Misogyny, Women in Power, and Patterns of Social Media Harassment.

Online harassment is a well-documented and studied problem on social media. Who does this harassing, how, and to what degree are important questions that can inform platform policies and automated controls as well as helping understand harassers more broadly. This study investigates users who were discovered because they created a post that harassed a women in power using misogynistic slurs. Do these tend to be isolated incidents, or do such users engage in higher rates of harassment more generally? Findings from both Twitter and Parler suggest that this population uses offensive slurs at over 3 times the rate of control groups. We break down these findings and discuss the implications for moderation, automation, user well-being, and platform success.