary

analysis herein. In turn, as the quantitative data

and initial analysis was concluded, it directed and

qualiffmed further observations and interviews.

As a result, the ffmnal report holds a mutually com-

plementary cross-disciplinary approach. Any

recommendations and conclusions are done in

regard to both.

Bundsgaard, J., Bindslev, S., Caeli, E. N., Petterson, M. & Rus-

mann, A. (2019). Danske elevers teknologiforståelse. Resulta-

ter fra ICILS-undersøgelsen 2018. Aarhus Universitetsforlag

DEA (2018). Litteraturstudie: Unges vej til STEM.

Worth noting here is that ICILS 2018 points out that young

women in Denmark have a better grasp of digital tools and

troubleshooting, yet everybody still believes the men to

take the lead - a trend that seems to be mirrored in all the

Nordic countries.

Intersectionality, #MeToo, Systemic problems

For a more comprehensive description of each method see

the chapter “Qualitative methodology”

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Introduction

It is important to note

that the furtherance

of men’s rights and

well-being is not

mutually exclusive

with that of women’s.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Results & discussion of analysis

Results &

discussion

of analysis

The following chapter will

combine the quantitative findings

with the qualitative analysis, to

establish a fuller understanding of

both the concerning communities,

the men using them and the

women targeted and affected.

The section will be introduced

by a brief sociological analysis

of the digital aspect of modern

life, followed by a psychological

perspective on the men involved

in the communities and a

pedagogical understanding of

group dynamics.

As described in the section

Nordic Feelings,

the

base for a Nordic analysis is substantially different

from one made in The US, or any other cultural

and geographical region. The Nordic countries are

extreme cultural outliers in especially a masculine

cultural understanding, and also in individualism

and accepted distance to power and inffnuence.

Although feelings of inadequacy, involuntary celi-

bacy and powerlessness might be geographically

universal, these Nordic traits greatly affect the

reaction to them. It is argued in the section that a

comparison between e.g. the American anti-fem-

inist and anti-progressiveness communities and

those in the Nordic countries cannot be made.

Within this project it will further be argued that

some of the political, social and masculine groups

covered, have been part of a male exodus into

digital fringe communities, many of which devolve

into anti-feminist and anti-democratic movements.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

There will still be an overlap between mainstream

social media, and the new communities, as social

media migrants seldomly close down proffmles on

media, rather they just use them less. This means

that there will be a group of users on “standard”

social media, whose primary social and political

input comes from closed off forums, some with

the characteristics of echo chambers, partaking in

the democratic debate on more open platforms

like Facebook, Twitter, commentary sections on

newspapers and more. This enables a spillover

effect of rhetoric and attitude cultivated in those

forums with a very select user base, and can risk

antagonizing debaters not familiar with this tone

or attitude, and drive them from the open debate.

This holds especially true for those targeted and

talked about in those forums: Women (esp. femi-

nists), sexually and socially successful men, ethnic

or religious minorities and more.

As can be seen in a report by The Danish Institute

for Human Rights

, women and youth withhold

participating in online debates, due to being ha-

rassed based on gender and sex in the debate.

and more about those that potentially could be

the ones keeping them there: They formulate

an enemy as to establish themselves as ffmghters

rather than victims. There seems to be an unwill-

ingness for men to acknowledge vulnerability and

to qualify negative emotions, but a strong inclina-

tion to portray oneself as a “resistance movement”,

ffmghting against a superior but amoral oppressor.

This tendency is exempliffmed by several pop-cul-

tural references found on most such boards and

communities, where (anti-)heroes like Rorschach

(from The Watchmen), V (from V For Vendetta) and

Joker (from Joker) and their shared narrative of the

masked victim of society ffmghting back against the

evil establishment and its unfair social norms and

ditto elite, are hailed as heroes. The narrative of

having endured so much unfairness that you start

pushing back - or simply explode - is an easier

framing of one’s situation than to acknowledge

vulnerability and powerlessness.

This absence of male emotional empowerment

in turn leads to an increased antagonization of the

communities, in which they ffmnd a common goal and

a sense of belonging - against “the others”. As they

re-enter some of the classic open social media, now

strengthened and in numbers, their antagonistic

semantics and rhetoric will keep those targeted from

partaking in the debates and discussions.

Therefore the emotional and digital exodus of

these young men, are problems concerning their

own wellbeing and happiness, and the democrat-

ic process of those targeted of said antagonism.

Within this project democracy and mental wellbe-

ing will be addressed ffmrst and foremost.

When a group of aggressive

debaters - irrespective of their

gender and political conviction

- argue an extreme point, they

willwill seldom agreed with, butbut

seldom be be agreed with,

they often be be successful

they willwill often successful in in

moving frame of of acceptable

moving thethe frameacceptable

semantics and rhetoric

Within this project it will be argued that some

young men feel left out of the societal and social

inffnuence and attention, and therefore make digital

efforts to “opt out” of it. They choose not to keep

trying to ffmt in or be popular, as they are certain

any efforts are futile. Instead they migrate into

online groups with peers, and as a psychological

coping mechanism, they talk less and less about

own feelings of social and individual inadequacy,

Mainstream is a word often used quite broadly to deffmne

something common in society - for instance when describ-

ing platforms known by most users of the internet we at-

tribute them mainstream status. However, it can be argued

that mainstream (social) media in regards to the target

group of this report (Nordic males engaging in misogynistic

speech online) is the actual forums and platforms investi-

gated here, and not, for instance, Facebook, Instagram and

TikTok, seeing as the platforms here to some extent reffnect

their media of choice.

In a broader societal perspective, however, these platforms

and forums are still quite niche to the average user of the

internet when taking both gender, age, and nationality into ac-

count. Therefore, in the current report the term “mainstream

media” will be used broadly to characterize the easily accessi-

ble, used-by-a-broad-and-diverse-audience platforms.

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Reddit etc.

Zuleta, L. & Laursen, S. K. (2019). Demokratisk deltagelse på

Facebook. Institut for Menneskerettigheder

Often referred to as The Overton Window:

https:/

/www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx?ID=12

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Results & discussion of analysis

There seems to be

an unwillingness for

men to acknowledge

vulnerability and

to qualify negative

emotions, but a strong

inclination to portray

oneself as a “resistance

movement”, fighting

against a superior but

amoral oppressor.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Choosing an abusive

brotherhood

The psychological motivation

to be part of something bigger

than the individual stems from a

fundamental human motivation to

engage in meaningful, enduring

relationships

- to belong - in

order to not experience feelings of

loneliness and social jealousy.

With the ever increasing

digitization of human interaction

the need to belong can, for some,

be fulfilled to a satisfactory extent

solely through online contact.

It should be noted that the digital contact seldom

is the ffmrst choice, but rather becomes a refuge for

avoiding further exclusion and rejection in the an-

alogue space. As the digital arenas are many and

diverse, they provide the individual with a multi-

tude of possibilities of ffmtting in, not constrained by

physical proximity.

This, coupled with the digital anonymity, makes

socialization online less risky and vulnerable for

the users, and the rejection will not be as brutal, as

when it happens in the offline context, where the

individual might not have anywhere else to go -

and doesn’t have the possibility to simply mute or

close the platform of the rejection.

For Nordic men engaging in online misogyny,

being a part of such a community offers a seduc-

tive sense of being part of a “brotherhood”, having

one’s male value and manliness validated through

sheer numbers. However, to be included in said

brotherhood, some users accept or reaffirm their

allegiance to the accepted ideologies of the broth-

erhood, as challenging them would mean ostraci-

zation, and having to move on to yet the next digital

community. The need to belong can easily trump

the need for righteousness, and individuals needing

to belong more than to further democratic ideals,

could be readily motivated to join such aggressive-

ly anti-democratic movements, just to ffmt in.

On a personal level, these communities and

“brotherhoods” can also have detrimental effects.

There can be a tendency amongst

users to “one-up” each other in

regards to their commitment to

their own hopelessness, which can

lead to a competition of “who has

it worst?”, ultimately having the

potential to lead to a glorification

of self-harm or directed hatred.

Across the platforms investigated in this report,

the tone differs widely, with Twitter being the most

civil, Reddit a bit more harsh, and 4chan quite

rude, very direct, and with many adjectives. That

being said, Twitter still has a fair share of misogyny.

Speciffmcally, out of 43.073 posts and/or com-

ments, that matched at least one word in our mi-

sogyny search key and at least one geographical

indicator, 5.0% of posts lived up to our criteria of

being both misogynistic and with the poster being

of Nordic origin on 4chan. Another 0.95% were

somewhere in the gray area between sexism and

misogyny. In comparison, the same amount for

Twitter is 0.4% out of 55.293 posts and comments.

As for Reddit, the sample size is much smaller -

only 5.107 posts and/or comments in total. 1.6%

posts live up to our inclusion criteria.

When asked, students in secondary education

(ages 16-20) referenced misogynistic phrases,

movements and experiences primarily from digital

environments, but also being casually mentioned

or joked about among peers in school or social

gatherings. Even though a lot of this is undoubtedly

referenced in a joking manner, both online and in

the schoolyard, it shows how a potential digital an-

ti-feminism can spill over into everyday life, and how

the vocabulary from closed forums can ffmnd its way

into many other discussions and forums. Though the

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong:

Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental

human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Results & discussion of analysis

vocabulary might not be used with malicious intent,

many targeted users refrain from participating in the

public democratic debate for exactly these reasons,

as Zuleta & Laursen point out. The mainstreamiffm-

cation of these words can disregard the intention

of them, and as such can also unknowingly detract

from democratic participation; a joke made is not

always a joke understood.

The individual seeking a digital place to belong

often has multiple past experiences of failed

face-to-face interaction, prompting him to avoid

physical social contact as much as possible. Thus,

rejection is a constantly recurring theme on sever-

al of the here mentioned forums. A user on incels.

co, who calls himself JosefMengelecel, writes

It is therefore important to note

that for most young men in the

Nordics, frequenting such online

environments will neither pose

a mental health risk nor be the

onset of radicalization.

Most men, especially in the Nordics, have well-

established networks supporting or fulffmlling the

social and psychological needs that such net-

works also cater to. Welfare societies and “hap-

py” countries will serve as a protective factor in

creating resilience towards external inffnuences,

but also in offering emotional support when the

need arises. This leads to a possible explanation of

the usage of the forums still, as their active usage

might be perceived as boundary seeking behav-

iour, and a morbid curiosity rather than a misogy-

nistic statement.

“Talking specifically about an orientation towards

these aggressive fringe forums, then it’s primarily

done by young men. Anything “uncomfortable” or

morbid is more widespread among young men.

Also this

[online violent statements, eds.].

One factor affecting this, is the aggressive personal-

ity. These cases develop in the interaction between

feelings of marginalization and aggression, and ag-

gression is just higher in groups of young men. Other

than that, there can be certain social dynamics in

play; young men feeling left to their own devices.

They are less successful than women in both edu-

cation and romantic options etc. In their experience,

they

[the young men, eds.]

are the vulnerable social

group, who’s unfairly treated by society as a whole.

Then they are agitated by a society concerning itself

with feminism and progressive equality. They will

think “Hey! We are the one’s having a problem, not

the privileged women.”

In our research, our best assessment is that when

one is feeling extremely marginalized, and also has

aggressive tendencies, then one way to increase

one’s status is through domineering. Understood in a

developmental psychology context, this means that

one tries to increase respect and influence through

threat of violence and power. This is basically what

some of these communities do; both establishing

social relations, but also trying to show the rest of

the world that they are a force to be reckoned with,

and that they should be respected. This is why ag-

gression is paramount to a lot of the rhetoric.”

Michael Bang Petersen, Aarhus University

“Rejection

give you PTSD.

“Rejection can

can give you PTSD.

This is why rejection is even

This is why rejection is even worse

worse than heterosexual rape.

than heterosexual rape. Getting

Getting rejected is the worst

rejected is the worst thing that

thing that can

and should

can happen to you

happen to you

and should be illegal”

be illegal”

Comparing social rejection with rape can easily

be understood as a sardonic exaggeration, but for

users like JosefMengelecel, having probably only

experienced one, and understanding this as the

bane of his life, it’s also understandable. Further-

more, when the comment is made in a sexually

focused forum (incels.co) where the mentioned

heterosexual sex is the goal of most users, “heter-

osexual rape” is undestandably not emphatically

understood, especially not compared to rejection,

which is the common social denominator.

When growing up in a Nordic society, that alleged-

ly has equality and room for the “soft” men, being

met with rejection and at the same time feeling

limited in terms of acceptable emotional reactions,

can create an urge to ffnee said society, and seek

its digital counterpart. It goes for all the Nordic

countries that they preach equality, diversity, and

broadness while at the same time, more or less

consciously, upholding gender stereotypes of “the

strong man” and “the damsel in distress” leaving

little to no room for the vulnerable or sad man in

need of support and comfort. As such, seeking a

digital refuge seems an obvious and healthy solu-

tion and coping strategy.

https:/

/incels.co/threads/is-there-any-way-to-forget-all-

your-past-rejections-failures.243673/

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

In most instances such environments will offer

a place to belong, and a source of recognition,

respect and conffmrmation, which the users feel

that they are unable to get elsewhere. Daniel Sal-

lamaa, who researches movements within arenas

such as the one’s investigated here, corroborates

this claim:

”It is my view that online communities in general

may offer a sense of belonging and camaraderie

that their users might be unable to attain offline. This

is also true with respect to online communities that

act as an “exhaust valve” for the expression of views

and attitudes that might trigger a strong counterre-

action if communicated publicly offline.”

Daniel Sallamaa, University of Helsinki

from the better patriarchal conservative gov-

ernance of society and people, and is therefore

actively and aggressively ffmghting it. Furthermore,

some forums expressed a core belief that they

needed to “ffmght” immigration to not be victims of

the great replacement

, and as feminists (and other

“leftists”) were proponents of rights for immigrants

(and other “dissidents”) the ffmght against feminism

and progressiveness was one of national security.

This coupling of anti-feminism with a belief in

protection of one’s country is often attributed to

Anders Breivik, the terrorist from the attacks in

Utøya and Oslo, 2011:

The latest wave of radical feminism has severely

wounded the family structure of the Western world.

Breivik, 2083 - A European Declaration of

Independence, 2011

Feminist culture will eventually end up being

squashed, because the men have either become too

demoralized and weakened to protect their women,

or because they have become so fed-up with inces-

sant ridicule that they just don’t care anymore.

Breivik, 2083 - A European Declaration of

Independence, 2011

Well congratulations to Western European women.

You’ve succeeded in harassing and ridiculing your

own sons into suppressing many of their masculine

instincts. To your surprise, you didn’t enter a feminist

Nirvana, but paved the way for an unfolding

Islamic hell.

Breivik, 2083 - A European Declaration of

Independence, 2011

The narrative of the feminist attack on society is

also noted by several of the experts interviewed

for the report:

“I was called an extremist. I was compared to terror-

ists. Part of it was that I was out to destroy society as

a whole. Erode the constitution of the country.”

Emma Holten, feminist and political activist

For the most part, these online

communities offer a place to

belong and a place to vent, which

cannot be found or attained in

their analogue counterparts.

However, in order for users and their posts to be

accepted and acknowledged, a certain jargon and

phrasing must be present for others to take it seri-

ously. This can require individuals seeking advice

on these forums to use language and wording

they would not normally use, making it quite

difficult to determine whether these individuals are

actually identifying with the attitudes expressed,

or are just using this way of speaking in order to

ffmt in. Furthermore, exposure to certain ways of

speaking can create a numbing effect, where the

individual becomes less likely to take offense at

this sort of language and more prone to use it

him- or herself. In this way, what might start out as

a reluctance to use certain words or phrases may,

in time, become one’s everyday way of speaking.

The Right(‘s) Misogyny

Early observations and interviews gave cre-

dence to the notion that far-right forums often

also carried a strong antipathy towards feminism,

women and any classically progressive societal

movements. Although there is no political agenda

for trying to counter these, many far- and alt-right

movements see feminism etc. as a digression

The conspiracy that Middle Eastern and North African

immigrants will take over countries by out-populating the

original citizens. Often cited by alt-right movements. Made

popular by Renaud Camus in 2011.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Results & discussion of analysis

Is there cause

to worry?

The quantitative analysis of data estimates up to 850 active

Nordic users posting misogynistic and antifeminist

content on the investigated forums.

The analysis cannot conclude whether the Nor-

dic countries are currently facing a threat from

anti-feminist terror and mass murder. It ffmnds no

proof of this, but the threat may exist despite the

relatively small estimate of active Nordic users

posting misogynistic content, seeing as it only

takes one person acting on his beliefs and ideolo-

gies for lives to be in danger. Current research also

suggests, that it is not the

speakers

central fig-

ures

of radicalized or extremist communities that

are ready to commit violent attacks in the name of

the community, but rather silent members on the

outskirts of the communities, those that just listen

and seek to ffmnd relevance by grandiose actions

However, neither the qualitative analysis of the

data collected nor the experts interviewed have

given the project group any reason to fear a

Nordic attack in line with terrorist bombings or

shootings in Isla Vista, Virginia or Montreal. Data

shows many attacks on general feminism, female

empowerment and women in positions of power,

but extremely few directed at speciffmc proponents

of these causes. The following is a example of this,

posted by a presumably Swedish user:

“A society where Women have equal rights as Men

gets destroyed. A society where Men is not allowed

to control his inferior counterpart -a women, turn to

shit. Its the most bad for women themselves, and

they dont fucking realize this. The fucking irony is

it will be women that will be the most hurt by this

in the end. As true in their heart, a women hate to

make decisions and want to be lead and follow a

leader. The new FemiNazi society is not allowing

this. They are losing on it in the long-run. Men can

take care of themselves better than Women and

Men dont need to be afraid of rape etc.

The real redpill is ALL women are the same, they are

the same fucking whores. Feminism did not change

women, it only uncovered them. Basically women

are spiritually closer to Satan, and Men are more

spiritually closer to God. Letting a single women

raise children make it ONLY worse for the child,

women are shit leaders. There have been threads

on this in the past here, that of several criminals etc

9/10 grew up without a father. Many strippers etc

didnt have a father. Literally without Men, the world

will become shit.”

Most Nordic misogynistic entries and posts were

part of circular discussions, or discussions done in

digital environments with a strong pre-deffmned at-

titude - i.e. the participants knew which answers to

expect, and therefore the discussions seemed to

be used to assert a level of belonging to a group.

The (anti)democratic effect

Hate speech and aggressive communication will

both deter the targets from participating in the de-

bate, thereby demoting the democratic effect and

participatory foundation for the discussion. The ma-

licious rhetoric is more often than not a symptom of

a subject in distress. Therefore, the primary cause

for worry should be the (anti)democratic effect, and

the social state and wellbeing of both the origina-

tors of these comments, and their targets.

Lindekilde, L., Malthaner, S., & O’Connor, F. P. (2019).

Peripheral and embedded: relational patterns of lone-actor

terrorist radicalization. Dynamics of Asymmetrical Conffnict,

12(1), 20-41. Elaboration by Lindekilde at Nordic Conference

on Violent Extremism 2019: Expanding the Field - New Inter-

disciplinary Perspectives and Questions, at Aarhus University.

4chan.org/pol, post-id: 239127833

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

It is important to note that the quantitative analysis

of this report is not focused on the effects on

democracy of misogynistic content. Rather, the

quantitative analysis has an exclusive focus on

the extent of online misogyny by Nordic users and

the estimation of the number of users behind this

content. However, applying a qualitative analysis

to the quantitative data, it seems plausible that

misogynistic content leads to diminished participa-

tion in public democratic debate online of certain

groups in society. Thus, the antidemocratic effect

of misogynistic content refers to the qualitatively

found and corroborated reluctance of members of

society to participate in public discourse.

This interpretation further corroborates the conclu-

sion reached by Zuleta & Laursen

, where it was

found that women refrain from participating in the

public debate on social media, as they are targets

of hate speech not on their political convictions, but

on their gender, sexuality and look.

This was conffmrmed by several interviewed parties:

“My gender and age has been a very large part of

the nature of the criticism and attacks directed at

me. It has been very different than that directed at

my male colleagues.

I withdrew from the debate for a couple of years

because of harassment. Not just the very serious

harassment - threats of murder and rape - but also

the undercurrent of aggressive disrespect. That part

took up so much of my interaction with the rest of

the world. Particularly on social media. I didn’t stop

“doing feminism”, I just only do so in person now.

The structure of social media has a lot to say here -

you’re constantly reminded and presented with every

tiny opinion about your person here.

The algorithms foster either total dedication or

extreme opposition. Everything on social media is

exaggerated. It is hard to live with everything being

based on your gender, and gender identity.

When a woman takes a step forward, it’s considered

an outright provocation. It’s not about the content, it’s

more… “How dare you (women) stand there and have

an opinion, just like that?” Many of the attacks on me

were based on “Why do you even think anyone wants

to listen to you?” and “Why are you even here?”

Emma Holten, feminist and political activist

Furthermore, sources in strongly misogynistic

groups and experts reaffirmed that participants in

these groups are often

“At

the lowest point of their

life”

, and that they use the groups to gain demo-

cratic and social clout by sheer power in numbers

and social loudness, as well as establish an alter-

nate community, usually in opposition to ones they

feel they have been cast out of.

“I think that we first and foremost should perceive

some of the things happening only as a smoke

detector alarming us to some troubling structures in

our society. I don’t necessarily believe that we should

tell ourselves, that any person putting forth hate

filled comments online, is someone who wants to

act on them. We can see very serious cases where

self-proclaimed members of these communities

have put their threats into action, but as a general

rule these comments online are not a precursor for

violent attacks.

I think that one way in which we should definitely

take this seriously, is that this points to some exclu-

sion dynamics and polarization mechanics affecting

our society, which is very much worth looking at;

increasing inequality, increasing mental problems,

decreasing well-being for certain demographics. You

shouldn’t be afraid of everything you read online, but

you should understand that they can very well be

alarm systems pointing at serious things prefacing

the hate speech.

We should address these problems both for the

young women they often are targeted at, but very

much also for the sake of the young men putting

them forward.”

Michael Bang Petersen, Aarhus University

Zuleta, L. & Laursen, S. K. (2019). Demokratisk deltagelse på

Facebook. Institut for Menneskerettigheder

Alexander Ash (screen name), founder of incels.co

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Results & discussion of analysis

“I think that we first

and foremost should

perceive some of the

things happening only

as a smoke detector

alarming us to some

troubling structures

in our society.”

