We observe Twitter. This blog and space on Gender Equity is continuously reviewed and updated. You can also update this space by becoming a contributor to the Open Source Research on the Open Constitution Network.
Who owns these accounts?
The twitter accounts which spread misrepresentation were observed to be held by humans who identify or follow these types of belief systems:
a. What are commonly referred to as TERFs
b. Supporters or party workers of Republican political party in U.S
c. Social Media Influencers
Examples of woman, who have an active history of anti-trans tweets, and professional issues with another transgender woman athlete after inclusion of transgender woman in Woman’s Category.
d. Examples of staunch supporters of refuting human gender cognition, and scientific advancements in Gender Studies.
e. De transitioners (those who attempted gender transition through medical means and abandoned the therapy.)
f. Religious extremist groups - specifically those who identify with Christianity, describability of gender in the context of religion.
g. Pro gun rights groups
What type of account activities were noticed in these disinformation campaigns?
Accounts recently setup(2023) or old accounts with fewer tweets and an uptick in anti-trans tweets since March
Accounts affiliated with specific belief systems and socio-political organizations. (read below)
Personal accounts which only post tweets with an anti-trans rhetoric
Political accounts which only post pro-republican tweets
Accounts with paid blue marks
Visible Disinformation Patterns:
Incomplete information has been used to deduce and observe knowledge based legislative arguments on human gender cognition. Few examples are:
1. Gender cognition is often linked to INCOMPLETE biology.
The disinformation focuses only on sexual organs as if scientific community has already documented the human biology including neurology and has all documented answers to the gender cognition phenomenon. When the Internet responds with scientific facts, disinformation campaign moves to faith based discourse, or anti-trans rhetoric.
Videos were found to be circulating where Transgender humans describe their subjective experience e.g womanhood, and are less articulate about their intimate personal experience and lack of conventions.
Such videos were found to be used to misinterpret Gender Science.
The base content is that the disinformation campaigns do not offer or associate any information on human cognition, mental faculties and existential aspects of human condition.
Disinformation campaigns focus on human genitalia and sex characteristics but exclude scientific observations made on Endocrinology, Neuroscience and recent advancements made in sexology, reproductive healthcare.
Disinformation campaigns take advantage of complexities involved in describability of human cognition phenomenon. Most campaigns focus on surface information to create distortion of information for those who are looking to validate their cognition with simplified vocabulary.
E.g reductionism methods in distributing information.
2. Incendiary language for transgender humans.
a. Disinformation primarily focuses on stigmatisation of transgender, and politicisation of different aspects of a transgender.
b. Disinformation also focuses on excluding vulnerable trans woman from the standards of womanhood due to their body-mind incongruence.
Transgender woman is being portrayed as something less to that of cis woman in terms of body, and birthing capabilities.
Slurs, slangs and abusive language have been used for transgender woman.
Incendiary and inciting verbal discourse
Other non scientific levels of gender discourse and sexist attributes have been used.
Transgender humans have been portrayed as sexual molesters, terrorists or murderers in these disinformation campaigns.
There is modesty associated with gender cognition since it is an existential consciousness phenomenon. Therefore, any public gender discourse should consider the sensitivity of this.
3. Discussion on Sex protected spaces.
Safe spaces are needed by all type of gender.
Less healthy or differently abled or differently bodied human may be a vulnerable group not necessarily females possessing female body- does not necessarily lessen the need of safe spaces for females though.
Sex protected space(s) are required for all types of Gender Cognition. Transgender woman’s cognition works in the similar way as cis woman.
Disinformation is asserted that shaping a Non binary or a gender neutral inclusive society is eating cis-gender resources.
Exclusionary disinformation stresses on the resource crunch, a story mode of feminist movement, which attempts to incite human feelings of fear and prejudice between two groups over resources.
4. Stigmatisation of woman as a sexual predator to another woman.
In these disinformation campaigns, presence of a transgender woman is being portrayed as unsafe for cis woman e.g in Woman toilets or other protected sex spaces, due to a perceived threat allegedly from a scenario where a sexual predator enters the space, pretending to be a transgender woman.
Beauty Standards or data model:
The wrongful standards of womanhood are being applied on that generally a male looking face or not female looking face may fit a profile of any sexual predator, who decides to wear a woman’s dress to commit a crime.
