(78) Twitter abuse - '50% of misogynistic tweets from women'

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36380247

 

Summary:

 

Half of all misogynistic tweets posted on Twitter come from women, a study suggests. Over a three-week period, think tank counted the number of uses of two particular words as indicators of misogyny. It found evidence of large-scale misogyny, with 6,500 unique users targeted by 10,000 abusive tweets in the UK alone. Abuse on social networks is not new and neither is the revelation that women contribute to the problem.

Key data/statistical information:

• The Demos study also looked at international tweets and found more than 200,000 aggressive tweets using the words, "slut" and "whore", were sent to 80,000 people over the same three weeks
• A 2014 study from cosmetics firm Dove found that over five million negative tweets were posted about beauty and body image. Four out of five were sent by women