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

What can be done?

If the anti-democratic extreme political hostility that is the

output of many such groups is not initiated by a sudden political

awakening, but rather by an emotional decline in the

perpetrators, any equalitarian worry should extend not only to the

targets of such hostility, but also to the perpetrators themselves.

One often cited solution to any such problems

of hate speech or gender- or minority targeted

aggressive rhetoric is to close down the platforms.

De-platforming the ideas, and hoping that they dis-

sipate. Even if the notion of de-platforming carried

any anti-radicalizing merit, it would largely negate

the problem initiating the complex situation to begin

with: The men feel lost in society and left behind,

and lashing out is the only perceived acceptable

solution; being

the vengeful man

is the narrative

found in media and traditional masculine culture,

whereas

the vulnerable man

is extremely rare.

De-platforming can be viewed as a tool to close

down particularly problematic networks, but

should not be done without any secondary action,

to “catch” the users before they simply migrate

from the now closed down forum, to the next

- often to an encrypted or more elusive forum.

Likewise, banning certain users will either motivate

them to move on to other platforms or create new

accounts. In the best of worlds, this will solve the

democratic problem of these users preventing

minorities and women from participating in the

democratic processes of discussions online, but

will not solve the problem of the wellbeing of the

men themselves. Therefore, different strategies

should be employed.

Having a place to talk about one’s problems is

often a good thing, seeing as this can offer relief,

and thereby limiting the probability of the individ-

ual needing a physical (or verbal) outlet. On the

other hand, the culture on these platforms can also

further fuel already budding thoughts, cementing

them as peer-qualiffmed political and social opinions.

In essence, there is a ffmne line between having a

place to vent, seek boundaries, and develop one’s

identity, and fostering societally undesirable be-

liefs and attitudes. The former is a positive, while

the latter poses the risk of causing harm to others,

physically and/or emotionally.

If one accepts the idea that this problem is in large

initiated by young men’s exodus from society as a

reaction to already feeling excluded, any solution

must look to solve this problem as well. Either by

mitigating the exodus from the men, or in helping

them from feeling excluded in the ffmrst place.

Therefore, tackling this issue requires interven-

tions on multiple fronts. Creating a change in cul-

ture requires early intervention, but such changes

take a long time to take effect. Therefore, more

immediate action is required as well.

Early intervention could be in the form of educat-

ing child caregivers to be less gender stereotypi-

cal in their daily interactions and verbal exchanges

with the children. Instead of lauding girls for their

princess-like appearances and niceness, whilst at

the same time complimenting the boys on being

tough, fun or assertive, a more gender-neutral

approach should be considered.

These small day-to-day interactions are part of

a bigger picture, forming the way children see

themselves and others in terms of gender, what is

expected of each gender, and what each gender

is and is not capable of. As parents and caregiv-

ers become increasingly aware of not attributing

different values to certain personality traits de-

pendent on gender, and thereby treating everyone

equally when interacting with children, children will

grow up with more equal expectations as to what

they and others can and cannot do and can and

cannot achieve in life. The authors of this report

see it as evident, when observing in male-domi-

nated online communities, that men more easily

identify with aggressive emotions and strategies

than “weak” and emotional ones. This trait can lead

to the problems being re-framed as political and

gender-oppressing of men, and a call-to-arms to

ffmght back against perceived evil oppressors, in-

stead of daring to talk about the negative feelings

that led the men there in the ffmrst place.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Results & discussion of analysis

In essence, there is

a fine line between

having a place to

vent, seek boundaries,

and develop one’s

identity, and fostering

societally undesirable

beliefs and attitudes.

The former is a positive,

while the latter poses

the risk of causing harm

to others, physically

and/or emotionally.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

As noted in an earlier section, there is a large

cultural discrepancy when comparing “angry men”

from the Nordic countries, to the rest of the world.

The unique Nordic culture of supportive commu-

nities, socially including groups and active out-

reach programs must be taken into consideration

both when evaluating the extent of the problem

in the Nordic countries, but also in regards to the

solution. Having this cultural inheritance to build

on lets the Nordic countries further elaborate on

strategies to reach the young men who feel left

out of the social inclusion; some of the established

programs and strategies could be tailored to this

speciffmc demographic, and establishing them in the

ffmrst place will not be met with the same level of

reluctance as in countries where social outreach

programs aimed at boys and young men are rare.

It is of utmost importance though, that this ffmeld is

concerning itself with young men with whom the

usual programs have not gained traction, so either

a specialized attempt must be made, or a dedicat-

ed effort to include these young men.

In a technical perspective, requiring some form of

identity authentication in order to create a proffmle

on social media would decrease the amount of

fake proffmles while at the same time making it

more risky to express certain opinions due to not

being 100% anonymous. However, this of course

only works on platforms where user accounts are

needed in order to post.

Many users on the anonymous forums use these

forums speciffmcally because of the anonymity

offered. Hence, creating authentication require-

ments would have the same effect as deplatform-

ing, causing users to migrate to more encrypted

forums, where anonymity is guaranteed. There is,

however, still the discussion of a place to vent vs.

birthing of radical opinions, which should always

be taken into account, when searching for solu-

tions to the issue of online misogyny.

Furthermore, throughout this report, and in previ-

ous research, it has been pointed out that people

need a place to belong, a place to have mean-

ing, and a place where they are respected and

acknowledged, and feel a sense of worth. Hence,

it seems counterintuitive to be telling the users of

these platforms, who have ffmnally found a place

where they feel at home, that the community they

have found is not good enough, and is not desir-

able. If that is the message being sent to them,

then they are once again being told that they

have failed. Many of these men have a lot of failed

interactions with other people in their past. Many

of them are therefore quite fragile and are battling

low self-esteem and self-worth, making it even

more crucial not to serve them another failure.

The community is filled with people who are at

their lowest. They suffer, they are alone, and while

they can talk about their plight on other spaces,

most people simply don’t get their issue. They will

be suggested to keep trying, man up, be more

confident, etc; many of these are unreasonable,

unrealistic, or make little of the suffering the person

is going through.

Thus, many people were left ”homeless” when the

[other forum] was banned. The forum attempts to

recreate such a home for some of them.

Alexander Ash

, founder of incels.co

Therefore it seems ill advised to outright combat

a community - as it is thousands of users’ online

home - whether or not one agrees with the senti-

ments posted there. Instead, either qualifying the

community itself, or trying to mitigate the social

dynamics that lead the men there in the ffmrst place,

would be optimal. If a change is to happen it has to

come from within the users themselves. They will

react negatively to any form of formal education

and cautionary rhetoric put forth by well-meaning

professionals, and will see this as coming from the

elite of blue-pilled normies.

Furthermore, if one was

to guide the user away from a certain forum, there

is a good chance that he would feel neglected and

alone once again. Many of these men have ffmnally

found a place where they are actually understood,

where their suffering is taken seriously, where they

are heard, listened to, and supported. Remove that

safety net, or tell them that it is not good for them,

and they will be left completely alone once again.

Therefore, the best way forward is to acknowledge

the value of these forums to these men, and to

gain a comprehensive understanding of what these

forums have to offer these men, which they cannot

ffmnd elsewhere. At the same time it is important to

qualify the support that these forums offer, so that

the support doesn’t become an echo-chamber

where vulnerable men can plot strategies to ffmght

back at others, instead of working with and under-

standing themselves.

With such an understanding comes the possibility

of offering alternatives in either the digital or the

physical world - alternatives which would reso-

nate with the men in question. However, it is still a

question of balancing on a very ffmne line between

them feeling understood and them feeling de-

meaned or mocked. Being the object of analysis

is never fun, and it makes it even worse when you

feel that the people analyzing you do not actually

understand you.

“Alexander Ash” is an online pseudonym and not the found-

er’s real name

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Results & discussion of analysis

The community is

filled with people who

are at their lowest.

They suffer, they are

alone, and while

they can talk about

their plight on other

spaces, most people

simply don’t get

their issue.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Cultural analysis and preliminary conclusions

Cultural

analysis and

preliminary

conclusions

For many men, the online forums

which they frequent comprise

communities characterized

by support and brotherhood.

Advice is offered to current life

circumstances, support is given

when things are tough, and

experiences are shared to show

that no one is alone.

The communities offer a place to

share positive experiences and

be met with cheerful feedback,

but at the same time, they are a

place to vent and a place to turn

with one’s frustrations, challenges,

and difficulties in life. This is not

problematic in itself, but has the

potential of cultivating hate, and

of creating a hateful discourse

and misogynistic online culture,

which in turn has the potential

of spilling over into mainstream

media and society.

Such a spillover effect is detrimental to democ-

racy, and the democratic nature and discourse

of the Nordic societies, given that it can cause a

backlash on gender equality due to entire groups

in society withholding from participating in the

public debate. Therefore, while participation in

certain online communities may not pose a threat

to the individual or to his immediate surroundings

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

per se, it can pose a threat to democracy at large,

seeing as it can skew the debate and leave whole

groups reluctant to participate by instilling hostile

narratives instead of bridging the social and cul-

tural gaps of the vulnerable men and society.

However, any solution must consider the fact that

the young men, engaging in the communities

whose rhetorical spillover could undermine dem-

ocratic participation, do not initially seek to join

such digital warfare. As the communities are often

meant as a safe haven to discuss male vulnerabil-

ity, hardships and social troubles - as well as the

freedom to hold politically unpopular opinions in

a freedom of speech-based forum, it is for these

reasons, not any derived toxiffmed or malicious

intent, that the men initially seek them out.

not himself say anything about an urgency to act

upon the feminization of society. However, there

is no way of knowing whether or not he feels this

way and, more importantly, whether or not others

interpret his statement as a call-to-arms.

In the data gathered for this

report, however, no indications

of intentions to act upon

misogynistic opinions have

been noted.

The numerous and vulgar displays of misogyny

seems rather to take the form of venting, seeking

advice, establishing strong in- and out-groups,

rather than expressions of intention to act. This

further speaks to the notion of these forums and

online communities, as support groups and, as

one interviewee expressed it, “emotional homes”

for vulnerable men.

In the Nordic countries a systematic misogynistic

movement cannot be traced. It is not a gather-

ing of men, with an appointed leader and a club

house where they meet weekly, and discuss their

hatred of women, and plan their demise. But mi-

sogyny, antifeminism, and hatred of women does

exist in the Nordic countries. Though the easily

identiffmable movements with catchy acronyms

or portmanteaus for names do not have speciffmc

Nordic chapters, we do see their rhetoric and ide-

ologies shared across the Nordic countries, most

stemming from the US. As such it is estimated that

up to 850 users of Nordic origin have published

misogynistic content (posts, comments, tweets,

and retweets) on Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan within

the past year.

Considering the international attention which has

been given to the misogynistic communities, the

estimated number might appear low. However,

the quantitative data offers no options of conclud-

ing anything about passive consumers of misog-

ynistic content and how their role as bystanders

in these online societies might affect their beliefs

and opinions as well as their worldview.

The internet’s anonymity often promotes an

aggressive and sometimes borderline violent envi-

ronment when opinions clash. This is true for both

men and women. We see the online hatred di-

rected at women being more focused on gender,

sex, and appearance and to be more threatening

and outspokenly terrorizing, when compared to

hatred directed at men. Many men do not feel

Any democratic problems such

forums amass, must therefore

be considered to be prefaced by

a social and well-being crisis in

the men. Any solution seeking to

solve the democratic problem

must include a strategy to help

the men as well.

As can be seen from the data, online misogyny

and antifeminism is present in the Nordic coun-

tries. The presence of misogyny is not equal to the

presence of a threat to do physical harm though.

As professionals and “outsiders” we are tasked

with distinguishing between shitposts, actual opin-

ions, and intentions of action - a distinction that

can be quite difficult to make. For instance in most

of the forums investigated in this report, there is a

clear “us vs. them” discourse. For Nordic men this

is exempliffmed by the current, unacceptable state

of the world being due to an ever more feminine

(and female) government, and the misery of most

men being due to Nordic women only wanting to

sleep with top tier Chad. For instance, an allegedly

Danish user on 4chan’s /pol writes

“Women evolved to be controlled by men and to be

followers. Allowing them to lead was opening pan-

doras box. Women do all sorts of maladaptive shit

when they get authority. They can handle it about

as well as an 8-year old.”1

which quite clearly frames how he, along with the

majority of users on 4chan, see the feminization

of government as problematic. The user does

4chan.org/pol, post-id: 245850364

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Cultural analysis and preliminary conclusions

that current available support systems are able

to understand or help them, and in turn choose to

heed the symptomatic “Just man up!”-advice. This

can lead to the anonymous internet becoming

an arena for venting their frustrations, and turning

feelings of vulnerability into more masculine and

acceptable ones - anger and violence. Combining

this frustration and anger with a politicized free-

dom of speech-moniker, certain internet forums

can become a hotbed of emblematic “free” hate

speech, as both a psychological coping mecha-

nism, and a socially inclusive tool. The freedom of

speech must be upheld in any democracy, but it

must be considered a threat to democracy when it

becomes the weapon with which progressiveness

is fought. Hateful and violent online communities

are often targeting inclusiveness, diversity, equal-

ity and other progressive movements as these

often seek to empower those that have historically

not had power, i.e. anybody else than the aver-

age (white) man. Therefore those men, that feel

that they do not have any such power, can feel

overlooked or even threatened in such societal

developments. This can naturally lead to a reluc-

tance to join said development, or to even combat

it actively. In the Nordic countries where equality,

gender and inclusiveness are marks of pride, and

have been political key points for generations,

these international movements catch hold of

some men that feel never to have had that power

that they now see being relegated to others. They

see power and happiness as a zero-sum game,

where they lose what others win. They will ffmght

the so-called democracy that denies them what

they feel is rightfully theirs.

The propensity to reduce all of these communi-

ties to cesspools of vile and vitriol is very real, and

more than a few news stories have borne headlines

decrying all involuntary celibate men, or those

that choose to go their own way, as looming terror

threats. But when interviewed, most of these men

ask for compassion rather than assault riffnes.

This is not a simple case of identifying these

communities, and shutting them down. For many

of their users they are the only support and peer

system available. The strong democratic Nordic

model must be able to include these men, and to

acknowledge their situation, in an effort to extend

that very branch of inclusion that they are often

blamed for ffmghting against.

The recommendations to do so are both technical,

pedagogical, social and societal in nature, and a

precursory list follows below.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Recommendations

Recommendations in the

analogue sphere

•

Spreading awareness of certain online cul-

tures and phenomena, not from a cautionary

point of view, but with the intent of creating

understanding and respect for the nature of

these phenomena, both in youth and adults.

Establishing “health units” at schools,

consisting of teachers, other professionals,

and students, that focus on the mental well

being of students, and that understand the

virtual aspects of student’s lives.

Paying extra attention to the “quiet” chil-

dren,

who have a tendency of going “under

the radar”, continuously offering them multiple

opportunities to be part of several different

positive social settings and interactions. Pro-

viding them with experiences of success in

regards to other people, and offering them a

place to turn, if things do not work out the way

they had hoped.

•

This, of course, is only relevant on platforms

where an account is needed to post content.

Platforms should be held accountable for

the content on their sites,

and should be re-

quired to meet certain standards and criteria

in regards to freedom of speech, ensuring a

tolerable tone, and protecting the users on

the platform. Witnessing hateful, harsh, and

derogatory content should not be a mandato-

ry part of the experience on any platform.

•

Recommendations in the

structural sphere

•

Early intervention in kindergarten and

preschool

building literacy and developing

a more equal perspective on the possibilities

and capabilities of each gender. This can be

achieved through a greater focus on gender,

gender identity, gender development, and

gender expression, and having these themes

as mandatory courses in the education of

teachers and other professionals working with

children and youth.

Updating and reforming sexual education

in middle school, to reffnect current society

and empower both men and women to feel

comfortable with themselves, their bodies,

and their sexuality, and with standing up for

themselves and others.

Legal juxtaposition of online and offline

offenses:

Law enforcement is expected to un-

derstand threats or hate speech of violence,

harm or any other anti-democratic means, on

an equal level with those made in a physical

space. Consequences, investigation and at-

tention must be parallel, as cyberspace is no

longer a separate arena, but a very real part of

our world.

Offering a wider and more inclusive “mas-

culinity ideal”

by breaking down the rela-

tively constrictive and stereotypical ways of

“being a man” that boys and young men are

currently presented with. Thereby empower-

ing boys and men to defy traditional mascu-

line culture and values through education

and information, and teaching them from

an early age to see women as their equals,

and men and women as having equal rights,

opportunities, and abilities. This can be done

Recommendations in the

digital sphere

•

Partnerships with the most troubled fo-

rums

to educate current moderators, or by

installing volunteers to help establish and

reaffirm the support systems that these online

communities are, for many of their users. By

mitigating the echo-chamber effect that these

forums can often hold, and by trying to build

bridges to the society that the users feel have

shunned them, the brunt of the toxic “us-and-

them” rhetoric and mindset could be avoided.

Youth as active upstanders:

Through

teaching materials and learning resources

focusing on the tone of the public debate

and the consequences of said tone to said

debate, young people should be encouraged

to become active participants and upstanders

against foul language in the public, democrat-

ic debate online.

Requiring identity authentication in order to

create accounts on social media platforms

would diminish the amount of fake accounts

considerably while at the same time holding

users to a certain standard, seeing as they

would not be completely anonymous.

•

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Cultural analysis and preliminary conclusions

•

through creating room for open, curious, and

nuanced discussions and dialogue on topics

such as masculinity, femininity, gender, sex,

emotions, and life challenges, both within

society at large and the smaller, closed, more

local milieus such as the classroom or the

friend group, and thereby inviting everyone to

be part of the change. Furthermore, this will

lead to a change and an expansion of gender

and masculinity norms by creating a narrative

where it is okay to not feel okay, where anger

isn’t the only acceptable emotional outlet, and

where negative emotions, such as sadness,

loneliness, and feeling hurt, are not signs of

weakness or vulnerability.

Creating a cultural and structural change

demanding more room for diversity and open

mindedness, where executing one’s freedom

of speech does not come with the potential

cost of being publicly or privately demeaned,

degraded, shamed, attacked, and/or violated.

Nordic countries. Through the development

of such technologies, a much broader and

precise mapping of Nordic misogyny incorpo-

rating mainstream platforms (e.g. Facebook)

and mainstream media forums (e.g. online

newspapers) becomes possible.

Recommendations for

future research

•

Investigating spikes in the amount of content

posted on certain platforms or forums, tracing

these spikes over time, and assessing their

connection to events in the analogue world.

Determining the occurrence of misogyny and

(everyday) sexism on mainstream platforms

such as Facebook, and assessing the degree

to which this is due to a spillover effect from

less mainstream platforms.

Tracing the journey from being lonely to

ffmnding a place to belong within The Mano-

sphere by gathering data from active users of

these communities and platforms rather than

relying on anecdotal evidence.

Examining the exodus from The Manosphere.

Does the exodus mean the person has left his

former ideology behind or has he rather “just”

stopped being an active member?

Investigating possible overlaps between incel

culture and the far-right movement, as there

appears to be certain overlaps in ideologies

and worldviews.

To gain a thorough understanding of the

overall development and spillover of misogyny

further investigation is needed. In this regard

the use of artiffmcial intelligence in the form

of natural language processing has shown

tremendous potential in other regions of the

world. It is possible to “teach” hate speech

algorithms to center around misogyny and

use this artiffmcial intelligence to provide a more

comprehensive mapping of misogyny in the

•

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

The manosphere

The

Manosphere

The manosphere is a term used to

describe online forums opposing

feminism, where men gather to

discuss gender, equality, and

masculinity with a pro-male focus.

Within the manosphere are, among others, Invol-

untary Celibates (incels), Men’s Rights Activists

(MRAs), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOWs), and

Pick-Up Artists (PUAs). Each subgroup has its own

speciffmc ideology reffnecting the views and chal-

lenges of its members, but the overall ideology of

the manosphere primarily focuses on two aspects:

Gender-essentialism, where men and women

are seen as completely different entities with

biologically different personal and physical

traits and

Some subgroups are in adversarial relationships with

one another, but they do all agree on the aspects

above. Furthermore, racism, homophobia, and

transphobia can often be found in comments and

debates within the forums of the different groups.

In this section, cross cultural analyses of different

parts of the manosphere will be brought followed by

more culture speciffmc analyses of the four aforemen-

tioned subcultures within the manosphere.

Anti-feminism, where feminism is seen as be-

ing designed to oppress men and men’s rights

thereby threatening the societal balance

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Nordic feelings

Feelings are universal, but

the response to feelings and

emotions, and the level of

acceptance with which they

are met from society and peers,

is most definitely culturally

determined.

Most high-proffmle cases of violent attacks from the

Manosphere are from the United States and carry

a certain americanized notion of the individual’s

ffmght against an unfair system. “Humanity

has never

accepted me among them, and now I know why.

I am more than human. I am superior to them all.”

wrote Elliot Rodger, shortly before he set out to kill

as many “Stacy’s” and “Chad’s”

as possible, and

“I

can no longer bear the shame of inaction knowing

that our founding fathers have endowed me with the

rights needed to save our country from the brink of

destruction. Our European comrades don’t have the

gun rights needed to repel the millions of invaders

that plaque their country. They have no choice but to

sit by and watch their countries burn.”

wrote Patrick

Cruisus before his attack on immigrants in an El

Paso shopping mall, to save the US from the plight

of democratic feminine politics.

To compare the Nordic countries with the US, the

project group has applied Hofstede’s theory of

cultural dimensions. As a broadly applied tool in

distinguishing culturally determined psychological

baselines, it seems appropriate to establish a joint

Nordic proffmle, and compare it to an American ditto.

The dimensions analyzed include:

•

Distance to power,

•

Individualism,

•

(Societal) Masculinity,

•

Uncertainty avoidance,

•

Long term orientation, and

•

Indulgence,

For this project particularly distance to power,

individualism and (societal) masculinity will be

of interest.

Distance to Power

describes the feeling with which

those in the lower strata of a social system - be it

family, classrooms, workplaces or society itself,

accept being outside of inffnuence. A higher value

shows a propensity for accepting unequal sys-

tems, and a lower will point to a culture of chal-

lenging perceived unequal systems.

Individualism

describes the level to which mem-

bers of society are integrated into groups, outside

of immediate family. A high score will point to a

culture where members consider themselves

before the collective, and generally have fewer

relationships in which they are loyal, and support-

ive in case of conffnicts or threats.