It is an inappropriate deduction that transgender woman are not fit to a standard of commonly known tabloid perceptions of womanhood, and a sexual predator profile might look more like a transgender woman.
Disinformation campaign entails enviousness between two woman profile who fit the same Gender Cognition structure.
5. Stigmatisation of healthcare of transgender woman.
Transgender healthcare needs are highly complex and personal.
Disinformation campaigns describe the medical transition and focus on side effects of hormonal replacement treatment.
Personal videos were found to be circulating, where transgender woman are presenting themselves in different ways and mannerisms of womanhood, and these videos are used to start a twitter conversation on the subject, in negative light.
6. Stigmatisation of suicides and recommendation of self harm.
Hate and ranting activities in the disinformation campaigns recommend self harm to transgender humans. Sign of an organised campaign(s) were observed.
No natural person in their legal capacity with independent freedom of expression, would undermine or hate another community to a point that they spend hours creating and circulating videos on Twitter platform, which suggest self Harm to a another group of people.
7. Linking Anti-Vaccination and anti government conspiracy agenda with Gender transition of transgender.
Anti vaccine or anti government rhetoric where transgender are being linked to covid vaccine. Disinformation focuses that transgenders are choosing to transition after taking government backed vaccine.
8. Moral Panic
Disinformation campaign focuses on creating moral panic if the society becomes more gender inclusive.
This is a fabricated pattern, as being induced from an anti-transgender perspective.
9. Linking Transgender to Gun Violence in U.S.A
Transgender is a human condition and transgender humans also exist outside America and live peacefully. Disinformation focuses on linking transgender issues with one school shooter, and thus linking to children safety.
10. Disinformation about organized Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives
Disinformation about Trans movements, LGBTQI Inclusion and organized DEI initiatives in the industry e.g selective examples of transgender woman advertisement deals and professional success are being ridiculed as anti woman rhetoric,
Corporate Equality Index is being cited as the reasons for more trans inclusion, as https://www.hrc.org/resources/corporate-equality-index in these disinformation campaigns.
11. Disinformation about pharmaceutical companies, and gender affirming healthcare providers
It is being cited that there are big Pharma which promote gender idealogy, in these disinformation campaigns.
12. Stigmatisation of homosexuality
Disinformation campaigns focus on refuting and rejecting homosexuality with homophobic comments.
13. Stigmatisation of transgender humans with a disinformation campaign on pedophilia
Paedophilia relates to a specific disorder where there is a preference for sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children. Transgender humans and woman are being associated with pedophilia.
14. Anti-globalist disinformation
Campaigns were found to focus or attack the global community of human beings. Disinformation campaign attempts to strictly bring American cultural society models in the focus, as the issue has become politicised heavily in America. These tweets were reported to have content which is heavily nuanced for local consumption and aimed at dividing the Internet discourse on the subject.
15. Non sensitivity to cultural heritage of one single HUMANKIND
Disinformation campaigns design by human minds who have failed to borrow the fundamental knowledge enshrined in the rich cultural heritage of humankind. Devised campaigns ignore the cultural background of transgender community in the context of human society.
Example: Disinformation campaigns activated in US and U.K ignore the prevailing struggles and hardships of transgender human beings outside these socio-political structures. Campaigns are heavily nuanced for local consumption.
Extremism based disinformation campaign are not focused on scientific facts rather than invoking some sort of absurd notion of divisive politics, as healthcare politics takes centre stage in these jurisdictions.
16. Campaign Focus on Population Growth vs fear of implosion
Disinformation campaigns focus on need for population growth in certain jurisdictions in the context of a makeshift pseudo cultural aggression between humans on planet earth.
Some disinformation campaigns were found to focus on racial classifications between groups identifying with skin color on the human body e.g black, brown, white, red, yellow or green(in the context of fictional Martians).
17. Campaign Focus on State’s regulation of Self autonomous human anatomy e.g Abortion
Disinformation campaigns focus on containing autonomy of human body in the context of reproduction.
Disinformation campaigns aided by humans who have outreach on the platform, and accounts, including those who own the platform, have also been found to encourage sexist discourse on this subject.
Read more about Gender Cognition here.