A new study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) finds that Instagram fails to remove 93% of abusive comments directed at female politicians.

The research examines 1,000 abusive comments on the Instagram accounts of 10 female officeholders – five Republicans and five Democrats.

“The cacophony of hate speech, threats, and gendered abuse we find flooding the comment sections of prominent women politicians are united in one shared purpose: to push women out of political life,” the CCDH’s report reads.

Instagram Ignores Abusive Comments? 

The Center reported these comments through Instagram’s built-in systems and checked back a week later, finding that the vast majority remained online.

Many of the comments left up by Instagram contain sexually degrading content or violent threats, which the center says likely violate the platform’s community guidelines.

The study also looks at comments directed at Vice President Kamala Harris, finding that 92% of 105 abusive comments targeting her remained online a week after being reported. 

These comments included both sexist and racist content, according to the center.

While abusive replies constitute a minority of comments on Instagram – about 1 in 25 replies to female politicians are likely to be toxic, based on the center’s analysis of 421,361 comments – many come from repeat offenders. 

The study identifies 221 comments from accounts that had previously targeted the female politicians examined.

Meta’s Response to the Report

Per Axios, Instagram’s parent company, Meta, stated that it had not seen the CCDH’s study but would review the examples collected by the Center. 

The company said it would remove anything that violates its rules but added that not all offensive comments are violations.

“We work with hundreds of safety partners around the world to continually improve our policies, tools, detection, and enforcement, and we will review the CCDH report and take action on any content that violates our policies,” Cindy Southworth, Meta’s Head of Women’s Safety, said in an emailed statement to Axios.

According to NBC, Instagram claims to catch 98% of hate speech and eventually take action before anyone reports it, thanks to its automated detection software. 

However, the CCDH’s findings suggest there may be gaps in this system’s effectiveness.

How Detrimental Is Online Hate Speech?

The CCDH report highlights the broader issue of online harassment faced by women in politics.

CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed says in the report that the abuse of women can dissuade some from deciding that politics is the right career for them. 

He calls for Instagram to enforce its policies more consistently and be more transparent about its decision-making process when ruling on potential violations.

The study focuses specifically on Instagram because it’s a platform Ahmed believes people perceive as safe. The center aimed to test whether this perception aligns with reality.

Previous studies have shown that such abuse can dissuade women from pursuing or continuing political careers. 

In 2019, women’s groups in the UK highlighted that several women MPs decided not to stand for reelection due to online abuse.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue’s 2020 study of online abuse against Canadian politicians found that some women indicated that online harassment might keep them from running for office again in the future.

Another study published in 2021 revealed female UK politicians reported feeling “significantly more unsafe” than their male counterparts due to varying forms of harassment, and social media abuse was one of the most common.