(Societal) Masculinity

describes the preference for

historically male attributed traits and goals, such

as achievement, heroism, assertiveness and ma-

terial rewards for successes. A low score indicates

a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for

the weak and quality of life. Most societies will still

exhibit a gendered cultural difference, but for both

men and women it will be skewed towards the

score for both.

The Nordic Countries score as follows in each

category

Stacy and Chad are terms originating in Incel communities

describing hypergamous women and sexually greedy men,

both seen as enemies. Has since been adopted by many

other online communities.

Numbers extrapolated from https:/

/www.hofstede-insights.

com/. Each category spans from 1-100, where 100 is total

dedication to the category, e.g. a score of 100 in Mascu-

linity will denote a totally Masculinity-oriented culture in a

given country, whereas a score of 1 will be the opposite - an

extremely femine culture.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

The manosphere

Denmark

Sweden

Norway

Iceland

Finland

Power

distance

ower

distance

Individualism

Masculinity

Masculinit

Uncertainty

Avoidance

Uncertainty

voidance

Long Term

Orientation

Long Term

Orientation

Indulgence

Which presents a Nordic average of:

ordic

A erage

Nordic

Average

ower

distance

Power

distance

28,6

Individualism

67,4

Masculinit

Masculinity

Uncertainty

voidance

Uncertainty

Avoidance

42,2

Long Term

Orientation

Long Term

Orientation

7,8

37,8

Indulgence

65,4

still be feeling a need for a group to belong to, but

spite of few outliers (Denmark in Power Distance,

furthermore feel that these are not “normal” in that

Finland in Masculinity) the Nordic countries broadly

culture, and that they have a hard time ffmnding one.

ffmt into a joint understanding of a “Nordic culture” -

ower

Individualism

Masculinit

Uncertainty

Long Term

Indulgence

here termed

The Nordics.

distance

voidance

Orientation

The

ower

Individualism

Masculinit

Nordics have a low average score in Mascu-

Uncertainty

Long Term

Indulgence

linity, even

voidance

with Finland as the higher outlier at

The Nordics

seem to consist of a culture that will

distance

Orientation

The United

26. Without the outlier the average would be only

challenge perceived injustice through the system

S es

9,75. This shows a Nordic culture that is, in Hofst-

itself,

seek

The United

and

to change it from within. I.e. a relative-

ede’s terminology, very effeminate, and therefore

acceptance of distance to power, and a belief

low

will prefer social strategies that help the group,

that a system, even though unjust, can be changed.

and will form supportive initiatives when mem-

bers are in peril, and the members will in turn feel

The Nordics have a moderately individualistic

enabled to join these.

proffmle. With some cultural adherence to groups

outside of the family, but still to a large degree

As such, for the report, a joint Nordic cultural pro-

consider themselves to be individuals before they

ffmle will be employed.

are part of a group. This is not a social prefer-

ence, but an analysis of status - meaning that the

members of a largely individualistic culture can

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

The American proffmle is as follows:

Power

distance

The United

States

Individualism

Masculinity

Uncertainty

Avoidance

Long Term

Orientation

Indulgence

In the three prioritized categories, large discrepan-

cies to the Nordic proffmle can be seen.

The Nordic proffmle seems to question authority

and power structures to a slightly larger degree

than the American, and also to believe in systemic

changes to unjust systems. The American proffmle is

slightly more adhering to established hierarchies

as a whole, which doesn’t mean that all individu-

als in the culture accept the system, just that the

culture as a whole does. This can lead to high

degrees of frustration among such members.

The Nordic proffmle is moderately less individualis-

tic than the American counterpart. This means that

to a moderate degree, the culture is set up around

systems, groups and communities outside of the

immediate family, be it via schools, after-school

programs or hobbies. This does not mean that

all individuals in the culture are part of these, but

rather that they are socially accepted and encour-

aged, and often established by society.

The Nordic proffmle scores extremely low in mas-

culinity, and when compared to the American it

becomes obvious that this might be the biggest

difference between the two cultures. The Nordic

proffmle shows an almost non-existent focus on

being the hero, the ffmghter of oppressors etc. The

low masculinity score instead shows a compara-

tively much larger focus in the Nordics, on helping

others and providing supportive communities for

those in need hereof.

In conclusion, this gives a

profile of the Nordic scope of

this challenge that strongly

differs from the American or

“Americanized” that has featured

in most headlines. It would

seem to provide a reasonable

understanding of the problem of

angry young men to have different

symptoms in different countries.

Whereas the American culture has a propen-

sity for “heroism”, gun-love and jumping on the

proverbial grenade to save one’s (digital) brothers,

the Nordic alternative might focus on ffmghting the

perceived evil system (feminism and the effemi-

nate society) in different ways. The cultural proffmle

would suggest an approach focused on helping

the men stuck in a negative spiral, and to do so

from ffmghting the system keeping them there, rath-

er than the representatives of the system, as the

men aren’t trying to be heroes (masculinity-trait),

but rather ffmght the unjust system (power distance).

This means that Nordic and American men might

very well have the same negative and psycho-

logically detrimental emotions and feelings, but

that the outlet and social coping is very different

depending on country of origin. As the focus of this

report is both the men’s well-being as well as any

potential anti-democratic coping strategies, it is im-

portant to understand that the underlying problem

might very well result in different symptoms.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

The manosphere

The Nordic

Manosphere

Most groups within the manosphere will state to

be ffmghting for a greater good - society, actual

equality, fair justice or simply a better world. They

identify several things eroding society, and point

out how women are to blame for all of them. Most

often the anti-feminism or outright misogyny

is combined with a hatred and fear of minority

groups, and immigration.

historically protected them from outside forces, then

society will falter and succumb to “enemy invasions”.

Their ffmght against islam and other outside forces

must therefore also start from within, by combating

feminists and other progressive movements.

Arguing against animosity

As misogynistic targeted posts were readily found

on all surveyed platforms, and conffmrmed by

experts and young focus groups alike, there is still

cause for concern. Coupling this with the concept

of ‘motivated reasoning’, where individuals assess

information in a way that ffmts a certain goal or end

regardless of accuracy

the level of concern rises

even further. It is important to note that individuals

do not hold inaccurate beliefs because they fail to

think, or do not understand the information they

are presented with. Rather, individuals hold inac-

curate beliefs because they engage in deliberate

cognitive reffnection motivated by a certain goal-di-

rected bias.

As such, many discussions observed

in the online forums here investigated revolved

around the, for the given platform, commonly held

beliefs about the personal and societal misfor-

tunes of the users and countries in question being

due to the ever increasing feminization of the

Nordic countries.

The goal-directed information processing bias

may strengthen the individual’s affiliation with

the group and the views of the group

creating

a strong sense of an ingroup vs an outgroup.

Deffmning oneself as part of the ingroup entails

distancing oneself, and the group as a whole, from

the outgroup. Distancing oneself maximally from

opposing views can further conffmrm one’s place

within the ingroup, seeing as one has no affiliations

“Well congratulations to Western

European women. You’ve succeeded

in harassing and ridiculing your

own sons into suppressing many of

their masculine instincts. To your

surprise, you didn’t enter a feminist

Nirvana, but paved the way for an

unfolding Islamic hell”

Breivik, 2011

Part of the ethno-nationalist and islamophobic man-

ifest Anders Breivik sent to 1.003 select emailad-

dresses hours before his terror attack in 2011, is

dedicated to pointing out how feminism and the

empowerment of women via sexual autonomy has

allowed islam’s entry into the Nordic countries.

“Feminist culture will eventually

end up being squashed, because

the men have either become too

demoralized and weakened to

protect their women, or because

they have become so fed-up with

incessant ridicule that they just

don’t care anymore”.

Breivik, 2011

The hyper-conservative argument seems to be,

that if women stray away from the men that have

Kahan, D. M. (2013). Ideology, motivated reasoning, and

cognitive reffnection. Judgment and Decision Making, 8(4),

18.

Kunda, Z. (1990). The case for motivated reasoning. Psycho-

logical Bulletin, 108(3), 480–498.

Nyhan, B., & Reiffner, J. (2010). When Corrections Fail: The

Persistence of Political Misperceptions. Political Behavior,

32(2), 303–330.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

with the outgroup whatsoever. This can endorse

the individual to hold more extreme views and

positions than the individual would in the absence

of a clear outgroup with opposing views. This can,

in turn, lead to more polarization in online commu-

nication and group formation, which might have a

spillover effect on the offline sphere.

Due to the cognitive information processing

bias, trying to challenge the antidemocratic and

antifeminist views held by some men can back-

ffmre, in that it can increase the strength with which

these views are held, rather than creating a more

nuanced, multiple-sided perspective

. In a Nordic

context this can be seen when well-meaning

professionals (be they teachers, care givers, pol-

iticians or the like) utter their opinions on how to

deal with certain matters and are immediately shot

down, and their arguments turned around to prove

the opposite point of the one they are trying to

make. For instance, an allegedly Norwegian user

on 4chan’s /pol comments the following on a post

encouraging counter-protesting:

“why? normie

[People outside of the subculture]

protests are just virtue signals

[perjorative neologism

for a disingenious showing of “good” actions done

to further one’s own agenda or social standing].

Let the antifa terrorists show the world what com-

munism really is, they even have free power and

water so they can’t fail. lol”

Even though counter-arguing can appear futile

and counterproductive as such, a steady stream

of carefully placed information can serve to create

enlightenment and awareness. *Carefully placed’

in this respect meaning not throwing it head ffmrst

into the lion’s den, but rather working its way

slowly from the outside inwards, and placing in-

formation where there is a chance it will resonate

with the recipient - which will often mean different

online forums than the most misogynistic, thereby

hoping to create a reverse spillover effect.

Chemnitz, E. (2019). Contradicting Incels probably won’t

change their minds - indications of motivated reasoning in

submissions on the subreddit r/Braincels.

4chan.org/pol, post-id: 262444636

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

The manosphere

“Feminist culture

will eventually end

up being squashed,

because the men

have either become

too demoralized

and weakened to

protect their women,

or because they have

become so fed-up

with incessant ridicule

that they just don’t

care anymore”.

Breivik, 2011

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

General challenges of

aggressive communities

Although all forums and communities are unique

and pose different challenges, and offer different

approaches to their users, several effects of the

activities can be generalized. They must be under-

stood in a context of aggressive online communi-

ties, and are challenges professionals most note in

any attempt to solve the democratic and egalitari-

an puzzles they pose.

Spillover

Several terminologies and ideologies cross from

one chapter of the manosphere to the others. As

they all are made up of thousands of users, it is

impossible to theorize about all of them at once,

but the broad strokes are identiffmable. As such

there seem to further be a large fetishization of

self-pity in most communities; a strong narrative

of just how downtrodden the users themselves

are, and how unfairly they are being treated by

women, society of feminism.

Many of the communities also reffnect on their

situation in a quasi-militaristic jargon, where they

see themselves as a sort of resistance movement

opposing the occupation of anti-men policies

or cultures; a manospheric David thwarting the

feministic Goliath. In lieu of this framing, the calls

for policy change are voiced as “rightfully ffmghting”,

“doing it for my comrades”, “saving future gener-

ations from…” and so on. Though this itself is not

violent in nature, it lends creed to the thought that

it needs to be.

The focus is often on a perceived eternal gen-

der-struggle that the proponents of the manosphere

feel that men are losing. The feminization has

deprived them of rights and power that men once

possessed, based only on the fact that they were

(white) men, and therefore they are obligated to ffmght

the powers that combat this former privilege.

In seeing power as a zero-

sum game, they see the

empowerment of women as a

disempowerment of men, and

therefore an attack on them and

all men. Therefore they are not

only allowed to fight feminism

and women, but obligated to.

“Crabs in a bucket”

One challenge to most counter-cultures in

which the users congregate on a joint negative

or self-defamatory basis is that of the “crabs in a

bucket”. When one user will look to “ascend” (in the

case of incels, when a user is closing in on forming

a meaningful relationship with a woman), the other

users will try to spoil the ascension with messag-

es of hopelessness (“She only wants you for free

meals!”), comments that belittle the ascension (“So

what if she likes you, you’re worthless to 99,99%

of the other women!”), or attacks on the ascension

object (“I bet she’s fat anyway!”).

The crabs in a bucket-theory suggests that the

users of such a community will seek to protect the

community from defectors by pulling them back

in. This goes even for the users that are ascending

from the community (i.e. attaining what the coun-

terculture is based on needing), because if one

user can attain it, it will put a pressure, and even

responsibility, on the rest. To free all of the other

users of this responsibility, ultimately cementing

the moniker of perpetual victims, it is important that

no-one escapes the proverbial bucket.

By keeping as many “crabs” in the “bucket” as

possible, the counterculture is also forming an

argument of validity by numbers; our feelings and

thoughts must be serious, otherwise we wouldn’t

be so many having them. Therefore the “crabs in a

bucket”-mechanism is both serving to protect the

psychological and social needs of those utilizing it.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

The manosphere

This means that in working with this set of coun-

tercultures, one should expect to meet extreme

resistance from both persons and communities

alike. Attacking the effort, negating the approach

or defending against unwanted help are all strat-

egies employed when reaching out to, or working

with, this set of countercultures.

Freedom of (misogynistic) speech

The crux of the internet is a freedom of speech, and

an unhindered access of knowledge and people.

In its purest form the internet will allow its users to

seek out information and communication on any

topic, and from any perspective they would wish.

Sadly, within the digital landscape some users

seek easy answers to difficult questions. Through

years of work with Nordic youth, youth culture,

and young men, and from focus group interviews,

it has become clear that most of the young men

congregating to combat the perceived feminist

oppression, are doing so out of frustration and

unhappiness rather than hatred and animosity.

Although the internet is useful for challenging

ideas, when the victims of these manospheric

mindsets congregate online, they will often seek

not to have their ideas challenged, but rather forti-

ffmed. A challenge to the ideas will be seen as an at-

tack on the community and its users and is there-

fore unwanted, thereby cementing the precarious

sense of belonging to a digital counter-culture in

opposition to those physically closest to the users

- classmates, peers, immediate community.

The current investigation should not be perceived

as an attack on these communities, but rather as

a foray into understanding the psychological and

social currents leading to them, and a bridging of

the gap between the existing social policies and the

policies needed to reach these at-risk young men.

From information gathered

through interviews and digital

observations it appears that

antifeminism often rises from

the ashes of social yearnings of

belonging and acceptance.

When faced with an identity of loneliness and being

the “outsider”, it is easier to point ffmngers at the com-

munity from which one is lonely, rather than at one-

self. It furthers a psychological coping mechanism to

becry their malevolence and ignorance, rather than

one’s own social shortcomings and awkwardness.

This furthermore positions oneself as a downtrodden

minority - the social underdog. A much more pleas-

ant position, compared to the alternatives.

Far from the headlines of terror

attacks and killings are the

thousands of young men who, in a

desperate need for belonging and

purpose, feverishly cling to the

idea of being part of something

- even if it is a destructive and

misogynistic counter-culture.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Incels and

everybody else

The term “incel” has gained notoriety and seen

widespread use over the past ffmve to six years. The

INvoluntary CELibate men blame their misfortune

on women, sexually greedy men and society, and

seek revenge on everybody but their own; “the

incel rebellion has already begun!

”, as one mass

murderer decreed.

According to Google Trends the term “incel” gained

traction in 2017 and exploded in spring 2018. Alek

Minassian, the author of the aforementioned “incel

rebellion”, attacked 24 and murdered 10 people in

Toronto in april 2018. The term “involuntary celibate”

was coined in the late 1990’s by a woman in Otta-

wa, Canada.

Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Project

was

an early forum for those who “have had life-long

difficulty starting dating or forming relationships”

The term was appropriated by the active users over

the years, and the new meaning was cemented in

the 2014 Isla Vista-attacks

, where Elliot Rodger

killed 6 people and injured 14. During the attack

Rodger uploaded a video titled

Elliot Rodger’s Ret-

ribution,

in which he outlined his hatred for wom-

en and popular men as they were at fault for his

inability to ffmnd romantic and sexual partners. Elliot

Rodger has since been used as a prime example

of a violent incel, and is heralded as “the supreme

gentleman” and a deity in some incel communities.

His manifest speaks to a life of loneliness and feel-

ing “outside” of social life.

Alek Minassian, The Toronto Attacker who killed 10 people

by driving his van into a crowd.

Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Project https:/

/web.archive.

org/web/19970525065352/http:/www.ncf.carleton.

ca:80/~ad097/ic-home.html

Elliot Rodger, a 22-year old self-proclaimed Involuntary

Celibate man who was active on incel-forums, shot,

stabbed and killed several people, before he killed himself.

He left behind a manifesto, and several video recordings of

himself, both attributing the attack on his celibacy. https:/

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43892189

100

Interest over time

Note

jan.

2004

nov.

2008

sep.

2013

jul.

2018

Time period

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

The manosphere

Humanity… All of my suffering in this world has been at the hands of

humanity, particularly women. It has made me realize just how brutal

and twisted humanity is as a species. All I ever wanted was to fit in and

live a happy life amongst humanity, but I was cast out and rejected,

forced to endure an existence of loneliness and insignificance, all

because the females of the human species were incapable of seeing the

value in me. This is the story of how I, Elliot Rodger, came to be. This is

the story of my entire life. It is a dark story of sadness, anger, and hatred.

It is a story of a war against cruel injustice.

Elliot Rodger, Isla Vista perpetrator

Although the incel community has no leader or

foreperson, only a group of idols and a pantheon of

murderers and terrorists who, in some participants’

minds, have fought back against the oppression,

they are still a group of signiffmcance to the present

research. As there is no central governing body,

nor a central list of political positions, values and

virtues, any analysis of the incel community is done

via observations and impressions formed through

digital and physical meetings and interviews.

Websites such as Incel Wiki and incels.co can shed

some light on the culture, but none are official per

se. There is an ongoing debate within the incel

community of whether users on incels.co are

actual, to-the-core incels, or wannabe-incels, who

haven’t experienced anything remotely close to the

suffering “real” incels have. Within the incel com-

munity it is the common perception that too many

non-incels (i.e. researchers, journalists, normies,

etc.) snoop around on incels.co.

As any man would be interested in any sex, any

time, women will be able to have sex whenever

they want, if they just lower their standards.

It is a common understanding that few men will

have most of the sex. As men are able to have

several sex partners, it therefore follows that the

vast majority of women will sell their sex to the

same select group of a few men. These men will

be naturally gifted with certain traits - above aver-

age height, square jaw, strong wrists etc. - will be

called “alpha” or “Chad”, and will of course enjoy

sexual and societal attention. It is possible for a

“beta” to ascend to a sexual level, but as it will

be by momentary means (typically money), the

ascension will crumble as soon as the means are

gone (i.e. the money is used up). These temporari-

ly ascended men are called “beta-bux”.

The women who are aware that this transaction

is happening, and that they are in control of it, are

called “Stacy”. They will lean into the sexual power

they are biologically given, and seek to maximize

it by sexualizing their appearance and social sta-

tus, amongst other things by communicating sex-

ual openness (push-up bra, lipstick etc.), but not

(openly) sexually engaging with too many men, as

this will diminish their value in the “marketplace”.

The women unaware of the sexual transactional

nature of society are called “Becky”. Becky will

most likely be a feminist, and seek to dominate

men through political and philosophical discus-

sions that she will always lose (because men are

smarter), unless the men let her win, in hopes of

her rewarding them with sex. As Becky isn’t as nat-

urally attractive as Stacy, she will try to increase

her market value by for instance pretending to

be nerdy. Becky will be able to have sex with

high-ranking males, but will not be able to marry

one because of her naturally mediocre looks. She

will have to settle for a second-tier man, when she

wants to marry and raise a family. Only Stacy will

be able to marry Chad.

Women - according to incels

The main idea of the incel community is that sex is

a commodity traded from women to men, to obtain

certain goods in society - safety, ffmnancial stability

and/or status.

As all men seek sex all the time,

it is up to the women to choose

who to give sex to, and thus to

set the “price” for it. The idea of

the INvoluntary CELibate woman

does not exist.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Anti-feminism or misogyny?

The misogyny of the incel culture is blatant, but

furthermore it is also a detriment to the egalitarian

feminism sought after in the Nordic countries. Re-

ducing women to sexual proprietors with no ability

to think nor create is obviously an attack on women’s

rights and any equal opportunity agenda, but is also

inferring a wider attack on an equal and democratic

society. This culture, if put into effect, will keep wom-

en from ever being in a position to create or think,

thus becoming a self-fulffmlling prophecy.

Unfortunately, there will also be an inferred

attitude towards those women who do create or

think, belittling or undermining their results and

positions: As women are thought to be incapable

hereof, and only function as sexual vendors, any

commendable output cannot have been created

by a woman, and will either have been made by

a man in exchange for sexual attention, or the

output is actually bad, and have only garnered

positive attention because of sexually starved

men enabling it. These men will be deemed “white

knights” trying to save the women from their just

fate, and are - in spite of any sexual attention - a

low tier of males; feminists are understood in the

same manner.

Feminism as a whole is thought to be a social con-

struct, only made to give inferior women (Beckys)

access to an artiffmcially leveled playing ffmeld, by weak

men who use this catering as a sexual access to

feminist women. Feminism is a logical outcome of

the advanced technological workplace, as this di-

minishes the need for “real” men, and real thinkers/

creators. The artiffmcial societal power that feminist

women will experience, is used by them to further

undermine the innate power of men (as per their

naturally superior physical and cognitive capabilities),

and thereby undermine their sexual strategy.

Why hate?

From the outside, the most obvious emotional com-

ponent in analyzing incel groups is anger and dis-

dain. Yet when diving under the vitriol on the surface,

it seems that sadness and unhappiness provides a

clearer understanding of the men herein.

Through observations on forums such as incels,co

and analyses of manifestos written by self-pro-

claimed incels, it is clear that many men identi-

fying as incels have multiple experiences of not

ffmtting in, and overall feel excluded from the social

arenas they frequent in the offline world - school,

work, leisure activities, etc. They often come off as

socially awkward worsening the sense of exclu-

sion further.

Many have tried engaging in

offline social contact, but have

been rejected, and feel they

have failed miserably, creating a

sense of sadness, loneliness, and

of being an outcast.

