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Beyond Fish and Bicycles: Exploring the Varieties of Online Women's Ideological Spaces

  • Utkucan Balci
  • , Chen Ling
  • , Emiliano De Cristofaro
  • , Megan Squire
  • , Gianluca Stringhini
  • , Jeremy Blackburn
  • State University of New York Binghamton University
  • Boston University
  • University College London
  • Southern Poverty Law Center

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Internet has been instrumental in connecting under-represented and vulnerable groups of people. Platforms built to foster social interaction and engagement have enabled historically disenfranchised groups to have a voice. One such vulnerable group is women. In this paper, we explore the diversity in online women's ideological spaces using a multi-dimensional approach. We perform a large-scale, data-driven analysis of over 6M Reddit comments and submissions from 14 subreddits. We elicit a diverse taxonomy of online women's ideological spaces, ranging from counterparts to the so-called Manosphere to Gender-Critical Feminism. We then perform content analysis, finding meaningful differences across topics and communities. Finally, we explore two platforms, namely, ovarit.com and thepinkpill.co, where two toxic communities of online women's ideological spaces (Gender-Critical Feminism and Femcels) migrated after their ban on Reddit.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWebSci 2023 - Proceedings of the 15th ACM Web Science Conference
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages43-54
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9798400700897
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 30 2023
Event15th ACM Web Science Conference, WebSci 2023, co-located with The Web Conference - Hybrid, Austin, United States
Duration: Apr 30 2023May 1 2023

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Conference

Conference15th ACM Web Science Conference, WebSci 2023, co-located with The Web Conference
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityHybrid, Austin
Period04/30/2305/1/23

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