For incels, being a man at the bottom of a masculine hierarchy is still better than being a woman
Can negative evaluations of a broad outgroup paired with positive evaluations of a broad ingroup, sustain willing affiliation with even intensely self-derogating online communities? Synthesizing concepts from masculinities scholarship, social identity theory, and self-verification theory, this study compares language from two distinctive misogynist communities active on Reddit.com—Men Going Their Own Way, male separatists who positively frame members as superior to other men and men as superior to women, and Involuntary Celibates (incels), who openly derogate incel community members—to understand what sustains misogynist incels’ willing affiliation with the self-derogating incel community. Using thematic qualitative analysis, I find that while male separatists favor both their own narrower online community and the broader ingroup of men, misogynist incels engage in a patriarchal bargain, using relatively benevolent depictions of some men alongside negative depictions of all women to perpetuate broader gender inequality.
Lack of standardization among platform political ad policies and products is causing problems for democracy
In the wake of the 2016 Brexit and U.S. presidential elections, the major platform companies including Facebook (and Instagram), Google (and YouTube), and Twitter implemented significant changes in the scope of the products and services they offer as well as their policies for working in institutional politics, especially in the context of digital political advertising. For example, all three companies rolled out verification processes for political advertisers and ad databases for the public. Facebook ended commissions on political ad sales and its “embed” program with campaigns. Google placed restrictions on political microtargeting and Twitter ended political advertising entirely and placed restrictions on what it has named “cause-based” advertising. This paper analyzes the policies and products of platform companies with respect to digital political advertising in the U.S. Our focus is on social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Reddit, and YouTube) and the advertising capabilities that you can access through them, as well as Google search and the Google display
network.