This poses many to seek help and understanding

online, and to try to ffmnd like-minded individuals,

who might even have similar experiences, and

who know what they are going through. This is one

way into the incel ‘community’. As such, the incel

‘community’ can be seen as an online self-help

group, where sad, suffering, vulnerable men offer

each other advice and comfort.

Identifying as incel entails certain views of women

and of the world. This can have quite a salvatory

and redemptive effect as it offers an explanation

of one’s misfortune and a target for one’s feelings

of frustration. It offers palpable explanations that

remove all responsibility from the individual and

diverts it to factors outside of the individual’s con-

trol, and therefore responsibility - appearance, the

societal structure and the resulting unfair division

of (sexual) goods: “It’s not your fault. It’s their fault.

Let’s band together against them!”

Feminism is therefore an attack

on human (male) rights, and

should be combatted both

argumentatively on the internet

and in society in general.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

The manosphere

Perception of masculinity

Many boys and men feel that sadness or insecu-

rity is not a legitimate emotion for them to feel let

alone express. The traditional masculine ideology

is deffmned as white, heterosexual men dominating

women, other races, and sexual and ethnic minori-

ties.

According to Bosson & Vandello (2011)

man-

hood is a constant battle of proving oneself as a

man through aggressive and “manly” actions. There

is no room for emotionality and for being “soft”,

and

one has engaged in “feminine” behavior (e.g.

cried) one must do something “manly” afterwards

in order to regain the sense of being a man.

Interestingly, Danish men do not perceive man-

hood to be as precarious as men from the US do.

According to DiMuccio et al (2017) this is due to the

presence of more traditional gender norms in the

US (focus on competition, aggression, dominance,

and restrictive emotionality) compared to Denmark

(focus on empathy, treating each other well and

with respect, and living a good life). Danish men

tend to see aggression and aggressive behavior

as childish and immature, and therefore unmanly.

Furthermore, Danish men see manhood as con-

trasting boyhood (you are a man when you’re not

a boy) whereas American men see manhood as

contrasting womanhood (you are a man when

you’re not a woman). Following this, Danish men

see unmanly men as immature whereas American

men see them as lacking masculinity.

Given the

cultural analysis of the Nordic countries provided

above it seems plausible that men from the other

Nordic countries will perceive manhood in the

same manner Danish men do.

Interestingly, compared to societies with less

equality, like the American, where aggression and

antifeminism are seen as signiffmcant, masculine

traits, there is a lot less violence in more equal

societies, like the Nordics, where traditionally

feminine traits, such as being nurturing and having

close, intimate relationships with friends, are

deemed signiffmcant aspects of manhood.

However, men experiencing not

having access to close, intimate

relationships might feel negative

emotions, such as frustration,

sadness, and jealousy, over not

having what others do, while at

the same time not being offered a

way of expressing their manhood

in, by Nordic standards, socially

acceptable ways. This can lead to

the search for emotional refuge

and outlet in less traditional

groups and relationships - namely

the virtual ones.

This is due to boys and men being offered a rather

constrictive masculinity ideal to ffmt in to, even in the

more egalitarian societies like the Nordics, leaving

little room for “softness” and “feminine” emotions,

as men are often expected to be strong and to

tough it out, when dealt emotional blows. That

leaves a very narrow range of “legitimate” emo-

tions when facing emotional obstacles, leaving

many to express their sadness as anger, as this is

one of the few, acceptable, manly, emotions.

Bloksgaard, L., Christensen, A., Jensen, S. Q., Hansen, C.

D., Kyed, M. & Nielsen, K. J. (2015) Masculinity Ideals in a

Contemporary Danish Context, NORA - Nordic Journal of

Feminist and Gender Research, 23:3, 152-169

Bosson, J. K., & Vandello, J. A. (2011). Precarious manhood

and its links to action and aggression. Current Directions in

Psychological Science, 20(2), 82–86.

DiMuccio, S., Yost, M.R., & Helweg-Larsen, M. (2017). A

Qualitative Analysis of Perceptions of Precarious Manhood

in U.S. and Danish Men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 18,

331–340.

DiMuccio, S., Yost, M.R., & Helweg-Larsen, M. (2017). A

Qualitative Analysis of Perceptions of Precarious Manhood

in U.S. and Danish Men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 18,

331–340.

DiMuccio, S., Yost, M.R., & Helweg-Larsen, M. (2017). A

Qualitative Analysis of Perceptions of Precarious Manhood

in U.S. and Danish Men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity,

18, 331–340.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

MRAs

The Men’s Rights Activists is a reactionary movement,

meaning, it has emerged as a reaction to another so-

cial movement gaining support and momentum - in

this case a reaction to feminism and multiculturalism

(e.g. MeToo and Black Lives Matter).

MRA’s can, in some instances, divert from past

egalitarian movements such as the aforementioned

BLM and MeToo, as it is focusing rather on removing

rights from others, than gaining some for its own.

Many key objectives for MRA’s are to roll back or halt

the changes other movements are making.

They are trying to attain this goal by focusing on

key feminist issues, such as equal pay, sexual

assault, abuse against women, and the represen-

tation of women in popular and entertainment

media, from a conservative “men suffer more than

women, and women are actually just trying to

blame men for their problems” point of view. Most

rape stories are perceived as false, and cam-

paigns like #metoo are seen as “witch hunts” de-

signed to demonize men. By combating the fem-

inist goals, under guise of them attacking women,

they aim to reframe an anti women’s-rights-move-

ment as a Men’s Rights Movement.

Most MRA movements see rights and power as a

zero sum-game. Here the notion of women and

minorities gaining the same liberties and societal

inffnuence as them is a threat to what they have

always had. What the others gain, are feared to be

lost on their own account. Therefore the feminist

movement gaining traction throughout the last

decade, becomes extremely threatening to the

ipso facto sovereignty of the white man. Further-

more, the MeToo-movement, aiming at protecting

women from men, is seen as an attack on the

rightful rule over the sexual landscape, and there-

fore also an attack on said sovereignty.

Thus, Men’s Rights Activists are

not only interested in protecting

the rights of men, but also in

cutting short the rights of women.

Interestingly, MRAs and feminists focus on a lot

of the same issues; e.g. oppressing gender-based

stereotypes, violence and aggression in men,

the overlooking and ignoring of assault against

men, the skewed division of parental leave and

child care, and the lack of openness towards men

showing emotions among other issues. Howev-

er, where feminists see this as being the fault of

the patriarchal society and gender-based norms,

MRAs see feminism as the root cause.

Users attending the subreddit /r/mgtow are

also likely to attend other similar forums

- a higher number shows a higher propensity of

overlapping users.

https:/

/subredditstats.com/r/MGTOW

Users on /r/mgtow use certain words more than others, and these

keywords can give an understanding of the general attitude of the

forum, as well as the topics discussed. A higher number shows a more

frequent use of the word.

https:/

/subredditstats.com/r/MGTOW

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

The manosphere

MGTOWs

Whereas Men’s Rights Activists try to change society

to include more rights for men, Men Going Their

Own Way are trying to form new societies, free of

the burden of feminism. As MGTOW sees society as

defunct of meaning and power, as it has been cor-

rupted over the feminist growth and policy changes

in the last 20 years, MGTOW seeks to build commu-

nities and societies away from these ideologies.

MGTOW centers on the thought that women and

the feminist society are dangerous to men, and

that combating these is an act of self-preservation.

Women are using the gynocentric society and it’s

feminist strategies to ffmrst live in hypergamy in their

youth, by exchanging men for “higher value”-men

until they plateau because of their biologically

determined decline in beauty, where they will

make a man marry them, only to later divorce

him to take his money, and the relationship to the

kids she made him raise. This thought is build on

both an extremely malicious intent attributed to

all women, and a series of anti-men systemic poli-

cies, i.e. sexual autonomy by way of free abortions,

legal authority by way of bias against men in family

courts, and general female privilege in society.

Often MGTOW-communities will have a base in

political organizations ffmghting one or more of these

societal aspects, but many observed communi-

ties will be talking about “going ghost”, i.e. leaving

society, to live wholly outside of it. This thought

transcends national borders, and is mostly discussed

on a philosophical level in international forums, and

executed in smaller national or local groups.

Entering the misogynistic subreddits is often pref-

aced by a warning. When a subreddit is quaran-

tined, it is under supervision by forum moderators,

and could potentially be closed.

The largest international MGTOW platform is the

subreddit /r/mgtow which in early 2020 was quar-

antined, meaning it doesn’t show in search results,

and users have to directly type in the address to

access it. Before it’s quarantine it held more than

144.000 active users and subscribers, who have

since spread to other communities.

There’s a large overlap between the MG-

TOW-community and MensRights (typically MRA),

pussypassdenied (failed courting attempts) and

other aggressive and gendered subreddits.

The most used keywords indicate that the MG-

TOW-forum focuses on feminism and women to a

much higher degree than on the men themselves:

The term “plantation” is unique to the MGTOW-

ideology, and is a reference to the slaves in The

United States, who worked and lived on plantations,

and whose life was determined by the slave-owners

who held all rights, and beneffmtted from the work

of the slaves. Here, the men are slaves, the women

slave-owners and society is the plantation. To “leave

the plantation” means to leave society.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

PUAs

PUA - PickUp Artistry - is the effort of making a

science out of seduction. PickUp Artists hone their

skills through communities online, and in real

world-groups, that meet to apply and evaluate the

strategies and tips that have been learned online.

PUAs see women as goalkeepers or defensive

lines on a soccer pitch, that have to be defeated or

tricked before the prize - sex - can be had. These

strategies often focus on negating the woman’s

right to sexual autonomy, by trying to strategize

around the possibilities of her declining sex, and

as such is critical of feminism and female empow-

erment. PUA is not the art of getting her to say yes,

it is the art of not having her say no.

The PUA-community employs language that is

historically distinctly masculine, lending terminol-

ogy from sports, wars or business-settings. E.g.

the PUA will run games, strategies or attacks to

pick up the target or goal, some of which will try to

raise his market value or lower hers. This terminol-

ogy furthers the anti-feminist setting, as seduction

is reduced to either a battle to be won, or a hostile

business takeover to be done.

A lot of the strategies employed in PUA communi-

ties are said to be scientiffmc in nature, but very few

prove peer-reviewed or laboratory tested. Ideas

around neuro-linguistic programming, domi-

nance theory or

attraction triggers

linger on in the

community, yet all have been disproven to further

any seduction efforts. E.g. “negging” describes a

concept, where a woman’s idea of her own value is

diminished (typically by criticizing her) so that she

in turn will heed for the PUA’s acceptance, hope-

fully by sleeping with him.

One of many controversial aspects of the PUA

community is LMR tactics - Last Minute Resis-

tance Tactics. These are used if a target declines

actually having sex at the last minute - in the PUA’s

apartment, or even in bed. As PUA’s have been

the suspect of rape-charges, LMR tactics are

thought to circumvent any such allegations, whilst

still reaching the goal of having sex. LMR tactics

will often focus on “excuses” women can give

for declining sex, in spite of being in a sexually

charged situation. The PUA can say that he is okay

with having sex with a woman on her period, he

can take her hand and put it on his body instead of

touching her, etc. All in the name of lowering her

physical or mental resistance to having sex, and

convincing her that she wanted it.

LMR is criticized as a borderline rape-tool, but is

developed to tread the line between amoral and

illegal actions carefully.

Therefore there must be a strong

focus on communities demoting

women to targets, marks or goals

while at the same time discussing

how to “not-rape”.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

The manosphere

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Forums of

interest

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

Twitter

“When it happens, it happens on Twitter” is the famous slogan of

one of the world’s biggest social media. This has rung true since the

site’s rise to digital fame in the late 2000’s, not only for equalitarian

#MeToo- and #BLM-movements, but also for misogyny, personalized

attacks and sparks of radicalized violent movements

“When it happens, it happens on Twitter” is the

famous slogan of one of the world’s biggest social

media. This has rung true since the site’s rise to

digital fame in the late 2000’s, not only for equal-

itarian #MeToo- and #BLM-movements, but also

for misogyny, personalized attacks and sparks of

radicalized violent movements.

Twitter has been at the face of several problematic

and hateful campaigns directed at speciffmc people

and targeted at certain demographics. This, in

combination with the weight of being one of the

world’s biggest dynamic user-focused social net-

works, has led Twitter to implement restrictions on

topics discussed and words used. This promotes a

narrative in certain political circles that Twitter is a

leftist media, only lending attention to certain fac-

tions of politically correct socialist orientation. Con-

versely, proponents of that political wing are keen

on identifying and making an effort to cancel or

deplatform those that aggressively speak against

equality, integration or similar topics. In spite of

more than a decade worth of efforts to police and

moderate the tone on Twitter to align with an ev-

er-changing set of rules and terms of use, Twitter

is still a political battleffmeld where all manners of

political arguments in all directions are put forth,

especially seeing as the combattants have learned

how to mask attacks, and hide outright ffname wars

between the lines, so that the moderating algo-

rithms are struggling to ffmnd them.

Our highest priority is to protect the health of the

public conversation on Twitter, and an important

part of that is ensuring our rules and how we en-

force them are easy to understand. In the past, we’ve

allowed certain Tweets that violated our rules to

remain on Twitter because they were in the public’s

interest, but it wasn’t clear when and how we made

those determinations. To fix that, we’re introducing

a new notice that will provide additional clarity in

these situations, and sharing more on when and

why we’ll use it.

Twitter’s Blog, 2019

One example of Twitter moderating the discus-

sions on it’s site came in 2019, when the social

network famously chose to promote certain

Twitter-accounts to a lesser degree, mainly those

concerned with conservative and right-leaning

politics, and most famously of course, the account

of the President of The United States, Donald

Trump.

Hashtags

Twitter consists of one long feed. A user will choose

who to follow, and anything those users engage

with - either by commenting, retweeting or liking -

will in turn be fed into the user’s feed. The only way

to engage with discussions and posts outside of

one’s own, is by searching for hashtags.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

A hashtag is a search-tool so that users can ffmnd

all tweets in a certain topic, even from users

they don’t originally know. If, for example, a user

wants to take part in the #MeToo-discussions, but

no-one in their feed is tweeting about it, they can

search for “#MeToo” and be taken right into the

midst of the active discussions from other users,

where in turn they can choose to follow new

tweeters, thus expanding their own Twitter-feed

moving forward. Hashtags can also be used to

frame the tone of a tweet, and used to provoke or

mock a topic. If, for example, a user wants to criti-

cize the #MeToo-proponents by using the hashtag

#Idiocy or #FuckMeToo, their criticism would be

seen by extremely few users, unless they includ-

ed the original #MeToo-hashtag. Hashtags can

therefore become gateways into other discussions

or opinion “bubbles”.

The importance of hashtags to both frame and ffmnd

discussions, has meant that moderating hashtags

has become an important weapon for Twitter in

identifying and mitigating hate speech on the plat-

form. Any strategy employed via Twitter to mitigate

online hate speech should be concerned with

limiting or monitoring certain hashtags.

If a

If a famous anti-feminist is

famous anti-feminist is

tweeting that “They

corrode

tweeting that “They

corrode

society! Someone should put

them in their place with a firm

hand! Leeches on

on the working

hand! Leeches

the working

man should be

be scraped off and

man should

scraped off and

crushed under a steel toed boot!

#Enemyofthestate”

his

his followers

#Enemyofthestate”

followers

- and everybody else - know that

he is talking about feminists and

he is talking about feminists

women, even though

though he

and women, even

he does not

explicitly state this anywhere.

does not explicitly state this

He could in fact just be

in fact just

anywhere. He could

talking

about

talking

rats and leeches,

and

actual

about actual rats

thereby bypassing the moderat-

leeches, thereby bypassing the

ing

moderating algorithms.

algorithms.

As such, dog-whistling allows some hate speech to

slip through the cracks of the moderation algorithm

on Twitter and other social networks and media,

and makes it almost impossible to police the con-

tent and framing of discussions in online spheres.

Dog-whistling

The moderation of certain terms and hashtags

on Twitter has led to users mitigating the mod-

eration by using

dog-whistling

to discuss those

topics. Dog-whistling is when you make a term

so abstract that it cannot be proven what you are

talking about, but either by knowing you or by the

context of the discussion, it will be very apparent.

Hypothetical example.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

Reddit is a global roundtable-discussion of news, thoughts and

politics in both the digital and physical worlds. Based on user-

generated content and hosting more than 542 million monthly

users, the moniker of being the frontpage of the Internet is

warranted. As such, Reddit is one of the biggest hubs for both

discussing current news as well as historical ideas.

Reddit is set up as a discussion media. Users will

share either a link, a picture or a piece of text, and

other users will comment and up- or downvote the

content. The collected number of comments and

(positive) votes of each content piece creates a

sorting of all the content pieces, presenting users

with a

“frontpage of the internet”.

Reddit is big enough to have its own social gravi-

tational pull: Celebrities and companies have used

the platform to break news and do global inter-

views (Ask Me Anything’s - AMAs).

As it has gained popularity over the past decade,

Reddit has been strengthening its moderation

and anonymity policies, and several subreddits

have been banned or put under heavy modera-

tion. It has been especially necessary to moderate

or outright ban several subreddits focusing on

anti-feminism and misogyny, both from a political,

social, and sexual perspective.

Reddit is still a proponent of free speech, and is

only banning or moderating subreddits that are

conffnicting with (American) law: “We stand for free

speech. This means we are not going to ban dis-

tasteful subreddits. We will not ban legal content

even if we ffmnd it odious or if we personally con-

demn it” says Yishan Wong, then CEO of Reddit

In 2019 Reddit revised and strengthened their

moderation to not only include “systematic and/

or continued harassment”, but also “anything

that works to shut someone out of the conversa-

tion through intimidation or abuse, online or off”,

including “menacing someone, directing abuse at

a person or group, following them around the site,

encouraging others to do any of these actions, or

otherwise behaving in a way that would discourage

a reasonable person from participating on Reddit.”

BBC World News (2012). Reddit will not ban ‘distasteful’

content, chief executive says https:/

/www.bbc.com/news/

technology-19975375

www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/dbf9nj/

changes_to_our_policy_against_bullying_and/

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

This increase in moderation came at the behest

of the increased INCEL activity on Reddit, where

several subreddits were spreading the “science”

and politics of the virulently misogynistic move-

ment. Among others the subreddit r/braincels

was closed down, at the time hosting more than

41.000 subscribing users.

A subreddit has the same functionality as de-

scribed above, but only pertains to a certain topic

or idea. That can be anything from hobbies and

geographic regions to global agendas or humor-

istic content. Each subreddit will have it’s own

“frontpage”, and contribute to the global frontpage

where different subreddits can be trending.

Subreddits

Users are able to subscribe to subreddits.

subreddit is a subforum focused on a speciffmc

topic - e.g. r/mensrights focusing on the judicial

and societal rights of men. Most subreddits will

have sets of values ingrained throughout their

digital landscape, i.e. in the case of r/mensrights

an outspoken disdain of modern femininity and its

proponents. These values do not have to be in-

stalled by the originators of the subreddit, or even

the moderators. Sometimes they will be manifest-

ed by the users populating the subreddit.

That can for instance be seen with the most

upvoted picture ever in the subreddit, a ridicule of

how “tender” and scared the users of r/feminism

(an outspokenly pro-feminist subreddit) are:

A mocking screenshot from a discussion on the

pro-feminism forum /r/feminism on Reddit, where

an anti-feminism user from the anti-feminism board

r/mensrights is trolling the users to provoke

an action. He deems the fact that he was banned

from the forum a sign of success.

https:/

/subredditstats.com/r/Braincels

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

4chan

4chan is the world’s most (in)famous imageboard. An imageboard

is similar to any other digital forum, except from the fact that every

“thread” has to be started by the posting of an image, alongside

a textual component. Like Reddit, 4chan is solely based

on user-generated content.

4chan is home to more than 20 million monthly

users, and is by far the most visited imageboard

online today. Created as a safe-haven for geeks

and nerds in its early days, 4chan has since been

a hub for conspiracy theories, child pornogra-

phy, murder videos, political attacks and terrorist

manifestos. Although the giant site has cleaned

up it’s free speech-based act, it’s nickname as the

darkest corner of the internet still sticks. 4chan

is ffmrst and foremost an anonymous service. The

anonymity is both a core part of the framing of the

content on the board, and a ditto value upheld in

it’s content.

All discussions are initiated with both a picture and

text. Sometimes the text is the primary compo-

nent, and the image is only there to comply with

site rules, grab attention or exemplify the post’s

argument. Replies to the original post can either

be text, a picture, or both.

4chan is divided into seven main sections, each

with several smaller imageboards (not unlike Red-

dit’s subreddits):

•

Japanese Culture

Video Games

Interests

Creative

Other

Miscellaneous (NSFW

)

Adult (NSFW)

The Politically Incorrect board is home to any

political discussion ranging from gender-issues,

immigration, taxation, property, and anything in

between. Robot 9001 started out as a technical

experiment to nullify repeating posts, but quickly

became the digital homestead of those feeling

like robots around “real” people, and deteriorated

into those on the outside attacking both them-

selves and antagonizing the others - self pro-

claimed autists and socially rejected people are

the majority of the users, at the time of writing. The

Random-board is where “all the rest” goes, and

is often cited as “the toilet bowl of the internet”.

Absurd and grotesque ideas, pictures and senti-

ments are shared anonymously and as shockingly

as possible.

The anonymity of 4chan is both the goal and the

means. 4chan becomes the crucible of those

feeling downtrodden by the moderation and

non-anonymity of regular social media platforms

(Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) and

enables those feeling censored or persecuted to

speak freely and openly about “forbidden” top-

ics and ideas. Furthermore, this means that the

tone and rhetorical culture of 4chan oozes this

hyper-aggressive freedom of speech at every

possible time. With semantic ease users promote

suicide and sexual and racial slurs when discussing

ideas of feministic overlords controlling the sexual

market, shadow governments repressing society or

The Great Replacement.

They do so both to show

just how internet-tough they are, and how well they

know the very particular jargon of 4chan.

All sections encompass a wide variety of content,

yet three of the most proliffmc image boards, where

some of the famously controversial content has

been posted and shared, are from the Miscella-

neous chapter: Random (/b), Politically Incorrect

(/pol) and Robot 9001 (/r9k).

Their feeling of togetherness is

cemented both by the outspoken

us-and-them rhetoric and the

shared lingo.

Not Safe For Work - Typically used for erotic or otherwise

shocking content.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Many posts are also

shared on 4chan simply

to stir the pot, and

experimenting with

being as disruptive or

provocative as possible,

in an anonymousdigital

environment.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

As such, there is a lot of gate keeping on 4chan.

