A study from think tank Demos has mapped the extent of misogynistic language across Twitter in research it describes as "a bird's eye snapshot of what is an often traumatic experience for women".
More than 86,500 users were studied internationally and the findings suggest there is an even split in misogynistic tweets being sent by men and women.
The study used a natural language processing algorithm to identify "aggressive" tweets containing the words ‘slut’ and ‘whore’ over a three-week period - more than 10,000 tweets in the UK, and 200,000 internationally.
The algorithm identified and removed 'self-identifying' uses of the words (such as "I'm a slut") and "those that were commenting on issues related to misogyny, such as slut-shaming or slut walks".
But Demos stressed the study is just one element of misogynistic abuse.
It was a relatively small scale study designed as part of MP Yvette Cooper’s Reclaim the Internet campaign and only represents a tiny aspect of the abuse women face online. Reclaim the internet is an attempt to “support female participation in social media”.
It was also based on previous research undertaken by Demos, which suggested 'slut' and 'whore' are the most commonly used words directed at women online.
Twitter has been keen to show itself as proactive on abuse. In April 2016, its harassment rules changed so users could report multiple abusive tweets in one go.
"Behaviour that crosses that line into abuse is against our rules, and we want it to be easy for you to report it to us," the site said at the time.
And in December 2015, it updated its rules of conduct to state it would "not tolerate online behaviour that is intended to harass, intimidate or use fear to silence another user's voice".
Alex Krasodomski-Jones, researcher in the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos, also noted misogyny is not just limited to Twitter.
"It's important to note that misogyny is prevalent across all social media," he said. "We must make sure that the other big tech companies are also involved in discussions around education and developing solutions."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
