"@Anna_Soubry your gonna get the shock of your real unpleasant life when @brexitparty_uk smash u in the European elections!! You should be hung for treason." "Piss off, you lying traitor!!!" These are only two examples of hundreds of tweets received by Change UK candidate Anna Soubry earlier this year.
Over three months in the lead up to the European elections, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) monitored hateful speech on social media and in groups online. Our research showed far-right-led, concerted harassment campaigns against female politicians across Europe, including in the UK, where pro-Remain figures were particularly targeted.
In Britain, abuse against female politicians has crystallised around narratives of “Brexit betrayal” and “treason.”
The abuse is taking place both on mainstream social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as less regulated fringe platforms like Gab and Minds, which have become havens for the far-right. Between April and May, Soubry received almost double the number of abusive messages on Twitter compared to her pro-Remain male counterpart Dominic Grieve. These included death threats and insults targeted at her appearance and gender. They rarely mention her policies. On the encrypted messaging application Telegram, we saw much the same.
ISD identified several coordinated campaigns by the far-right to humiliate female politicians across Europe. In Germany, trolls launched a coordinated effort against the leader of the Bavarian Greens, Katharina Schulze. Schulze also became a target internationally, with users on the transgressive message board 4chan sharing degrading memes.
But this is not just about viral videos. Worryingly, we have entered an age of generalised abuse against female politicians. Attacks previously confined to the dark corners of the internet and fringe far-right groups are becoming normalised, adopted by populist parties, and increasingly ordinary citizens.
The extent of this abuse represents a threat to democratic debate. As the treatment of Soubry outside parliament in January revealed, the online rhetoric can have real-world consequences.
We have seen this pattern emerging throughout Europe. In Spain, prominent female politicians experienced intimidation and harassment on the street, including Ines Arrimadas, lawyer and member of Congress for the Citizens Party in Catalonia. She found threatening graffiti painted outside her home by Catalan separatists.
These online and offline attacks affect female politicians’ ability to carry out their roles. It creates a culture of impunity when abuse goes unpunished. It can discourage women from entering politics, or cause them to leave social media. In Germany, for example, sustained attacks forced Sawsan Chebli, an SPD politician of Palestinian descent, to delete her Facebook account.
From Matteo Salvini's “ignorant woman” quips about liberal opposition figures and Donald Trump's recent racist tweets about Democratic congresswomen, prominent men in power are condoning abusive speech in mainstream discourse.
Unfortunately, there is no quick fix to protect female politicians against this—but we can look to the tech giants as a starting point.
In May, parliament’s Joint Human Rights Committee accused Facebook and Twitter of not doing enough to protect female politicians from online harm. All tech companies need to delete abusive content more quickly and prevent offenders from creating new accounts.
They also have a responsibility to remove the burden of reporting individual cases from the victims of abuse. Misogynistic and abusive content sometimes falls into a "grey area,” meaning that while it is very harmful, it is not necessarily illegal. This distinction makes removing it from social media platforms more difficult.
There are currently no punishments in place for tech companies that fail to remove systemic abuse on their platforms in the UK—but our European neighbours are beginning to cotton on. In Germany, the NetzDG law adopted in 2018 imposed fines on tech companies that fail to remove harmful messages within 24 hours. France adopted a similar law a few days ago.
Furthermore, already overburdened police forces lack the training and resources needed. As the UK is set to adopt a new tax levy on large tech companies—which is set to raise £400m by 2022—some of this should be used to support law enforcement in its work online.
Beyond these practical measures, we need a broad social shift to address how routine attacks against female MPs are becoming. Greater investment from government and tech companies in education and media literacy is an important step in combating this culture, alongside more support for civil society organisations involved in helping victims.
Every week in the news and across our social media feeds, we see sobering reminders of just how normalised abusive language has become. If we are going to encourage more women to get engaged in politics, and protect the democratic integrity of our societies, we need a coordinated response that involves technology companies, governments and civil society. We all have a part to play.