If there is any indication that you are a newcomer

(e.g. if you are not quite familiar with 4chan-lingo

or with how things are done at 4chan, or if you are

using “softer” words than the average 4chan user)

you will be told to “Get the fuck back to Plebbit

newfag!”

. Both the term “Plebbit” and the term

“newfag” are used derogatively, indicating

condescension and hate towards newcomers,

who, in the eyes of the inveterate 4chan user,

clearly does not understand the culture of 4chan,

and therefore does not belong.

day, as there would be a shooting, other users ei-

ther in spite or encouragement egged him on with

strategies, suggestions and jokes. He would go

on to murder nine peers, and wound eight, before

taking his own life. He wished to avenge a life of

social and romantic rejections.

Obviously these cases take media presence over

the millions of positive discussions about video

games, manga comics, pets or the intricacies of

overclocking a graphic card that are also present

on 4chan, but that does not mean that they out-

number them.

Headlines & Histories

When 4chan makes headlines in the news it is

most often as a result of having been used to post

manifests, videos or goodbye-notes before violent

attacks on women, young people, or minorities.

Such was the case of the Christchurch attack

in 2019, or the Toronto attack in 2018 (aimed at

muslims and women, respectively), the Oregon

Shooting, and - sadly - many more.

Shitposting in the name

of free speech

Shitposting is the action of making the biggest

effect with the least effort, usually by saying some-

thing outrageous or extremely provocative.

4chan has for more than a decade been the free

speech and anonymity hotspot of the internet.

Seeing as it lacks the possibility for users to create

accounts, or any other sort of digital continuity, it

is more comprehensible when considered a tool

rather than a social media, like Facebook. On most

regular social media platforms, one participates

in discussions and posts via one’s proffmle (picture),

creating a social responsibility to uphold a look -

a digital perception of one’s life. 4chan reverses

this notion, as the user’s identity is nulliffmed, and

the focus instead put on the singular posts and

discussions he/she is a part of.

This in turn means, that 4chan is also readily avail-

able for anyone who wishes to share a “product”

(post) with potentially millions of users, without

having an already existing platform - i.e. on Twitter

no-one would listen to a newly created user post-

ing hateful content, as most other users simply

would not see it. On 4chan it is there for everyone

to see.

Albeit a frightening trend to see manifests and

videos of violent extremism, mostly targeted at

women and minorities, spewed from the same

platform, one must consider if these are a result of

the culture of the platform’s users, or of the plat-

form’s openly anonymous availability.

Many posts are also shared on 4chan simply

stir the pot,

and experimenting with being as

disruptive or provocative as possible, in an anon-

ymous digital environment. Both memes, who

derive humoristic meaning through repetition, and

shitposts who in turn do so from shock-value, take

up the vast majority of space in the infamous /pol

and /b boards.

An anonymous user warns hypothetical classmates

of going to school the day after the post. The post

was later attributed to Chris Harper Mercer.

As the would-be shooter Chris Harper-Mercer po-

tentially warned 4chan of going to school the next

“Plebbit” is demeaning 4chan-slang for Reddit

4chan.org/pol, post-id: 249901456

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Denoting the difference between shitposts made

to stir the pot, and what users actually feel, does

not come down to an exact science. Some posts

are made with such an exaggeration that they are

obviously made for fun. Others are impossible to

deem either serious or shitpost. It is important to

be aware that not only can the initial attitude of

certain posts elude those on the outside of the

4chan-understanding, they can also be masked to

the users frequenting the forum everyday. In many

such cases, the meaning attributed to the post will

be projected by the reader, and therefore

shitpost-

ing done just to stir the pot can conffmrm certain

toxic or aggressive perspectives for just those

users looking for exactly that.

Therefore shitposts

are also part of the aggressive content that can

and will shift the discourse of the discussion, i.e.

the Overton Window.

Outside of Politically Incorrect and Random, the

biggest boards on 4chan are Video Games General,

Video Games, International

, Anime

& Manga

Television & Film, Business & Finance, Sports and

lastly Otaku

Culture. Even though the tone in all

forums is extremely harsh and purposely offen-

sive, most content is either shitposts, memes or

topic-related discussions.

As 4chan is permeated by vitriol and offensive

terms and rhetoric, it serves a bilateral purpose

of excluding “easily” offended digital tourists just

browsing the imageboards to scrape the virtual

surface, and as an inclusory factor allowing the

veteran users to communicate in a weird rule

bound digital dialect of English, where everyone

is a (new/old/jew/internet)-fag, and acronyms as

n00b, mfw, OP and more, are the semantic

cornerstones on which the chat-based discus-

sions are built.

Hergovich, A., Schott, R., Burger, C. (2010), “Biased eval-

uation of abstracts depending on topic and conclusion:

Further evidence of a conffmrmation bias within scientiffmc

psychology”, Current Psychology.

Memes focused on stereotypes of countries.

Japanese animation style.

Japanese comic style.

A certain Japanese culture. Often used for people ob-

sessed with manga and anime.

The most popular forums on 4chan, and the

frequency with which posts in them are made.

(From 4stats.io)

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

8chan & 8kun

If 4chan is the self-proclaimed enfant terrible of the internet, then

8chan et. al. are the uglier step-siblings. As 4chan in the early

2010’s started implementing several moderation- and logging-rules

after an increase in digital attacks from the platform (swatting

and doxxing), former user Frederick ‘Hotwheels’ Brennan dreamt up

a digital bulwark for free speech and openness, and created

8chan as an evolution of the 4chan that had grown too politically

correct to host truly meaningful discussions and opinions.

8chan has since its creation in 2013 been subju-

gated to server-shutdowns and legislative turmoil,

which has led the infamous site to be taken offline,

only to reemerge under a new name or as a

spiritual successor several times. Currently 8chan

can be found both as 8chan, and 8kun, both sites

currently owned and operated by partially over-

lapping administrations.

Although 4chan and subsequently 8chan derived

their name from the channel-suffix, the change

from 8chan to 8kun can be understood as an

evolution from the Japanese -chan suffix, used for

addressing young children, to the -kun suffix, used

for addressing adult men. The symbolism seems

to be that 8kun is the adult version of the already

infamously and aggressively adult 8chan.

8chan is built in the image of 4chan, and is also an

imageboard consisting of user-generated content,

with a focus on image-based communication and

memes to support the classic text-based commu-

nication. The images can both be in direct relation

to the text, an explanation thereof, or something to

“set the tone” of the post, or mock the topic.

The “frontpage” (top) of a popular national socialis-

tic subforum on 8kun, depicting both the rules and

semantics of this particular board, and a meme

(“humoristic” drawing) of a supposed jew.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Even though the prototypical conspiracy theories

of jewish overlords, feministic hiveminds con-

trolling society or the likes thereof permeate much

of the content on 8chan, the majority of the dis-

cussions are still centered around nerdy hobbies

and pop culture.

As seen from the frontpage of 8kun, some of the

most active and popular boards concern current

news and political debates, video games, faith,

technology etc. All of these topics are also widely

covered on more easily accessible sites and forums,

such as Reddit, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Notably, 8kun, 8chan and associated boards are

also home to discussions and subcultures concern-

ing topics that partakers might not want to discuss

openly. This could very well be extremist political

views, hateffmlled gender-discussions, or it could be,

as seen in the screenshot, fantasies of wearing a

diaper, sharing of “boypussy” pictures, interracial

pornography or partaking in the tickling refuge.

Here, only the video games-, christianity-, and

news-discussions are marked as SFW - Safe for

Work - whereas every other board is open to sex-

ual, derogatory or extremely aggressive content.

Rhetorical pins and needles

As most boards on 8chan/8kun contain hateful

and extremely off putting rhetoric, one must note

that this serves two distinct purposes:

Inclusivity

In many internet-forums and boards, knowing the

linguistic landscape is a certain way to ffmt in. Know-

ing that no-one calls women “women”, but refer to

them as

foids

roasties,

and that other users are

some kind of

fag

- be it

newfag, oldfag, normalfag

or a similarily condescending term - it is all a

linguistic hoop to jump through to make sure that

all those partaking in the discussion are also part

of the subculture. By chastising or ignoring users

applying the “wrong” language, veteran users can

make sure that to be a part of the boards, you

have to make an effort to ffmt in. Therefore, once

you have been “accepted” (i.e. not being openly

attacked after posting), you might be inclined to

feel included in a digital social club - not unlike

hazing-rituals in fraternities.

Exclusivity

The extreme animosity of boards such as 8chan

and 8kun, even between established users (or,

at least users adhering to the unwritten linguistic

rules), also serves as a social deterrent for curious

digital tourists. The monikers and social shorthand

is not only hard to understand at ffmrst, but after

mastering the abbreviations and slang also largely

offensive. Thus, it serves to give a level of discom-

fort for the uninitiated reader, keeping the boards

exclusively to those sharing their linguistic ideals.

Screenshot from the front page of 8kun

25/08/2020, showing some of the most popular

boards, topics and keywords.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

As Prof. Mary Bucholtz notes

“Slang is a kind of

“anti-language”, to use Halliday’s (1976) term, or, in

Morgan’s (1993) revision of Halliday, a “counter-lan-

guage”, through which a shared youth identity is re-

produced against a dominant norm.” and continues

“Variation in slang use, like music fandom, clothing

and hairstyles, allows teenagers to identify them-

selves with some of their peers while differentiating

themselves from others; in short, it enables teen-

agers to produce distinctive linguistic and cultural

styles. In fact, slang is a crucial linguistic element for

the creation and discplay of coolness, an orienta-

tion to youth-central trends. Such an orientation is

a central value of all forms of youth culture, and

hence slang fulfills a unifying function for all teen-

agers who strive for coolness, insofar as displaying

knowledge of rapidly changing youth slang allows

teenagers to bolster their credentials as individuals

who are on top of current trends.”

Imageboards like 8chan and 8kun use aggressive

and unique language to serve as a sociolinguis-

tic counter-culture, and digital revolution against

the social norms in the form of moderation and

non-anonymous speech they perceive on most

other sites.

The Christchurch-terrorist ffmrst uploaded his

manifesto

The Great Replacement

, arguing how

(Islamic) immigration was eroding society, and how

the policies of the current government to promote

diversity and inter-racial equality was to blame.

Just prior to the attack that killed 51 and wounded

49, he started a Facebook-based live-stream of

the attack, and promoted the link on 8chan.

The link and stream was quickly removed from

both Facebook and 8chan, but users on 8chan

kept re-posting both the manifest and video,

linking it from different ffmle-sharing services, as to

keep eluding the bans from the site’s owners and

moderators.

Terror, massmurder

and misogyny

As 8chan rose to relative infamy in digitally

inclined circles throughout the early 2010’s, it’s

mainstream “breakthrough”came in the latter half

of the same decade, as the anonymous platform

became the launching pad for several manifestos,

videos and live streams of violence, mass mur-

ders and terrorist attacks, all directed at women or

minorities. Most notoriously, the perpetrators from

Christchurch, Poway, and El Paso uploaded their

manifestos and videos (Christchurch), promoting

extremist and radical ideas before committing acts

of violence to promote and further said ideas.

The Great Replacement, Christchurch terrorist

An Open Letter, the Poway-terrorist

Monaghan, L., Goodman, J. E. & Robinson, J. M. (Eds.) (2012).

A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal Communication:

Essential Readings, 2nd Edition. Wiley-Blackwell

As noted earlier, there is a substantial overlap between

ffmghting for a racially pure society, and actively combating

feminism, and feminists.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

In Poway, California, the perpetrator of the syna-

gogue-shooting and mosque-burning uploaded

an open letter to 8chan addressing white genocide

and blaiming it on muslims, jews, and feminists,

before attacking and killing several innocent peo-

ple. The perpetrator also made efforts to lives-

tream his attack on 8chan, but failed in doing so.

The manifesto details relations to 8chan’s /pol/-

board, and direct comments to “anons”, encourag-

ing them to let the Poway attacks spark more and

increasingly violent attacks on minorities.

Hours before commencing the attack in El Paso,

Texas, the perpetrator shared a short manifesto ex-

plaining his reasoning. Explaining that America was

rotting from the inside out

because of hispanic im-

migrants, and the soft policies enabling it, such as

healthcare, immigration efforts etc. The manifesto

was quickly removed, but has since been uploaded

many times on 8chan’s boards.

One common denominator in the manifestos and

videos uploaded on 8chan in this period of time is

that all the perpetrators acknowledge each other,

and the culture they feel they represent.

As previously mentioned, many such digitally

consolidated subcultures don’t have any direct

leaders or spokespeople, but are instead internally

referencing those who have said the most, in the

loudest way possible. Those that they are sure

that others know, and can reference. One way to

become such a reference point is to, in the words

of the Christchurch-terrorist,

stop shitposting and

make a real life effort.

The Inconvenient Truth, the El Paso-terrorist

The Christchurch-terrorist referencing Dylan Roof (Charleston-

attack in 2015), and Anders Breivik (Utøya-attack in 2011).

The Poway-terrorist referencing the

Christchurch-attacker

The El Paso-terrorist also referencing the Christchurch-attacker.

The Christchurch-terrorist sharing his manifesto

and linking to his video on 8chan.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

7-, 16-, End-,

Dream-chan, and

many more

Most imageboards with the chan-suffix are structured in a similar

vein. All share a simplistic design, employing an increased focus on

content rather than accessibility - providing a “you have to be smart

and not vain to use this site”-attitude to its users. This generates

a feeling of familiarity to chan-users, who can transition from one

board to another - which they often do - seemingly effortlessly.

When a board comes under the scrutiny of es-

tablished media or even legislation, and is under

threat of surveillance or moderation, users often

migrate from one board to another. As there are

no usernames, or any other digital credit-score,

nothing substantial is lost when changing virtual

pasture. Most chan-sites have the same general

ideals and political freedom, so changing from

8chan to 4chan is simply a matter of habit.

If one considers 4chan as the primordial western

imageboard, and 8chan as the successor, smaller

boards like 7chan, 16chan, EndChan, DreamChan

etc. have all been made with neglectable philo-

sophical changes, or to create safe havens when

prior boards have been closed down.

In 2019, as 8chan was shut down following the

attacks in Christchurch and El Paso, users mi-

grated to other chans in such numbers that even

though the users themselves are not discernible,

the amount of traffic generated implied a digital

migration:

“These increases in traffic to 8ch.net and 4chan.org

could suggest that people that are unfamiliar with

what 8chan is are going to the site because of the

media frenzy surrounding it, and recurring visitors

to 8ch.net are now switching to 4chan.org, follow-

ing the shutdown of 8ch.net”

said Ilana Marks of

SimilarWeb to The Guardian

, and CEO of digital

investigation company Memetic, Benjamin Decker,

agreed: “The removal of 8chan is just crossing one

more platform off the list they won’t be using for

the time being, but it won’t necessarily disrupt the

community structure.”

In general the deplatforming approach seems

to only temporarily disrupt the targeted stream

of hate speech and communication, and only

encourages it’s perpetrators to either hide in

the anonymous dark web, or to migrate to other

smaller and more obscure platforms.

Paul, K. (2019). 8chan: ex-users of far-right site ffnock to new

homes across internet. The Guardian.

Ibid.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Incels.co

Incels.co is the largest forum dedicated to users subscribing to

the incel-ideology. Here users can address, voice and discuss topics

relating to their involuntary celibacy, or the factors that have led to it.

The site is a classic forum divided into three separate subgroupings

(and a meta-group where one can suggest changes for the site).

Certain discussions will be elevated to must-read

status, and is seen as “The

most noteworthy and

thought-provoking threads out there”

(incels.co). In

the Inceldom Discussion-forum users can share

experiences and strategies pertaining to being an

incel - certain situations might have had an emo-

tional impact, or articles from either academia or

mainstream can be discussed, if relating to incels.

In the OffTopic-forum (nicknamed “The Sewers”)

everything else ffmts; discussions of video games,

news stories, other websites etc.

The site as a whole necessarily acknowledges the

idea that inceldom is a thing; that there is an ob-

jective scale to measure one’s sexual attractive-

ness, and that sexual relations are to be thought

of as an economy. The very local lingo consoli-

dates these ideas and the prevailing terminology

is very distinct:

•

“Fuel” is used to describe thoughts, stories or

articles driving one towards a certain state or

mood. “Lifefuel” is inspiring or hopeful scenar-

ios. “Ragefuel” are deemed so as they make

one rage. “Suicidefuel” (“Suifuel”) supposedly

drives one towards suicide etc.

•

“Pills” are meant as descriptors of one’s state

of enlightenment

. Bluepills are unaware of

the unfairness of life, redpills are aware, and

blackpills have given up on changing the

fact of unfairness. Terms such as “Heightpill”

means to have acknowledged that height is

a determining factor in sexual attraction - a

factor that the object has no control over.

Acronyms such as JFL (“Just fucking lol” -

there’s nothing to do but laugh hopelessly

about this), AWALT (“All women are like that”

- used after stories about one woman to

describe that it is typical of all women), NEET

(“Not in Employment, Education or Training” -

used to explain one’s social situation) etc. are

used as a shorthand to quickly get to the point,

and to create a inclusive linguistic paradigm

The front page of incels.co - the world’s largest

incel forum

The idea was made famous by the Wachowski Sisters’

movie, The Matrix (1999).

Described in the section on 8chan & 8kun - Rhetorical Pins

and Needles.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

The Must-Read Content is made up of many

different topics:

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

All threads on incels.co are given a coloured tag

to make it easily searchable. Blackpill-threads are

proof of the futility of trying to change one’s (incel)

situation and take up a rather large portion of the

digital space.

Currently, the Must-Read forum is made up of the

following categories of threads:

•

Total: 107

Blackpill: 72

No tag: 10

Serious: 5

It’s Over: 3

SuicideFuel: 3

LifeFuel: 2

Tinder Experiment: 2

Ragefuel: 2

News: 2

Discussion: 2

TeeHee: 1

JFL: 1

Experiment: 1

Based: 1

simply non-PC. I support freedom of speech within

legal bounds, so when reddit banned them I made

a forum where there wouldn’t be pseudo-arbitrary

banning based on political beliefs or public rela-

tions recommendations.

On the other hand, the community

is filled with people who are at

their lowest. They suffer, they are

alone, and while they can talk

about their plight in other spaces,

most people simply don’t get their

issue. They will be suggested to

keep trying, man up, be more

confident, etc; many of these

are unreasonable, unrealistic, or

make little of the suffering the

person is going through.

Thus, many people were left “homeless” when the

subreddit was banned. The forum attempts to recre-

ate such a home for some of them.

To the question of whether or not the rhetorically

aggressive, towards both men and women, site is

a help, he further explains:

I know for a fact it helps many. Over the years people

have posted about it, messaged me explaining how

it helped them in their daily lives, or just by mak-

ing friends on the forum. Obviously, it doesn’t help

everyone. Like any community that reaches a certain

critical mass of users, there will be people who feel

trapped (think social media addicts) or who feel the

forum is detrimental to them (think Facebook making

users unhappy). It’s a matter of perspective.

And further shares this discussion, in which a user

attributes the community of incels.co as the rea-

son to why he hasn’t committed suicide yet:

Blackpill-threads make up 67% of the Must-Read

threads, and is a good marker for the negative

weight of the must-read threads.

In total the negatively biased categories Black-

pill, It’s Over, SuicideFuel and RageFuel have

must-read discussions, making up 84% of the total

must-read content.

The neutrally biased categories No tag, Serious,

Tinder Experiment, News, Discussion, TeeHee,

JFL, Experiment and Based have a total of 15

must-read discussions. The positively biased cate-

gory LifeFuel has only

2 must-read

discussions.

Emotionally Homeless

For outsiders it can be hard to understand the

attraction - or even existence - of a site such as

incels.co, but in spite of the negative rhetoric,

owner and proprietor of incels.co, Alexander Ash

explains the necessity of the site as such:

Originally, what attracted me the most about the

incel community was its carefree way of talking. You

might notice there is no self-censoring or worry for

(unreasonable) censorship from moderators. Reddit

banned the /r/incel community partly because it

was not polite, not family friendly, because it found

the beliefs of some of the users as incorrect or

[...]”Gotta say signing up here was probably the

best decision I ever made. I’m being 100% serious

when I say that I probably would’ve roped

An online pseudonym, not his real name.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

[comitted suicide by hanging, eds.] many times

by now if I didn’t have a place to vent, especially

in the summer of 2018 which was by far the worst

period of my life. Fuck anyone who says this isn’t a

good support group tbh”

Thread from 26/7 2020, incels.co

Though the discrepancy between gathering in a

forum with such a derogatory rhetoric for women,

whilst still wanting the attention or companionship

of one, Ash explains:

Naturally, most people wish to be in a loving rela-

tionship, that much is no mystery.

With that said, these people experience or have ex-

perienced constant rejection from the opposite sex.

They see instead that social dynamics dictate that

typically the most attractive men attract women,

with little regard for personality or other factors; at

the same time, women tend to claim that personal-

ity is what matters the most, and not attractiveness.

There is either a cognitive dissonance going on, or

a lie being thrown in their face. They are told to ap-

proach more, get haircuts, take showers, go to the

gym, to be positive - but their plights are ignored or

dismissed, and they are given again and again the

same advice that they know (for the vast majority)

does not work in practice.

At the core of Ash’s thoughts about the commu-

nity he has created, there seems to be a claim for

understanding and unmoderated emotionally lad-

en discussion. A room to “vent20”, and to discuss

the things that might be true to one person, but

are not easily understood by most.

- Any speciffmc authors you think are doing a good

- or speciffmcally bad - job? [At understanding and

describing incels, eds.]

•

I couldn’t name any one specifically. There’s

a hundred publications from independent

organizations that are doing terrible work. No

one that’s doing a remarkable job. If someone

comes to mind I’ll let you know.

Do you think that academia today understands the

incel-culture?

•

The short answer is no. The long answer is that

they are making some progress in regards to

the incel-radicalization area, though some of it

is questionable. In terms of inceldom as a life

circumstance, they have made practically zero

progress.

Hopefully, I can help change that someday.

Incels.co is the digital home of more than 12.000

active users.

- What do you think societies - or advisory projects

like this one - can do for incels?

•

Change their attitude towards incels from see-

ing them as potential terrorists to lonely people

who need understanding. Seeing all of them as

terrorists only shows how ignorant our society is

of the community as large.

