Its buzz was cut short, not the wave of misogynistic comments that accompanied it.
In France, the content creator "Abrège Frère" with a million subscribers on TikTok - and almost as many on Instagram - has created controversy in recent days, accused of encouraging sexist harassment against women.
The aim of his videos: to “abbreviate” storytimes (content in which a person tells, in front of the camera, a personal story on their social networks) in order to get to the point, according to him.
He cuts the original storytime to summarize it in one sentence, accompanying this with a written message indicating the "time saved" for the person watching this content.
While his videos mainly contain content from women, TikTokers have protested, seeing it as a way to “silence” them and encourage cyberharassment.
Indeed, even if this was not its objective, the humorous pellets of “Abrège Frère” were quickly, and systematically, accompanied by a procession of offensive comments towards those they targeted.
According to an IPSOS study carried out at the end of 2022 for the association “Feminists against cyberharassment”, 84% of victims of cyberviolence are women.
A scourge which was recently the subject of a documentary, “Hail you bitch: misogyny in the digital age”, released in October 2023.
If the “Abrège Frère” controversy awakens the eternal subject of online hatred and deficiencies in moderation on social networks, recent studies also point to the responsibility of the different platforms in the constant suggestion of discriminatory and insulting content to regard for women.
France, country where online hatred is the strongest
“It’s 2024 and digital society is only a reflection of physical society,” laments Marie-Joseph Bertini, university professor of information and communication sciences at Nice Sophia-Antipolis University, referring to the latest report from the High Council for Equality between Men and Women (HCE).
“Of all the content, particularly on social networks which are very popular with Internet users and in particular by younger people, the majority is produced by men in which almost only men are represented.”
Even more, she said, "the comments under this content continue to convey torrents of insults about women, very often under the pretext of humor which is always the vehicle by which sexist and sexual violence (SGBV) is disseminated in opinion. And all this contributes to keeping women out of the digital sphere.
When the Internet appeared among the general public, the gender studies specialist thought that this new tool would help to reconfigure gender relations and bring about new forms of sociability that were more respectful towards women.
“That was the case in a sense, because new forms of sociability appeared, but the basis of discrimination against women and their relegation out of the public space did not change,” she laments. .
However, according to the first report from X (formerly Twitter) on the subject, France is the country in Europe where online hatred is the strongest (16,288 posts were deleted by the moderators of 7,160 in Germany and 1,403 in Belgium, for example).
And, according to the study, 70% of online hatred is directed against women.
In question, according to Marie-Joseph Bertini, education, anonymity on social networks, but also the role played by their algorithms.
Indeed, if social networks remain an outlet for the expression of sexist remarks, social network algorithms are also criticized for locking users, particularly the youngest, into misogyny, through the massive suggestion of insulting content to towards women.
Also read: Insults, humiliations, degrading sketches… Ordinary sexism on the radio and on YouTube
An algorithm that favors “divisive” content
If the platforms regularly claim to prohibit sexist content and detect and delete the majority of misogynistic content, the TikTok algorithm was again recently highlighted by a study by University College London (UCL) and The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), on problematic content suggested exponentially to a panel of adolescents aged 13 to 17.
The British researchers worked for a week, studying a thousand videos by stepping into the shoes of four types of users: individuals suffering from loneliness, users interested in mental health and personal development, individuals who love sport and bodybuilding, and finally users interested in “Men’s Rights” (reactionary movement defined by its opposition to women and feminism, Editor’s note).
Result: the study was able to highlight an algorithm that amplifies very quickly and in large quantities the misogynistic content offered to young people, regardless of their basic interests.
“In five days, all archetypes saw the level of misogynistic content quadruple on the suggested content tab titled “For You” (from 13% misogynistic content to 56%).
According to a previous survey, “Automatic Misogyny Detection in Social Media”, published in 2019 by Elena Shushkevich and John Cardiff from the Technological University of Dublin, the criteria for content to be considered misogynistic are however varied.
Among them: describing women's physiques or comparing their physiques to narrow standards, asserting the superiority of men over women, actions such as harassment, sexual advances or requests for sexual favors, or again the insults against women motivated by the simple fact that they are women.
To remedy the problem, the study which points to the responsibility of the TikTok algorithm suggests, among other things, the establishment of a "healthy digital regime" aimed at making social platforms responsible, educating young people, but also informing parents about how social media algorithms work.
But Marie-Joseph Bertini raises the problem of limited moderation due to the “gigantic profit” that platforms make from “divisive” content.
Since the arrival at the helm of Elon Musk, Company January by Australian internet regulator eSafety, which says it coincides with a spike in “toxicity and hatred” on the social network.
“Hate is a trigger for clicks,” says Marie-Joseph Bertini.
Thus, "large groups are laying off moderators - while there is more and more content to moderate - because it is expensive and at the same time, the divisive content will attract more attention and increase the audience.”
If the large groups are located in countries where their platforms are not considered responsible for the content they host (Meta and X are located in the United States, TikTok in China), the European Union now imposes certain obligations on them.
The Digital Services Act (DSA regulation), aimed at imposing new rules on very large web and social media platforms to protect users by limiting in particular the online distribution of illicit content and products, came into force on Saturday February 17.
“The problem comes from the way societies are organized”
However, believes Marie-Joseph Bertini, also author of “Women: impossible power” (Pauvert) and “Neither Eve nor Adam. Undoing the difference between the sexes” (Max Milo), tackling the algorithms of social networks is not enough and amounts to pointing the finger at an effect rather than a cause.
“The most powerful algorithm to date is patriarchy, and the systematization of male domination,” insists the researcher.
“And it is not by returning once again to the problem of how digital technology works that things will change, because the problem comes from the way in which societies are organized.”
As for France, the researcher deplores that schools to date do not sufficiently play their educational role on this subject, with stereotypes generally having a strong grip even within the teaching profession.
Marie-Joseph Bertini thus returns to the abandonment in 2014 of the “ABCD of equality” program which aimed to fight against girl-boy stereotypes.
“Even when politicians have the strength and courage to do something, there is a recovery in society that is extremely strong.”
To seeFrance: is the “ABCD of equality” up to the controversy?
“We have a panic fear which consists of saying that we must not talk to children about this, that we must keep girls and boys [built on a patriarchal model] as if the only way to constitute a boy was to making him think from a very young age that a girl is inferior to him. This is what I call the algorithm of patriarchy.”
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