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Misogyny on the internet is often more felt than understood, and Reddit is no exception. So a group of researchers decided to quantify hate speech against women online, and examine who exactly is behind it. This is what they found: 1/ wired.trib.al/dbP4FvO
A recent paper, “Exploring Misogyny Across the Manosphere in Reddit,” attempts something few others have: mining the entire space like one vast linguistic database to find patterns in the way hate has evolved online. 2/ wired.trib.al/dbP4FvO
Researchers applied natural language processing to certain subreddits’ entire lifetime of posts, categorizing their language into nine categories: physical violence, sexual violence, belittling, patriarchy, flipping the narrative, hostility, stoicism, racism, and homophobia. 3/
They found that misogynist rhetoric has been increasing in frequency and violence, especially since 2016. This pattern—observed in 6 million posts made over 7 years—was algorithmically detected rather than personally observed, which helped shut down skeptics. 4/ 
The researchers found that r/MGTOW (“men going their own way”) was the most hostile, and most likely to make threats of physical violence, while r/Braincels displayed the highest levels of belief in the correctness of the patriarchy and of homophobia. 5/ wired.trib.al/dbP4FvO
The study also found that misogynist language and violent language tend to occur together and that posters expressing violent misogyny often authored posts expressing violent racism or homophobia as well. 6/ wired.trib.al/dbP4FvO
Studies like this one name the problem and observe its patterns, which researchers hope will help policy makers and legislators make informed decisions about platform regulation. 7/ wired.trib.al/dbP4FvO
Understanding the patterns of misogyny online shouldn’t just help people find better ways to put individual users in a time out. It can give insight into how young men become misogynists, and maybe someday help them walk away. Read more: 8/ wired.trib.al/dbP4FvO
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