Ventilate one’s feelings and thoughts, i.e. share them openly.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Looksmax.me

Looksmax.me is a forum for involuntary celibate men to discuss

their possibilities of “looksmaxxing”. That is, to increase (maximize)

their looks to the highest of their potential, in order to achieve

the sexual attention of desirable women. Whereas incels.co has a

distinctively “blackpilled” outlook on inceldom (as in, the situation

is inevitable and cannot be changed), looksmax.me applies a more

“redpilled” approach: The cornerstone here is that looks matter the

most, and the users should strive for objective good looks.

One of the basic philosophies of Looksmax is that

good looks are objective, and certain biological

traits can be maximized through surgery, exercise,

clothing or other strategies. Attraction is consid-

ered to be a (complicated) mathematical calcu-

lation, where strengths are to be maximized, and

weaknesses ffmxed or hidden:

Overview of looks-factors, from looksmax.me.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

The discussions on Looksmax.me range from

analyzing current looks to understanding the

nature of good looks and evaluations of strategies

for maximization. As a whole the community and

communication seems to be much more focused

on ffmnding solutions to the involuntary celibacy,

than to “vent” about it. It must be noted, though,

that the basic premise of the site is that looks can

be calculated from the sum of their parts, and that

looks are the deciding factor in sexual attention

and relationships.

This causal base understanding of relationships

can be thought to deprive both men and wom-

en of sexual autonomy, and can furthermore be

understood to reduce attraction to an economic

idea, where men must unfairly struggle to afford

the bare sexual necessities, unless they are born

into (aesthetical) wealth.

rich, styling hair to fake a more attractive cranium

or wearing clothes accentuating positive traits or

hiding bad ones.

Involuntary celibate men are to a certain degree

vulnerable. One can imagine that there must be

a threat to the wellbeing of such men, when pre-

sented with a spectrum of things about their looks

that

could

be wrong, and outside their power of

control. Further, if this spectrum of potential faults

are said to be derived from how women necessar-

ily view men, then it can easily become a narra-

tive that the women - though not directly having

voiced any of these thoughts - are to blame for

the men’s ffnaws.

Thus, women become the

enemy, and the sexual autonomy

of women becomes the weapon

with which they keep men

downtrodden.

What on the surface appears to be a supportive

environment for men to do better and feel better

about themselves, can also be a community that

points out that you MUST do something. Other-

wise you are not good enough.

One of the most read discussions on Looksmax.

me, titled “Guests and new users Please Read”

describes the predicament of the users as such:

Frontpage of looksmax.me

Most of Looksmax.me reads as a coaching- or

improvement-community, where users can have

their efforts or looks analyzed and discussed for

improvement. One threat associated with such an

approach can be that if users analyze attraction

as a sum of biologically determined parts - height

of skull, shape of nose, depth of eyes, protrusion

of cheekbones etc. - 99,9% of people would ffmnd

something wrong with themselves. Something

they could not change. This leads most users to

talk about coping - to ffmnd strategies to make up

for lost attractiveness, by being (or appearing)

““Why do these guys care so much about looks?

isn’t that what girls do? Guys just have to be confi-

dent. Girls are less visual and care way more about

personality than looks.” This is a lie. [...] But what

it really means is: “Girls only have strong sexual

desires for the top 10-20 percent of men, they are

more visually PARTICULAR than men, who would

smash almost anything.” Let me run you through

some examples of scenarios where the way you

LOOK affects how girls react.”

https:/

/looksmax.me/threads/guests-and-new-users-

please-read.18461/

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

and further exempliffmes the situation:

This being one of the most read threads, and

the one new users and guests are asked to read,

labels it as a sanctioned and site-wide supported

opinion. The point of the thread is simply to explain

the perceived “fact”, that either men are born with

objectively attractive features, or must “cope” with

their lack thereof, simply because women will

evaluate them on an aesthetical scale ffmrst and

foremost, and this will determine how women view

all further romantic efforts.

Two modified examples of the same man - one

made to be not attractive (weak chin, non-accented

jaw line etc.) and the other it’s opposite, and a show-

ing of how women would supposedly react different-

ly to the same approach by these “two” men.

and

Guys: If you made a girl laugh today (because you

know you have to entertain a girl because otherwise

she won’t give a shit about you), and you’re ugly,

she’ll go home tonight without thought of you on her

mind. Brutal Truth: If you were hot and said the same

joke, she’d be writing about you in her diary, texting

her friends about you about how funny you are.

She would stalk your Instagram and try to find out

everything about you.

The shape of your skull was

the only difference.

Most, if not all, men and women have experienced

being rejected romantically and/or sexually. If

users in a digital vacuum, where women are not

allowed22, analyze each other’s rejections, there

is a threat of the users searching for a concrete

reason for being rejected which entails the reason

to be ffmxable, and thus the rejection to be recon-

sidered. This emphasizes sexual relationships and

courting as the men’s responsibility, and in turn

negates the sexual autonomy of women, and at-

tributes a malicious, or at least capitalistic, sexual

mindset to them.

Looksmax.me hosts more than 6.000 active users.

Same example as above; two versions of the same

man supposedly getting different reactions from

women on the same approach.

The site’s rules state that women are not allowed, and will

be banned “on sight”. (https:/

/looksmax.me/threads/rules-

and-faq.1/)

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

Gab

Gab is a social network made in the likeness of Twitter.

As Facebook and Twitter began to moderate politically extremist

topics and police discussions with bans and deletions, some users

began to search for similar but less moderated alternatives. Gab was

one such network, made specifically to ensure the users almost

total free speech, no matter the political alignment

or moral weight of the discussed topics.

Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone, 200823

In 2015 Gab was created as a free speech-haven

for users disinclined to support Twitter, as more

and more users thought the established main-

stream platforms - Facebook, news media and of

course, Twitter - to be left-leaning and promoting

socialist or democratic views rather than conser-

vative or (alt) right counterparts. Andrew Torba, the

founder of Gab, explained the platform’s need for

creation as:

“What makes the entirely left-leaning Big Social mo-

nopoly qualified to tell us what is ‘news’ and what is

‘trending’ and to define what “harassment” means?”

he said. “It didn’t feel right to me, and I wanted to

change it, and give people something that would be

fair and just.”

Andrew

Torba, 2016

In its creation, Gab was meant to be a free

speech-based platform. However, it was creat-

ed in an environment where those that felt they

needed room for free(er) speech than Twitter and

Facebook could offer, were typically belonging

to a conservative or extreme right political group.

Famous users like the alt right-spokesperson and

former Breitbart journalist Milo Yiannopoulos,

made a high-proffmle switch to Gab, after being

permanently banned from Twitter in 2017. He was

banned for continuous harassment of BLM-propo-

nent and active feminist, Leslie Jones.

Gab looks like Twitter, but has a different political

scope

Gab was the digital homestead of the Pittsburgh

terrorist, who in 2018 killed 11 people in a syna-

gogue, only shortly after having posted “HIAS24

likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t

sit by and watch my people get slaughtered.” on

his Gab proffmle. The attacker had made multiple

anti-semitic and extreme (alt) right comments on

the platform.

Shortly after the attack Gab was taken offline,

as the server provider cancelled their support. Gab

has since come back online.

Schiffman, B. (2008). Twitterer Takes on Twitter Harassment

Policy. Wired.com

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a refugee organization.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

The very lax content standards have led to criti-

cism of Gab as a hotbed of especially anti-semitic,

national socialism, and alt right-opinions. As none

of these are explicitly against Gab’s terms of ser-

vice, but would warrant moderation or bans from

Twitter, they naturally congregate on Gab.

One threat of free speech-platforms like Gab is

that if only one political ideology feels a need for

free speech, those views will seldom be chal-

lenged and it therefore effectively becomes a

digital echo chamber. This incentivises a strong us

vs. them-narrative, as noted on both Gab, incels.

co, 8chan etc. where users talk of “normies”, blue-

pills, soyboys and more, as a political and societal

opponent, though without engaging in discussions

with them, as they are on separate platforms.

Gab’s standards for posted content

The lack of open discussion

and equal exchange of ideas can

be a threat to any democratic

foundation.

Gab does not share it’s user statistics openly, but

is estimated to have more than 400.000 active

users. Twitter in comparison has 300.000.000.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

Communication

platforms

For users concerned with government surveillance of

communication - either because they are politically active or

because they ideologically dislike the thought hereof - usual

messaging services like Messenger, WhatsApp (both owned by

Facebook and not encrypted), or regular texting (SMS - not

encrypted), are too vulnerable or open to use freely.

Therefore many users from the target group of

this report will use services like:

•

Signal

Viber

Line

Threema

Wicky

Cyphr

Dark Web-based email clients such as Pro-

tonmail.

to discuss more sensitive information, or anything that

would breach the (albeit low) limits for content shared

on open platforms. This in turn means that for reports

and analysis of such subcultures, authors looking to

uncover a cesspool of coordinated attacks on speciffmc

women, policy makers or organizations, will be sorely

disappointed, as these will always be moved to a se-

cure communication service.

In semi-open communication media, like Discord, one

might ffmnd designated “attack coordinations”, like this

example from a Men’s Rights Activist-network:

But the content thereof is rather tame memes and

drawings that can be used to counter-argue feminist

debates in other online forums.

Designated “attack coordinations” from a Men’s

Rights Activist-network on Discord.

Examples of content on the designated attack

coordination from a Men’s Rights Activist-network

on Discord.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

The reason(s) for

opting out of

mainstream media

becomes a

congregational

aspect of the

newfound digital

community

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Forums of interest

Sub-conclusion

Almost all social media platforms relying on user-generated

content host misogynistic content to a greater or lesser extent.

The forums described here have been selected due to their more

or less outspoken ties to the misogynistic communities, and

their roles as hosts to proponents of radical free speech. The list

is not exhaustive, as migration constantly happens and new forums

appear too often to finitely map, but at the time of writing the list

covers the most active forums of relevance to this project.

The common denominator for both communi-

cation platforms and the forums of interest is the

incredibly strong sense of in-group identiffmcation,

and increased sense of oppositional mindset.

What seems to be a unifying trait is that the use

of these platforms arise from users opting out of

Facebook Messenger, Snapchat etc., rather than

opting in to these. The reason(s) for opting out of

mainstream media becomes a congregational

aspect of the newfound digital community, where

an obvious feeling of being smarter and/or better

than the users who are still “stuck” at Facebook,

Snapchat and Instagram.

This dynamic is in itself not a threat to neither

wellbeing, democracy or equality, but becomes

just that when the new groups actively antago-

nize the communication or speaker engaging via

Facebook etc. When the consolidation of new

communities is done at the cost of others, it has

become radicalized and is a threat to the free

speech that is a foundation of both democracy

and progressiveness.

The use of fringe media and platforms is there-

fore only worrying insofar the content is, though

an inquiry as to why so many users opt out of

the same platforms the rest of us use every day

seems very important.

In the following a quantitative extent analysis will

be brought, and an estimate of the amount of

active Nordic users posting misogynistic content

will be given.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Mapping the extent of online misogyny within the Nordic contries

Mapping

the extent

of online

misogyny

within the

Nordic

countries

The aim of this section is to assess the extent of

online misogyny in the Nordic countries, and to gain

insights into the Nordic adherence to an overtly

misogynist ideology on the social media platforms

Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan. The main contribution

in this section is an estimate of the number of

Nordic users engaging in misogynistic speech who

actively contributed content to the platforms during

the course of three years (June 26th, 2017 to June

26th, 2020) in the misogynistic areas of the three

platforms Reddit, 4chan and Twitter.

The analysis was based solely on publicly avail-

able data obtained through public APIs or scraping

and processed in accordance with GDPR.

On these platforms it is common to be anonymous

posing certain difficulties in determining national-

ity. To overcome these difficulties multiple search

strategies were developed and applied described

in detail in the following.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Methodological

principles

The quantitative estimate of the number of active

Nordic users contributing misogynistic content to the

platforms is reached by combining expert knowledge

of misogynistic online environments of Center for

Digital Youth Care (CDYC) and the long experience

with online forums and digital hate speech of Anal-

yse & Tal F.M.B.A. Certain methodological choices

have been made, the following ffmve principles

have

formed the basis of said choices:

Users engaging in online misogyny form an

inherently digital subculture. Their preva-

lence may therefore be estimated solely

based on the digital traces they leave

Users engaging in online misogyny constitute

an inherently digital subculture and no physical

equivalent has been encountered yet. The

community consists of user-generated online

content (text, images, videos) that is shared in

dedicated forums. Therefore it is assumed that

the size and nature of the environment can be

analyzed solely by studying the relevant posts,

comments, and metadata (usernames, time

codes, subforums, etc.) within these forums.

edge of online misogyny and subsequently

by mapping subreddits with a large overlap

of users.

3. Nordic users cannot be identiﬁed solely

based on their language

The “internationality” that characterizes both

platforms and users of interest to this project

result in most dialogue unfolding in English.

AI-based language recognition of Nordic

languages will therefore not be sufficient in

order to estimate the number of Nordic users.

The identiffmcation of activity carried out using

Nordic languages must be supplemented

by a search for discussions relating to Nordic

countries unfolding in English.

The discourse of users engaging in misogy-

nism is characterized by a pronounced use

of neologisms (slang)

Users engaging in misogyny are known to

interact with and identify one another through

a unique language with self-invented terms.

Presumably, relevant content can – for the

most part – be identiffmed by a linguistic ffmlter

built around this distinctive language.

User engaging in misogyny often seek

anonymity

Forums centered around misogynistic views

are characterized by a high degree of ano-

nymity. Many users make use of VPN con-

nections to hide the digital markers that may

reveal their nationality and identity. Users do

provide a username on Reddit and Twitter,

but there are no serious veriffmcation process-

es and individuals can easily hide behind

multiple different user accounts.

“Communities” with misogynistic content

can overly be limited to 208

dedicated

subforums

The socialization and content sharing of

misogyny takes place in speciffmc subforums

(subreddits and boards). Since the content

and ideology is reasonably controversial,

active misogynists tend to share their material

and views in dedicated, often anonymous,

forums. Thus, it has been possible to narrow

down the data collection to certain subreddits

and boards related to either the international

misogynist movement or the Nordic countries.

The selection of subforums has been carried

out on the basis of the project group’s knowl-

The ffmve characteristics are in agreement with the character-

ization of the misogynistic communities made by the Swed-

ish Defence Research Agency previously this year. https:/

www.foi.se/report-summary?reportNo=FOI%20Memo%20

7040

204 subreddits and four boards on 4chan

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Mapping the extent of online misogyny within the Nordic contries

Data filtering:

Isolating the Relevant

Body of Data

Multiple search strategies have been employed,

with the purpose of all applied strategies being

narrowing down the billions of content pieces pro-

duced each year on the three platforms to a data

set limited to content that is potentially 1) misogy-

nistic and 2) authored by a person of Nordic origin.

Each of the strategies add to the general overview

of the extent of Nordic misogynistic content. Even

though some of the strategies contribute very few

new cases of potential Nordic misogynistic content

pieces, the strategies have been kept within the

method to rule out those areas as blind spots of

the other strategies. Illustratively, one can think of

the “non-successful” strategies as holes left behind

from treasure digging: While no ‘treasures’ were

found in a hole, each hole represents a method

used to search for misogyny in a Nordic context

– hereby minimizing the risk that important data

points would be overlooked.

Examples of words: betamale, roastie, femoid,

“men’s rights”, gentlemen etc.

•

The Nordic search key contains 379 words,

formulations, names of people and plac-

es indicating that the content concerns the

Nordic countries or that the user has a Nordic

affiliation in the form of knowledge of Nordic

people, places or concepts.

Examples of words: “Stockholm”, “Mette

Frederiksen”, “Riksdag”, “feminatsi” etc.

Extending the Nordic search key

with other strategies

The Nordic search key is, methodologically

speaking, by far the weakest of the two. While it

seems nearly impossible to be an active partici-

pant in the misogynistic environments on the three

platforms without using any of the words within the

misogynistic search key, one can easily imagine

participants that never relate to their Nordic origin

through use of Nordic language or Nordic iden-

tiffmers. This issue is deeply related to the intrinsic

anonymity in the misogynistic arenas which in turn

is related to the controversy of much of the content

produced within the environments.

To mitigate this methodological weakness, sever-

al platform speciffmc strategies to supplement the

Nordic search key in attributing Nordic origin were

developed. On 4chan, the possibility to add a coun-

try ffnag to a post or comment, hereby indicating the

author’s country of origin, was employed as anoth-

er Nordic indicator. Even though this feature is only

available on /pol (the biggest of the four selected

4chan boards) and even though there is no way of

assuring that a user is in fact using the ffnag that re-

ffnects his origin, the technique helped dramatically

increase the accuracy in estimating the amount of

Nordic users discoursing in English.

A similar strategy was applied on Reddit where all

content posted within Nordic subreddits (e.g. r/

Denmark) were identiffmed as being authored by a

user with Nordic origin.

Misogynistic and Nordic

Search Keys

Multiple search strategies with slight variations

from platform to platform, described in detail in

Table 1, have been applied built upon particularly

two central search keys:

•

The misogynistic search key

is a simple word

list that contains 242 words, formulations and

names of people that play a central role to

the misogynistic vocabulary. The use of any of

these words on the three selected platforms

indicates a potential adherence to the misog-

ynist ideology. Central to the search key are

the unique misogynistic neologisms that are

continuously developed within the platforms.

The search key was reffmned through several

iterations. The goal of these iterations has been

to develop a search key that on the one side is

broad enough to assume that one cannot have

been an active participant on these misogy-

nistic communities on the platforms during

the past three years without making use of

any of the words or wordings on the list, but

also narrow enough to not drown the process

in false positives and noise. This issue will be

discussed further below.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Finally, AI based language recognition was imple-

mented on all platforms to identify content actively

written in one of the Nordic languages. On Twitter,

language classiffmcation is provided for every tweet

as part of the API. On 4chan and Reddit, language

was classiffmed using the open source language

library FastText.

comments, tweets and retweets that mention mi-

sogynistic concepts with the point of criticizing or

mocking the misogynists, words and phrases with

dual meanings or content with such weak indica-

tors that Nordic affiliation or misogynistic ideology

cannot be attributed with enough certainty.

To estimate the extent of such false positives in

the data set, a representative sample of at least

10% of the full data set on all three platforms was

qualitatively categorized. The qualitative coding

is used to determine the accuracy of the ffmltered

data set in order to calculate a more precise

estimate.

Qualitative coding of sample

The ffmltering of data still left a data set with a large

degree of false positives. False positives in this

case means content that meets both the misog-

ynistic and the Nordic search key (or one of the

other techniques for attributing Nordic origin) but in

practice does not reffnect expressions of misogyny

by a Nordic user. Examples include: Posts,

Methodological

illustration

The method used to estimate the extent of mi-

sogynistic content posted by Nordic users can be

illustrated with the following model. It should be

noted that the model is illustrative and only partly

reffnects the actual relationship between the data

set before and after ffmltering.

All content on the

three platforms

During period.

Post on subreddits or

boards of interests

during the period.

(Based on the expert

selection of relevant

subforums by CDYC)

Post containing

misogynistic

terminology

(Misogynistic

search key)

Misogynistic content

which also contains

Nordic indicators.

(Nordic search key,

Nordic subreddits,

language recognition

and 4Chan

ffnag feature)

Post that Qualitatively

contains misogynistic

statements, where the

users can be attributed

Nordic origin.

(Manual coding of

-10% of content from

each platform)

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Mapping the extent of online misogyny within the Nordic contries

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Table

Data-preparation:

Step-by-step procedure for each platform

4chan

Optimization

of search keys

Twitter

Through three iterations, the search keys were developed and optimized in close collabo-

ration with CDYC and the Nordic advisory group. To support this qualitative exploration, a

quantitative cluster analysis was made on Reddit data to identify any relevant misogynistic

keywords that may have been overlooked.

204 Subreddits related to

the misogynist environ-

ment or the Nordic

countries were selected.

Twitter does not use

subforums. Instead, the

Nordic search key was

supplemented with the

handles of the names of

known actors in the gender

debate to include a focus

on online harassment.

Four boards related to the

misogynist environment

were selected.

Selection of subforums

Data collection

An integration to Pushs-

hift’s Reddit API was

developed, which allowed

collection of all posts and

comments from select

subreddits. Pushshift’s API

was chosen seeing as

Reddit's own API does not

contain data from banned

subreddits.

An integration to Twitter's

Premium API was deplo-

yed, which allowed the

purchase of tweets and

retweets based on the two

search keys and

language criteria.

Historic content was

downloaded from ffmve

public 4chan archives.

Further, a scraper was built

and used to collect recent

content that had not

yet been made available

in the archives.

Identifying potentially

misogynistic content

Identifying potential

Nordic content

From the selected subforums, all posts and comments that contain at least one word from

the misogynistic search key were identiffmed.

Content was classiffmed as

potentially Nordic if it 1)

appeared in a Nordic

subreddit or 2) contained

any word from the Nordic

search key

Content was classiffmed as

potentially Nordic if 1)

Twitter had classiffmed it as

Nordic or 2) it contained

any word from the Nordic

search key

Content was classiffmed as

potentially Nordic if it 1)

was recognized as Nordic

by the language recogniti-

on AI, 2) contained any

word from the Nordic

search key, or 3) was

tagged with a Nordic

country ffnag (only /pol)

43.073

posts and comments

Size of the

ﬁltered data set

Manual coding

5.107

posts and comments

55.293

posts and comments

A representative sample of 10% of the ffmltered posts were read and classiffmed, and annota-

ted them as true or false based on a normative deffmnition of misogyny and estimation of

Nordic origin.

The following codes were used https:/

/desuarchive.org, https:/

/archive.4plebs.org,

https:/

/thebarchive.com, https:/

/archiveofsins.com, and https:/

/archived.moe/

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Mapping the extent of online misogyny within the Nordic contries

Table

Calculating the estimates: Step-by-step procedure for each platform

Estimate of Nordic

misogynistic content

Twitter

4chan

Based on the qualitative coding of the representative 10% of the content, it is possible to

estimate how much of the identiffmed content actually represents misogynistic content from

Nordic users.

The ffmnal estimation of the amount of content that is both misogynistic and of Nordic origin

is then calculated with the formula

I = N*p,

where

is the number of content pieces after

ffmltering, p

is the percentage of coded content that lived up to the inclusion criteria and

the estimated number of content pieces.

