Gender Equality Week at the European Parliament provided an opportunity for MEPs from the Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield (EUDS) and their colleagues from the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) to hold an exchange of views on Wednesday 5 November on radical anti-equality movements, in particular the ‘manosphere’ – a group of online masculinist communities – and their influence on European democratic processes.
At the opening of the session, the Chair of the EUDS Committee, Nathalie Loiseau (Renew Europe, French), issued a reminder of the challenge posed by “this phenomenon”, which initially originated with “ultra-religious ultraconservative groups, which may be both Russian and American”, but which can also “come from other parts of the world” – and which “has become even more widespread as a result of algorithms” with “extreme content [that] is just a click away on [teenagers’] phones”.
She also drew attention to the use of discourse as a tool of “hybrid threats” to “disrupt democratic processes”.
The head of public affairs at the Centre for Combating Digital Hate, Laura Kaun, said ‘incel’ forums had “2.6 million hits per month”, “an increase in mentions of killing, mass murder” and “paedophile posts used by over a quarter of forum users”.
According to her, almost 50% of traffic comes from links originating from mainstream platforms. She recommended “making the algorithms transparent” and “eliminating the financial benefits” generated by this content.
Kristina Wilfore, Director of International Projects at Reset.tech, an independent organisation whose mission is to “re-establish the link between the media and democracy”, explained the links with the geopolitical context: “The Russian war against Ukraine is a war of the sexes [...] with propaganda that glorifies violent forms of hypermasculinity”.
She denounced a business model “where young men are encouraged to harm themselves” and recommended classifying masculinist radicalisation as a “systemic risk” under the Digital Services Act (DSA), in force since November 2022 (see EUROPE 13064/18), and creating “rapid response networks” to protect and provide legal and digital assistance to victims. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)