Gender Differences in Abuse: The Case of Dutch Politicians on Twitter

TL;DR

This study examines gender and ethnic differences in online abuse received by Dutch politicians on Twitter, revealing that male politicians generally face more abuse, but female ethnic minority politicians are most severely impacted in certain abuse types.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of gender and ethnicity interactions in online abuse towards politicians, highlighting specific vulnerabilities of female ethnic minority politicians.

Findings

Male politicians received higher abuse levels overall.

Female ethnic minority politicians faced more severe abuse in some measures.

Female ethnic minority politicians received the highest threat levels.

Abstract

Online abuse and threats towards politicians have become a significant concern in the Netherlands, like in many other countries across the world. This paper analyses gender differences in abuse received by Dutch politicians on Twitter, while taking into account the possible additional impact of ethnic minority status. All tweets directed at party leaders throughout the entire year of 2022 were collected. The effect of gender and ethnic minority status were estimated for six different linguistic measures of abuse, namely, toxicity, severe toxicity, identity attacks, profanity, insults, and threats. Contrary to expectations, male politicians received higher levels of all forms of abuse, with the exception of threats, for which no significant gender difference was found. Significant interaction effects between gender and ethnic minority status were found for a number of abuse measures. In the case of severe toxicity, identity attacks, and profanity, female ethnic minority politicians were more severely impacted than their ethnic majority female colleagues, but not worse than male politicians. Finally, female ethnic minority politicians received the highest levels of threats compared to all groups. Given that online abuse and threats are reported to have a negative effect on political participation and retention, these results are particularly worrying.