The margin of error in this estimate is found with the formula:

p(1-p)

N-n

= z

√

N-1

, where

is the number of content pieces coded manually,

is the

conffmdence interval, Z is a static variable which for the conffmdence interval of 95% is given

Z = 1,959.

Error margin of

can then subsequently be calculated as

= FM

*N.

Estimate of users

On Reddit and Twitter, the number of users

who are authors of the ffmltered content are

identiffmed based on usernames.

On 4chan, posting is anonymous, which

makes estimation of users difficult. However,

seeing as there appears to be strong

similarities between 4chan and Reddit in

both audience and board structure it is

assumed that the activity of an average

4chan user is roughly comparable to that of

an average Reddit user. As such, this

comparison is used to estimate the total

number of 4chan users.

A model for the number of contributions per

user, based upon our Reddit data set, was

developed. The distribution of content per

user, which can be seen in Figure 6 in the

Appendix, follows a power law of the form

f(x) = k*x

-α

. The parameters in this model are

found by ffmtting the collected Reddit data

that lives up to the misogynistic search key.

Using the found parameter

in the probabili-

ty function of a power law

p(x) =

α-1

(

min

)

-α

min

this is integrated to ffmnd the interval ix which

contains 95% of all users.

This range is found to be from 1 to 17 pieces

of content per user. This interval is used to

estimate how many individual 4chan users

the encoded data represents.

Estimate of number of

active Nordic misogynists

The estimate of the total number of active

Nordic misogynists is calculated as

B =

where

is the estimated number of content

pieces and μ is the average number of

contributions per user, after the data has

been ffmltered by both search keys. The

margin of error is subsequently found as

The board structure of both Reddit and 4chan is quite similar. On both platforms there are subforums with posts +

associated comments, and from observational studies the culture and pace of the discussion appears comparable.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Results

Based upon the above approach, the following

estimates are reached:

Between 100 and 850 Nordic users posting

misogynistic content have been active during

the last year (June 2019-June 2020) of the

study across all three platforms

A detailed summary of these results is presented

in Table 3.

Below follows a detailed presentation of the

misogynistic activity on each platform over time

distributed across each of the ffmve main Nordic

languages (Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian

and Swedish). The activity is shown on a three-

month resolution, corresponding to the four quar-

ters of the year

2. Between 250 and 2500 Nordic users posting

misogynistic content have been active during

the entire three year period (June 2017-June

2020) of the study across all three platforms

The ffmrst ffmve days of the investigated period (June 26th to

June 30th, 2017) are for technical reasons not included in

the graphs.

Figure 1. Twitter hits on the misogy-

nistic search key and Nordic indica-

tors over time distributed across the

five main Nordic languages.

1200

Danish

Swedish

1000

Norwegian

Amount of content

800

Finnish

600

400

200

Icelandic

17Q3

17Q4

18Q1

18Q2

18Q3

18Q4

19Q1

19Q2

19Q3

19Q4

20Q1

20Q2

Time period

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Mapping the extent of online misogyny within the Nordic contries

Twitter

On twitter 55,293 tweets hit both the misogynistic

search key and at least one of the Nordic indi-

cators. Of these, 0.4% were classiffmed to contain

Nordic misogynistic content (based upon the

qualitative coding of a 10%-sample). Based upon

this result, the total population of Nordic users

contributing misogynistic content is estimated to

be between 93 – 221.

A breakdown of the ffmve main Nordic languages

over time are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 2. Reddit hits on the misogy-

nistic search key and Nordic indica-

tors over time distributed across the

five main Nordic languages.

Amount of content

Danish

Finnish

Swedish

Icelandic

Norwegian

17Q4

18Q1

18Q2

18Q3

18Q4

19Q1

19Q2

19Q3

19Q4

20Q1

20Q2

Icelandic

17Q3

Time period

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

On Reddit, 5,107 posts and comments that hit both

the misogynistic search key and at least one of the

Nordic indicators were found. Of these, 1.6% were

estimated to contain Nordic misogynistic content

(based upon the qualitative coding of a 10%-sam-

ple). Based upon this result, the total population of

Nordic users contributing misogynistic content is

estimated to be between 21 – 97.

A breakdown of the ffmve main Nordic languages

over time are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 3. 4chan hits on the misogynistic search key and Nordic indi-

cator (country flag) over time distributed across the five main Nordic

languages. The peak of Swedish content in Q3 of 2018 is due to one

specific message being posted more than 400 times within one day.

1750

1500

1250

Amount of content

Swedish

1000

750

Finnish

Norwegian

500

Danish

250

Icelandic

17Q3

17Q4

18Q1

18Q2

18Q3

18Q4

19Q1

19Q2

19Q3

19Q4

20Q1

20Q2

Time period

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Mapping the extent of online misogyny within the Nordic contries

4chan

On 4chan, 43,073 posts and replies that hit both

the misogynistic search key and at least one of the

Nordic indicators were found. Of these, 5.0% were

estimated to contain Nordic misogynistic content

(based upon the qualitative coding of a 14%-sam-

ple). Based upon this result, the total population of

Nordic users contributing misogynistic content is

estimated to be between 144 – 2,166.

A breakdown of the ffmve main Nordic languages

over time are shown in Figure 3. For 4chan this

breakdown was solely based upon the number of

country ffnags, since this by far showed out to be

the platform’s primary Nordic indicator.

Total

Combining the results from each of the three plat-

forms, the maximum number of Nordic misogynist

users across the three platforms over the three

year period is estimated to 2,484. Figure 4 shows

all content that hits the misogynistic search key

and Nordic indicator over time and distributed

across the three platforms.

Figure 4. Total hits on the misog-

ynistic search key and Nordic

indicator over time distributed

across the three platforms.

Twitter

5000

Amount of content

4000

4chan

3000

2000

1000

17Q3

17Q4

18Q1

18Q2

18Q3

18Q4

19Q1

19Q2

19Q3

19Q4

20Q1

20Q2

Time period

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

250

Estimated hits

200

4chan

150

100

Twitter

17Q3

17Q4

18Q1

18Q2

18Q3

18Q4

19Q1

19Q2

19Q3

19Q4

20Q1

20Q2

Time period

If the ratio of true positives is assumed to be

randomly distributed over time, the percentage of

actual misogynistic content can be seen as a per-

centage of total hits. This allows for multiplication

of the counts in Figure 4 with the accuracy found

for each platform in order to get the distribution of

actual Nordic misogynist content (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. Estimated actual Nordic misogynist con-

tent over time distributed across each of the three

platforms. The low amount of estimated Twitter hits

compared to the activity in Figure 4 is a result of the

low accuracy on Twitter (see Table 3).

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Mapping the extent of online misogyny within the Nordic contries

Table

Quantitative results

4chan

Subfora

Total content

b, pol, lgbt, r9k

3.9 million posts and

replies

204 forums

140 million posts and

comments

None

600 billion tweets

Twitter

Hits on misogynist

search key

3.9 million

1.6 million

55,293

Hits on all

nordic indicators

that also adheres to the

misogynist search key

43,073

5,107

Coded content

6,205 (14%)

511 (10%)

5,526 (10%)

Calculated accuracy

based upon

qualitative coding

Nordic misogynist hits %

compared to total content

Estimated numbers of

Nordic misogynist users

one year

Estimated numbers of

Nordic misogynist users

three year

5.0%

1.6%

0.4%

9.2*10

5.7·10

-5

3.5·10

-10

50 – 754

8 – 30

36 – 78

144 - 2,166

21 – 97

93 - 221

Language

/ Country breakdown

DK:

5,328 / 12.4%

FI:

10,059 / 23.5%

IS:

473 / 1.1%

NO:

7,189 / 16.8%

SE:

12,556 / 29.3%

(based on ffnag identiffmers)

DK:

FI:

IS:

NO:

SE:

259 / 5.1%

292 / 5.7%

19 / 0.4%

34 / 0.7%

438 / 8.6%

DK:

FI:

IS:

NO:

SE:

11,282 / 20.6%

7,091 / 12.9%

1,759 / 3.2%

9,091 / 16.6%

11,306 / 20.6%

5 Different method compared to reddit and 4chan because of API limitations which has forced a combination of the

two search keys. Additionally, the search key has been slightly modiffmed. The results are however still comparable.

6 The remaining 16.9% of posts were in non-Nordic languages

7 The remaining 79.5% of posts were in non-nordic languages

8 The remaining 26.1% of posts were in non-Nordic languages

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Quantitative methology

Qualitative

methodology

In order to assess the scope of

the issue of online misogyny in

the Nordic countries, data has

been gathered both qualitatively

and quantitatively through

multiple methods: focus groups,

advisory groups, interviews

with experts, and scraping of

posts and comments using a

predefined search key. Each

method is briefly described

below in regards to how this

method has been applied,

reason(s) for choosing this

particular method, and how

the method in question helps

broaden the understanding of

the topic.

Field observations

Extensive ffmeld observations on a multitude of

online forums

has been conducted in order to gain

an understanding of the how’s, why’s, who’s, and

where’s of online misogyny in a Nordic context.

Dedicating hours of ffmeld work on each of these

platforms has created thorough insights into the

worldviews, ideologies, and understandings of the

self and others of users of such forums.

Field observations have been performed with no

particular motive in mind, other than gaining as ob-

jective insights into and understandings of certain

online cultures and their “member's” as possible.

Access to and participation in some forums has

posed certain challenges due to narrow inclusion

criteria, often with a manual acceptance from a

moderator before new users are allowed on the

forum. On most forums the project group has

used honest proffmles with a group members iden-

tity and login, but for a few it has been necessary

to use fake personas to be allowed entry. Any in-

terviews or inquiries made to moderators or forum

users have been made from open proffmles, using

project participants’ own names.

For a full list see the “Forums of interest”-section

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Interviews with experts

In order to gain as deep an understanding of the

issue as possible, experts within the ffmeld were

interviewed. “Experts” is deffmned broadly, spanning

from people with academic and research based

knowledge of the area to women who have expe-

rienced online misogyny ffmrst hand. Such differen-

tial backgrounds were chosen in order to broaden

our perspective on both the perpetrators of mi-

sogyny, the culture surrounding online misogyny,

the point of view of the victims, the consequences

for the victims, and the democratic consequences

of open online misogyny.

A list of interviewed experts can be found in

the Appendix.

identical subreddits from different starting points,

e.g. r/scandinavia, r/shortcels, r/mensrights, r/

Incelistan and several national subreddits, e.g. r/

denmark, r/sweden etc. The list of subreddits has

been reviewed and edited manually.

Four boards were chosen on 4chan: /pol, /b, /

r9k, and /lgbt. These four were chosen speciffmcally

due to their politically incorrect content, and the

often anti left-wing expression of opinions.

Using this method, a large dataset was retrieved.

Subsequently, 10% of the retrieved posts and

comments were manually coded, in order to

determine if in fact the post was misogynistic, and

the plausibility of the poster having an affiliation

to the Nordic countries. Certain inclusion criteria

were used when determining nationality and level

of misogyny, as listed below.

Content:

The content was analyzed for posts which

were aggressively describing women, feminists

or “progressive” politicians and policy makers in

misogynistic, gendered derogatory or social and

politically antagonistic terms.

The content was assessed for instances where

women were described in derogatory, generaliz-

ing, and objectifying terms, where the actions of

women were attributed their gender and/or the

appearance of men, where wishes to restructure

society and the distribution of goods in ways unfa-

vorable to women were uttered, and where violent

acts towards women were gloriffmed and/or spoken

of as natural, logic, reasonable, rational and/or

necessary. Posts/comments such as

•

“Hide

your roastie flapper and go back to whin-

ing how hard your life is.”

(Gendered derogatory terms about all women,

“roastie” & context)

“Women vote whatever the media or their

boyfriend tells them to vote. Therefore trading a

roastie for a nationalist is a double loss.”

(Political animosity directed at women, gen-

dered derogatory term, “roastie” & context)

Quantitative extent analysis

In order to assess the scope of misogynistic online

speech quantitative data was drawn from three

distinct platforms, namely Twitter, Reddit and

4chan. Several other platforms were of interest

but due to the ffmnancial scope of the project a

choice had to be made. The choice fell on these

three forums due to their history with freedom of

speech, misogyny, and sexism, and their user gen-

erated content. Data was drawn using a search key

containing 242 search words of relevance to The

Manosphere (as deffmned on pp. 29-41), combined

with 379 words indicating Nordic affiliation (e.g.

Swedish, Nordic, Helsinki, etc.). The quantitative

method and analysis is further described in the

above section.

Seeing as Twitter has no subforums the platform

could be scraped in its entirety, using the search

key as the only search criteria. Both Reddit and

4chan consist of several different subforums

demanding further choosing. On Reddit these

subforums are called subreddits, on 4chan they

are called boards.

To broaden the scope of searched subreddits, a set of

tools tracking comparable subreddits based on either

user overlap, or content has been used: Both subred-

ditstats.com and anvaka.github.io/sayit can measure

similarity in user-groups across subreddits.

These tools have been used to ffmnd similar yet not

•

See extensive list in the “Forums of interest” section

For a full list of subreddits scraped see Appendix

4chan, Post ID: 236742826

4chan, Post ID: 258549706

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Quantitative methology

•

How will we ever get around to take away

roastie rights tho?

(Political animosity directed at women, gen-

dered derogatory term, “roastie” & context)

THIS JUST IN: Swedish Feminists have cucked

their own men to such a point, that they screw

crazed Barbarian Invader Hordes like paid

whores! Who wudda thunk it?!

(Political animosity directed at women, sexual-

ized aggressiveness, “whores” & context)

and thoughts about Nordic countries can also

come from tourists or people from outside of the

Nordic countries, but as the report is focused on

speciffmc Nordic users and cases, this is taken into

account in the qualiffmcation and coding of the data

gathered.

Nationality:

Each forum has certain markers

which have been used to determine nationality.

Language, choice of words, topic and geograph-

ical indicators go across all three platforms. On

Twitter it is also possible to rely on userhandle

and hashtags, increasing the degree of certainty

with which nationality can be determined. Fur-

thermore, most posts on Twitter are in the poster’s

native language. On Reddit grammar is used as an

indicator as well as the subreddit in which the post

or comment is written, seeing as certain subred-

dits are mostly used by people of Nordic origin.

As such, nationality can be determined with a fair

amount of certainty. As with Reddit, grammar is

also used as an indicator on 4chan. Furthermore,

the optional posting of a ffnag or country-tag to

one’s post or comment has also been used in the

instances where the poster has chosen this option.

Of course, the user can indicate any country of

his/her choice, but it appears that most users

indicating a ffnag/country will use their country of

origin. However, this still poses certain limitations

to determining nationality, given the necessity of

relying on content.

Gender:

Determining the gender of the poster is

fairly easy on Twitter, a little more complicated on

Reddit and quite difficult on 4chan. However, given

the content of the posts, and their phrasing and

wording, it seems a fair statement that the majority

of users on 4chan are male. Seeing as both Twitter

and Reddit require usernames in order to be able

to post, gender can be established with a fair

amount of certainty.

posted by Nordic users will be coded as living up

to the inclusion criteria due to misogynistic con-

tent, whereas posts/comments such as

•

“This is to ofc maximise the amount of male

support and labor that can help her and her

offspring when she has mated. An alpha that

has lost its position is no longer an alpha (this

why you generally see women dump their boy-

friends or husbands when they’ve hit a econom-

ic low or lost their friends)”

posted presumably by a Swedish user, does

not fulffmll the criteria for inclusion, seeing as it is

generalizing towards women, but not derogatory

as such, and furthermore seems to focus on a

perceived romantic plight of men (needing to be

“alpha” to ffmnd romantic attention).

Language:

A lot of content is in English, but some,

especially on Twitter, but also on Reddit and

4chan, is in the native language of the poster/

commenter. In the instances where a post/

comment is in a native Nordic language, Nordic

nationality can, with almost complete certainty,

be attributed. Language detection algorithms

have been applied to the scraped data in order to

assess the share of content in Nordic languages.

Geographical indicators:

The third inclusion criteria is

geographical indicators of country of origin. Geo-

graphical indicators are here deffmned as phrases

such as “here in Sweden”, “In Denmark, where I’m

from”, “As a Norwegian”, “Finnish girls are”, “In Ice-

land we have”, etc. Though it is noted that opinions

4chan, Post ID: 245664034

Reddit, Post ID: eyvd3sz

4chan, Post ID: 223215107

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

In order for a post to be marked as “misogynis-

tic content by a Nordic poster”, it had to display

at least one type of content, as listed above, be

written in a Nordic language or containing at least

one geographical indicator, and be written by a

male. Naturally, women can also express misog-

yny, but in this report the interest is solely on the

male segment.

The outset of the quantitative analysis was made

after extensive observations, literary analysis

and interviews, as a scientiffmc way to prove, test

and qualify the preliminary analysis herein. In

turn, as the quantitative data and initial analysis

was concluded, it directed and qualiffmed further

observations and interviews. As a result, the ffmnal

report holds a mutually complementary cross-dis-

ciplinary approach. Any recommendations and

conclusions are done in regard to both.

Advisory groups

In order to guide the course of the project, and to

gain as nuanced a perspective as possible, two

advisory groups were established - a Danish and

a Nordic

. Both groups consisted of members of

academia, representatives from relevant NGOs,

and activists passionate about the topic at hand.

For the Danish group, two meetings were held.

The ffmrst was centered around presenting the

project and discussing the participants’ own

knowledge and experiences with misogynistic and

antidemocratic speech online. The second around

presenting data and preliminary ffmndings, and

discussing solutions to the issue.

For the Nordic group, three meetings were held.

The ffmrst was centered around presenting the

project and discussing the participants’ own

knowledge and experiences with misogynistic

and antidemocratic speech online. The second

around presenting data and preliminary ffmndings,

and qualifying them in a Nordic context. The third

meeting was dedicated to discussing solutions

and recommendations for politicians and decision

makers when handling the issue.

Both advisory groups helped qualify the proj-

ect throughout the project period, and offered

valuable research and experience based insights

and observations along the way. Furthermore,

both groups helped ensure a Nordic perspective

throughout the course of the project, and also

made sure to constantly secure the relevance of

the project in a Nordic context - both in terms of

recommendations for policies and action and in

terms of focusing on Nordic men speciffmcally. The

members of the advisory groups have not read

the report before it was published.

Focus groups

In order to gain a sense of the average young per-

son’s

internet and social media usage, a series of

focus groups were conducted at a Danish educa-

tional institution. The focus groups were conduct-

ed as semi-structured interviews

, focusing on

assessing the participants’ knowledge of certain

online phenomena and acquaintance with certain

online forums. This method was chosen to give

members of the target group a voice and thereby

the possibility of offering their points of view. It is

important to note that in this regard “target group”

refers to the average young adult user of the in-

ternet, who does not necessarily engage in online

misogyny and sexism, but who has experienced it

directly or witnessed it from a distance. As such,

the focus groups helped shed light on the nature,

function, and need fulffmllment abilities of different

online forums and platforms.

Young deffmned as aged 17-35

See Appendix for interview guide.

A list of participants in both groups can be found in the

Appendix.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Quantitative methology

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Limitations

Assessing the scope of

misogynistic online content

created by Nordic users poses

certain challenges. First and

foremost determining user

nationality becomes increasingly

difficult when moving from

Twitter to Reddit to 4chan.

However, at the same time, the

level of misogyny decreases

when moving from 4chan to

Reddit to Twitter so ignoring the

more anonymous platforms does

not appear a viable solution.

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Deciphering

misogynistic neologisms

From the data it has become

clear that several words have

completely different meanings

and different uses across the

three platforms.

“Stacy” is a name of a person on Twitter, but a

concept describing a certain type of woman on

Reddit and 4chan. Similarly, “patron saint” refers

to different Christian saints on Twitter, whereas on

Reddit and 4chan “patron saint” is a reference to El-

liott Rodger, Alek Minassian, Anders Breivik, or one

of the other men idolized in the misogynistic and

antidemocratic online spheres. On Twitter Pepe is

a soccer star, on Reddit and 4chan he is a frog. On

Twitter, “ascension” refers to Ascension Day and the

ascension of Christ, whereas on 4chan and Reddit,

ascension refers to the incel/manlet/virgin man

ascending, i.e. having sex and thereby becoming a

man of value and status.

A lot of the abbreviations have completely different

meanings on Twitter compared to Reddit and 4chan.

For instance, “smv” means “sexual market value”

and refers to the value of a woman/girl on Reddit

and 4chan, whereas on Twitter it means “small and

medium-sized corporations

”. Likewise, “pua” refers

to pick-up artistry on Reddit and 4chan, whereas on

Twitter it generates mostly nonsensical hits.

“Neet” is used to describe the same phenomenon

across platforms (i.e. a person Not in Education,

Employment or Training), but where it is mostly

a derogatory term on 4chan and Reddit (either in

self-description or in description of others), on Twit-

ter it is used when referencing initiatives targeting a

vulnerable group in society.

These differences and similarities in language

are both due to the culture and nature of each

platform, but also to the composition of the user

groups on each platform. Twitter is a lot more

mainstream than both Reddit and 4chan, and the

average Twitter user is also older than the average

Reddit and 4chan users. Also, Twitter is approxi-

mately 50/50 male/female, whereas both Reddit

and 4chan are skewed in the male favor.

Quite a large spillover effect of the misogynistic

language into mainstream society can be seen. De-

scribing men as “Chads” and women as “femoids”

has found its way to Twitter and other mainstream

media, such as Facebook and Instagram. This has

happened a lot faster than initially anticipated

when starting the project in December 2019. The

words mostly seen spilling over are the “classiffm-

ers” (Stacy, Chad, Tyrone, femoid, incel, etc.) in the

milder end of the spectrum. The more derogatory

and harsh terms, such as “roastie” and “cumsock”,

are not seen in mainstream media. Yet.

Små og mellemstore virksomheder in Danish

100

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Limitations

Estimating

Nordic origin

The estimate of Nordic origin is the

weakest estimate in this report.

As mentioned earlier users on

all three platforms can remain

completely anonymous if they wish

to and most content is in English,

but beyond that another important

weakness arises from the unequal

contribution to the search key from

the Nordic collaborators.

A quick look on the Nordic search key reveals that

the Danish search key is more developed than the

Swedish and Norwegian search keys, which in turn

are more developed than the Icelandic and Finnish

search keys due to difficulties in engaging Nordic

collaborators in contributing search terms.

However, as visible in Table 3, Denmark does not

come out as the dominant of the Nordic languages

on any of the platforms, even though the Danish

part of the search key is more elaborate. On 4chan

it even appears that Danish is the second rarest

language. While it cannot entirely be ruled out that

this is simply due to Danes being less active in the

selected environment, a more likely explanation

is that the parallel use of alternative strategies for

identifying Nordic origin (i.e. language detection,

national ffnags on 4chan and national forums) are

able to catch what the search keys might miss.

Nonetheless, a more advanced setup built upon

artiffmcial intelligence would most likely have in-

creased the total estimate for particularly Iceland

and Finland. The resources needed to develop

such advanced setup were, however, beyond the

limits of the current project.

This cannot, however, explain the results on Twitter where

the only alternative to the search key is AI based language

recognition; a language recognition which is infamous for

being poor and inadequate due to tweets in general being

very short often leaving little material for the AI to determine

language.

101

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Noise and

false positives

There is a lot of noise in the Twitter

data, with a lot of false positives,

which explains such a large dataset

from the least misogynistic of the

three platforms.

The relatively small amount of data from Reddit

is due to the fact that data cannot be drawn from

Reddit in its entirety, as has been done on 4chan

and Twitter, but rather, certain subreddits have to

be hand picked. This poses a risk of overlooking

important subreddits. However, it is the belief of the

authors that the most important ones have been

scraped.

Reddit and 4chan are both ad free in the post and

comment sections. On Twitter, however, ads look

like posts from users, meaning they are picked up

by the scraper if they ffmt the search criteria. As such,

combinations such as “Norwegian” and “snowffnake”

generate quite a few hits which turn out to be ads

for knitted, wooly clothing.

Similarly, many hits turned out to be porn ads.

Speciffmcally, combinations such as “Finnish” and

“cuckold” or “Swedish” and “cunt” generated quite

a few porn ads. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier,

references to soccer take up a lot of space on

Twitter. Soccer fans are keen on using the word

“cunt” when referring to speciffmc soccer players

or fans of opposing teams. Combinations such as

“Norwegian” and “cunt” therefore create quite a few

false positives, seeing as most, if not all, hits on that

combination refer to a Norwegian soccer player. On

Twitter, in general, “cunt” is mostly used when men

are trash talking other men.

The ffmnancial scope of the project forced a select

focus on platforms and subforums, in choosing

which to extrapolate data from. This framing of the

project allowed for only looking at forums already

known to be of interest (4chan & Reddit), or where

a substantial democratic inffnuence because of an

extremely wide user base (Twitter) can be seen,

as well as a focus on symptomatic subforums (r/

incels, /r9k/) and geographically and politically

obvious groups (r/sweden, /pol/). This creates

a possible bias and skew in the results, seeing as

every choice entails a deselection of other possible

data gathering options. However, the size of the

datapool allows a fair level of certainty in claiming

that the sample from each platform is representa-

tive. Furthermore, the project has had to focus on

longitudinal platforms, as many relevant ones live

a very short digital life, and are only of interest for

months, or even weeks, before they are de-plat-

formed or lose the user base’s attention.

As mentioned above, the hand picking of a selec-

tion of subreddits will most likely mean the over-

looking of equally important others. Seeing as new

subreddits constantly appear, a comprehensive

and fulffmlling list cannot be compiled. However, due

to the regressional nature of the project, this is the

most representative and valid way to represent that

data and digital landscape.

Yet another limitation is the character of the scraper

and the way data is coded. The scraper is built to

search through large amounts of data using the

method of exclusion. As such, many misogynistic

and sexistic hits turn up in the ffmnal data pool, requir-

ing further exclusion to be left with the hits that are

both misogynistic and posted by a user from the

Nordic countries. Another approach would have gar-

nered a larger set of data, but was also too expen-

sive for the ffmnancial means of the present project.

The data output has had to be manually coded,

which always entails a level of human error. This

has been minimized as both coding, veriffmcation

and programming has been done by the same

small group of project workers and subcontractors

to limit the level of

mistranslations.

An important limitation relates to which users

can be investigated. Particularly, it is not possible

to estimate the extent of Nordic users passively

102

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Limitations

consuming misogynistic content, but never con-

tributing any themselves. Another limitation is the

method not allowing consideration of users with

multiple accounts, bot accounts, or users who

engage in more than one of the three platforms.

These unknowns have equal potential of decreas-

ing and increasing the ffmnal estimate. Since it is

extremely difficult to estimate the quantitative

effect of these limitations, a choice was made to

keep them entirely out of calculations.

One quite challenging limitation to our data

sample is not always being able to determine

direction of a given statement out of context. I.e.

posts or comments may consist almost solely of

a quote from another post/comment, which does

not necessarily equal agreement with the original

post/comment. Furthermore, a post or comment

may contain several of the words, phrases, or

geographical indicators from the search key, but

still not be misogynistic, seeing as it might just be

someone describing misogyny, the manosphere,

incels, or the like; If a user says “I

hate all these

fucking feminists in Reykjavik! Someone needs to

teach these roasties a lesson!”,

it is necesssary to

manually follow up on whether or not the post is a

citation or quote from another user prefaced by a

counter-argument.

Originally, at least 12 focus groups with young

people had been the intention. However, due to

the COVID-19 lockdown, this posed certain chal-

lenges. Before the lockdown four focus groups

were held at one educational institution, and ar-

rangements had been made to go to two further

educational institutions. However, shortly before

the set dates Denmark went into lockdown ren-

dering the physical focus group setup impossible.

A digital equivalent was set up, but unfortunately

without luck, seeing as the exam period, summer

holidays and an extended lockdown period came

in the way. Hence, only four focus groups with

four to ffmve students in each were held.

103

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

References

Academic literature

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995).

The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal

attachments as a fundamental human motivation.

Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529.

Bloksgaard, L., Christensen, A., Jensen, S. Q., Han-

sen, C. D., Kyed, M. & Nielsen, K. J. (2015).

Masculinity Ideals in a Contemporary Danish

Context, NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and

Gender Research, 23:3, 152-169

Bosson, J. K., & Vandello, J. A. (2011).

Precarious manhood and its links to action and

aggression. Current Directions in Psychological

Science, 20(2), 82–86.

Bundsgaard, J., Bindslev, S., Caeli, E. N., Petterson,

M. & Rusmann, A. (2019).

Danske elevers teknologiforståelse. Resultater fra

ICILS-undersøgelsen 2018. Aarhus Universitetsforlag

Chemnitz, E. (2019).

Contradicting Incels probably won’t change their

minds - indications of motivated reasoning in sub-

missions on the subreddit r/Braincels.

DEA (2018).

Litteraturstudie: Unges vej til STEM.

DiMuccio, S., Yost, M.R., & Helweg-Larsen, M. (2017).

A Qualitative Analysis of Perceptions of Precarious

Manhood in U.S. and Danish Men. Psychology of

Men & Masculinity, 18, 331–340.

Fernquist, J., Kaati, L., Pelzer, B., Cohen, K. A., &

Akrami, N. (2020).

Hope, cope and rope. Swedish Defence

Research Agency

Hergovich, A., Schott, R., Burger, C. (2010).

“Biased evaluation of abstracts depending on topic

and conclusion: Further evidence of a

conffmrmation bias within scientiffmc psychology”,

Current Psychology.

Kahan, D. M. (2013).

Ideology, motivated reasoning, and cognitive reffne-

ction. Judgment and Decision Making, 8(4), 18.

Kunda, Z. (1990).

The case for motivated reasoning. Psychological

Bulletin, 108(3), 480–498.

Lindekilde, L., Malthaner, S.,

& O’Connor, F. P. (2019).

Peripheral and embedded: relational patterns of

lone-actor terrorist radicalization. Dynamics of

Asymmetrical Conffnict, 12(1), 20-41.

Monaghan, L., Goodman, J. E.

& Robinson, J. M. (Eds.) (2012).

A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal Communication:

Essential Readings, 2nd Edition. Wiley-Blackwell

Nyhan, B., & Reifler, J. (2010).

When Corrections Fail: The Persistence of Political

Misperceptions. Political Behavior, 32(2), 303–330.

Zuleta, L. & Laursen, S. K. (2019).

Demokratisk deltagelse på Facebook.

Institut for

Menneskerettigheder

104

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

References

News articles

BBC World News (2012).

Reddit will not ban ‘distasteful’ content, chief

executive says https:/

/www.bbc.com/news/te-

chnology-19975375 (retrieved 9/10-2020)

BBC World News (2018).

Elliot Rodger: How misogynist killer became ‘incel

hero’ https:/

/www.bbc.com/news/world-us-cana-

da-43892189 (retrieved 9/10-2020)

Paul, K. (2019).

8chan: ex-users of far-right site ffnock to new homes

across internet. https:/

/www.theguardian.com/us-

news/2019/aug/08/8chan-shutdown-users-soci-

al-media (retrieved 9/10-2020)

Schiffman, B. (2008).

Twitterer Takes on Twitter Harassment Policy.

Wired.com

https:/

/www.wired.com/2008/05/

tweeter-takes-o/ (retrieved 9/10-2020)

Websites

4stats.io

Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Project

https:/

/web.archive.org/web/19970525065352/

http:/www.ncf.carleton.ca:80/~ad097/ic-home.html

archive.4plebs.org

archived.moe

archiveofsins.com

desuarchive.org

hofstede-insights.com

Mackinac Center for Public Policy

https:/

/www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx?ID=12

(retrieved 9/10-2020)

subredditstats.com

thebarchive.com

Forums

4chan.org

incels.co

looksmax.me

reddit.com

twitter.com

105

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

Appendix

Interviewguide

See attachment.

Lene Stavngaard, Sex & Samfund

Lene Stavngaard is the National Director of the

Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA). Regis-

tered nurse and Master of Sexology from Malmö

University with expertise in sexual and reproduc-

tive health and rights (SRHR), sexuality and gen-

der, counselling and SRHR politics. Lene has been

working with Sex & Samfund (DFPA) since 2002.

Helena G. Hansen, Dansk Kvindesamfund

Helena G. Hansen, President af Danish Women’s

Society. Worked with victims of gender based vio-

lence, rape and digital violence at Danish Women’s

Society shelters. Co-founder of The Everyday Sex-

ism Project Danmark, now called Stop Sexisme.

Expertise in: Violence against women, sexism,

sexual harrasment, digital violence, sexual assult,

rape, victimblaming and victims trauma reactions.

Works as a project manager at The Women’s

Council of Europe with Generation Equality. Master

degree in English and European studies from Aar-

hus BSS, school of business and social sciences.

Frederik Kulager, Zetland

Frederik Kulager is a Danish tech and internet

culture reporter at Zetland, a Danish digital media

based in Copenhagen. He specializes in covering

political movements and radicalization online.

Natasha Al-Hariri

Natasha is a Danish lawyer, political activist, and

director of Dansk Flygtningehjælp Ungdom. She

is an active participant in debates and political

movements on anti-democratic attacks.

Rasmus Munksgaard, University of Montreal

Rasmus Munksgaard is a doctoral candidate at

the University of Montreal School of Criminolo-

gy, and an external lecturer at Aalborg University

Department of Sociology and Social Work. Rasmus’

research revolves around illicit online markets,

cybercrime, and the darkweb. He has published in

leading journals such as the International Journal of

Drug Policy and the British Journal of Criminology.

Advisory groups

Both advisory groups comprise a politically inde-

pendent gathering of experts within the ffmeld of

gender, masculinity, feminism, sexism, misogyny,

and/or online hate/violations.

Danish advisory group

The Danish advisory group consisted of the fol-

lowing experts:

Michael Bang Petersen, Aarhus University

Michael Bang Petersen is professor at the Depart-

ment of Political Science, Aarhus University. He is

leading The Politics and Evolution Lab (PoNE), and

is director of the Research on Online Political Hos-

tility project. His research is focused on the effect

of evolutionary psychology on modern political

behaviour.

Lasse Lindekilde, Aarhus University

Lasse Lindekilde is professor at the Department

of Political Science, Aarhus University. He holds

a PhD from the European University Institute. His

research is focused on political mobilization, vio-

lent radicalization, online political hostility and the

implementation and effects of counter-terrorism

policies and interventions to prevent online politi-

cal aggression. His work is interdisciplinary linking

insights from political science, political sociology,

criminology, social psychology and communica-

tion studies.

Lumi Zuleta, Dansk Institut for Mennesker-

ettigheder

Lumi Zuleta, special advisor, The Danish Institute

for Human Rights. 10 years of experience working

with human rights. Area of expertise: gender and

gender equality, behaviour in public debate on

social media, online harassment, human rights and

social media regulation, hate speech.

106

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Appendix

Emma Holten, Oxfam IBIS

Emma Holten has been working on feminism and

women’s rights since she released the CONSENT

project on digital sexual violence in 2014. She has

taught in schools and delivered keynotes inter-

nationally. She works part time as a gender policy

advisor at Oxfam IBIS in Copenhagen.

Esther Chemnitz, freelance

Esther Chemnitz, cand. mag. Cognition & Commu-

nication, University of Copenhagen with a focus on

digital media, computer-mediated communica-

tion, social cognition and belief polarization.

Taran Knudstad, Likestillings- og diskriminer-

ingsombudet

Taran Knudstad is a Senior Policy Advisor with the

Norwegian Equality and Anti-Discrimination Om-

bud. She works in the Ombud’s Monitoring Section

which monitors the government’s compliance with

UN’s Convention on the Elimination of all forms of

Discrimination of Women.

Jón Ingvar Kjaran, University of Iceland

Dr. Jón Ingvar Kjaran is Professor of anthropology/

sociology of education at the University of Iceland,

School of Education / Faculty of Diversity and

Education. His research focus is on gender, sexu-

ality, ethnicity, race, and violence. He is currently

leading two research projects on gender violence

funded by the Icelandic Research Fund.

Elísabet Yr, Free Speech Fund

Elísabet Yr is a grassroots feminist activist, mainly

focusing on ffmghting rape culture and male vio-

lence against women. She is one of the founders

of Málfrelsissjóður in Iceland, or Free Speech

Fund, a fund that supports women that are taken

to court for speaking out against abuse.

Lisa Kaati, Totalförsvarets Forskningsinstitut

Lisa Kaati holds a PhD in computer science from

Uppsala University. She is a senior researcher at

the Swedish Defence Research Agency where

she is the head of an interdisciplinary data sci-

ence group. Her research focuses on connecting

psychology with text analysis and the study of

digital phenomena such as hate speech, online

violent extremism, and threat assessment in digital

environments.

Daniel Sallamaa, University of Helsinki

Daniel Sallamaa is a doctoral student of political

history at the University of Helsinki. His ffmelds of

expertise include research on terrorism, political

violence and extremist movements. Sallamaa is

preparing a dissertation on extraparliamentary far-

right groups in 21st century Finland.

Nordic advisory group

The Nordic advisory group consisted of the fol-

lowing experts:

Audun Fladmoe, University of Oslo

Audun Fladmoe (PhD, Political Science) is Se-

nior Research Fellow at the Institute for Social

Research (Oslo, Norway). His research interests

include civic and political engagement, public

opinion, freedom of speech, and hate speech.

Marjan Nadim, University of Oslo

Marjan Nadim, PhD in Sociology, works as a

Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Social

Research in Oslo, Norway. Her research topics in-

clude online hate speech and harassment, gender

equality and ethnic inequality.

Eirik Rise, Stopp Hatprat

Eirik Rise is the national campaign coordinator of

the No Hate Speech Movement in Norway. He has

been active in the movement since 2012 starting

as European activist, initiated the campaign in

Norway in 2014 and has been employed as cam-

paign advisor since 2016. In the national move-

ment he has been working with campaigning,

awareness raising and Human Rights Education

against hate speech with young people.

107

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

List of experts

The following experts have been interviewed:

Alexander Ash

Alexander Ash (also

Sarge,

SergeantIncel)

is a

screen name for the founder and main adminis-

trator of incels.co, formerly incels.me and incels.

is. Also the founder of looksmax.me. Alexander is

also the main writer of the blog incel.blog.

Eirik Rise, Stopp Hatprat

Eirik Rise is the national campaign coordinator of

the No Hate Speech Movement in Norway. He has

been active in the movement since 2012 starting

as European activist, initiated the campaign in Nor-

way in 2014 and has been employed as campaign

advisor since 2016. In the national movement he

has been working with campaigning, awareness

raising and Human Rights Education against hate

speech with young people.

Daniel Sallamaa, University of Helsinki

Daniel Sallamaa is a doctoral student of political

history at the University of Helsinki. His areas of

expertise include research on terrorism, political

violence and extremist movements. Sallamaa is

preparing a dissertation on extraparliamentary far-

right groups in 21st century Finland.

Sara Aarnivaara, MÄN

Sara Aarnivaara, project leader for violence pre-

vention with youth at the Organization MÄN. Sara

has a master in political science and a bachelor in

gender science and started within the women’s

shelter movement in 2000 and has since been

working with support for victims of violence and

violence prevention for youth. At MÄN Sara has

worked with method development, evaluations,

trainings and compiling knowledge on effective

methods for preventing gender based violence.

She has also been part of building structures

for the ffmeld of violence prevention in Sweden in

relation to long term stability and effects as well as

systems for quality assurance.

Anna Lindqvist, MÄN

Anna Lindqvist has been the Director of MÄN

since 2012. Anna has a background in international

development work and as an activist in the wom-

en’s shelter movement. Within the ffmeld of men

and masculinity she has a deep interest in ac-

countable practices and violence preventive work.

Elísabet Yr, Free Speech Fund

Elísabet Yr is a grassroots feminist activist, mainly

focusing on ffmghting rape culture and male vio-

lence against women. She is one of the founders

of Málfrelsissjóður in Iceland, or Free Speech

Fund, a fund that supports women that are taken

to court for speaking out against abuse.

Michael Bang Petersen

Michael Bang Petersen is professor at the Depart-

ment of Political Science, Aarhus University.

He is leading The Politics and Evolution Lab

(PoNE), and is director of the Research on Online

Political Hostility project. His research is focused

on the effect of evolutionary psychology on mod-

ern political behaviour.

Esther Chemnitz, freelance

Esther Chemnitz, cand. mag. Cognition & Commu-

nication, University of Copenhagen with a focus on

digital media, computer-mediated communica-

tion, social cognition and belief polarization.

Digitalt Ansvar v. Ask Hesby Krogh

A Danish umbrella organization holding a legal ex-

pertise and political position in combatting online vio-

lence against women and democratic participation.

108

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Appendix

List of subreddits

A total of 204 subreddits have been scraped for mi-

sogynistic content using the developed search key.

However, only the following 161 subreddits created

data input that lived up to the search criteria:

r/MensRights

r/cringeacademy

r/Beatingwomen

r/Braincels

r/CreepShots

r/CringeAnarchy

r/DarkNetMarkets

r/FatPeopleHate

r/Gore

r/The_Greatawakening

r/Incels

r/Jailbait

r/Jakolandia

r/MillionDollarExtreme

r/Pizzagate

r/Physical_Removal

r/SanctionedSuicide

r/Coontown

r/Shoplifting

r/TheChimpire

r/TheFappening

r/OffMyChest

r/WPDTalk

r/niggers

r/FindBostonBombers

r/KotakuInAction

r/MRM

r/The_Donald

r/TheRedPill

r/beatingwomen2

r/hamplanethatred

r/neofag

r/transfags

r/shitniggerssay

r/ChadRight

r/BillionShekelSupreme

r/TrillionRubleRegime

r/TrillionRubelRegine

r/GorillionYuanDream

r/HydeNationalism

r/tha_pit

r/QuadrillionEuroDream

r/HundredPesoPipedream

r/SextillionEuroSupreme

r/13451452251849519

r/NaturalHair

r/Rape

r/MaleForeverAlone

r/TrueRateMe

r/Malecels

r/PeopleThatDontExist

r/incelswithouthate

r/The_Evropa

r/againstwomensrights

r/conservative

r/coomer

r/gamersriseup

r/MGTOW

r/whathasbeenconserved

r/GamersRiseUpReloaded

r/Chodi

r/stupidpol

r/coomermoment

r/average_redditor

r/Epicairconditioning

r/Incelselffme

r/Incelistan

r/IncelGraveyard

r/BlackPilledNormies

r/BlackPillScience

r/shortcels

r/legitcels

r/BluepillRateMe

r/Feministtears

r/Ethnic_cels

r/BlackPillTruth

r/Manletcels

r/Facehacking

r/HandsoffHapas

r/MarxismRodgerism

r/GentlemenOfTheSupreme

r/IncelUtopia

r/PurplePillDebate

r/ForeverAlone

r/changemyview

109

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Centre for Digital Youth Care

r/gatekeeping

r/IncelsInAction

r/subredditcancer

r/unpopularopinion

r/LMSC

r/TrueOffMyChest

r/the__Braincelhalla

r/sluthate

r/foreverunwanted

r/lookism

r/MRAs

r/pol

r/r9k

r/PUAs

r/pickup

r/pickupartists

r/badwomensanatomy

r/denmark

r/scandinavia

r/Nordiccountries/

r/SWARJE

r/svenskpolitik

r/unket

r/europeffmre

r/eurosceptics

r/swedishproblems

r/allsvenskan

r/norge

r/norsk

r/combatfootage

r/pussypassdenied

r/saltierthancrait

r/collapse

r/cringe

r/niceguys

r/conservative

r/globaloffensive

r/jordanpeterson

r/mgtow2

r/gendercritical

r/askmen

r/seduction

r/incelexit

r/incels

r/greatawakening

r/Scandinavia

r/Denmark

r/Norway

r/Sweden

r/Finand

r/Iceland

r/okkammeratmongol/

r/dankmark

r/JesuBrodre

r/Danmag

r/feminazi

r/denmark2

r/GamleDanmark

r/danskrap

r/FritDanmark

r/Gymnasiememes

r/Nordiccountries/

r/unket

r/Allsvenskan

r/interesseklubben

r/IncelsWithoutHate

r/TopMindsOfReddit

r/femradebates

r/creepypms

r/creepyasterisks

r/justneckbeardthings

r/trollxchromosomes

r/virginvschad

r/4chan

r/gendercynical

110

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling

Appendix

Figure 6

Number of users

Reddit data

Power Law

Model

100

150

200

250

350

Content per user

111

LIU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 27: Rapporten: The Angry Internet – a threat to gender equality, democracy and well-being, fra ministeren for ligestilling