Anti-Trans Panic Online
On various fringe platforms, anti-trans panic narratives have been gaining popularity since 2016, though they have a much older history.
Introduction
The recent surge in anti-trans panic across the world, on and offline, has deep roots ranging from satanic panic to colonization. The history of anti-trans rhetoric and incitement to violence on fringe online spaces is long and dark.
Posts and activity on fringe platforms like Gab and 4chan frequently encourage trans harassment. As for Kiwi Farms, at least three suicides have been conclusively linked to activity its platform. Simply for researching this topic I, a trans person and researcher, have faced countless extremely graphic threats of violence and harassment campaigns, not to mention the real-world marginalization, hate, and assault. Being trans is beautiful and amazing – but being trans in this world is terrifying and hard.
Online hate speech targeting trans women and trans femmes, particularly those of color, is responsible for both the violence, suicide, and trauma it causes directly, and also for its role in disinformation campaigns targeting vital services such as hormone access or familial support. Anti-trans campaigns attack marginalized groups in order to isolate, and ultimately attempt to incite genocide against non-gender-conforming communities. It is not so passive as implied by “transphobia” but rather a conscious and active campaign of violence against a body of people who simply exist in authenticity.
The fringe platforms analyzed in this series are the base of operations for the vilest among these bad actors. They reflect an honest view of the broad harassment faced by trans people across the internet and in so-called “real life.”
Anti-Trans Panic: A Tangled Web of Hate
The data on this topic is immense, so we funneled to drill it down in several ways.
First, we focused exclusively on comments surrounding discourse around trans people on platforms most known for cultivating anti-trans mobilizations. With that filter, looking back across Open Measures' archives we found:
2 million posts on 4chan
500k posts on Gab
400k Kiwi Farms
300k on the Scored/.win network of sites
130k on Gettr
130k on Parler
125k on Telegram
When diving into the data the tone and players become even more obvious.
On 4chan, the comments are mostly in the infamous /pol/ board known for fascism, white nationalism, and links to real world terror. Over 25k of these isolated posts on 4chan contained the phrase “kys” or “kill yourself”
On Kiwi Farms, hate is mostly found in sub-forums designed to mobilize stochastic and swarm-based harassment. The ultimate goal is provoking suicide among autistic trans women with terms used such as “animal control”.
On Telegram, you'll see some familiar faces in the top hate comment channels:
Kiwi Farms, where a disinformation operation was attempting to frame trans people as “groomers”
A neo-Nazi group called “the Goyim Defense League” (which Open Measures has researched previously),
The alt-right 4chan /pol/
Quite a few Qanon channels
The Daily Caller, a white supremacist linked conservative outlet. Among the top users were alt-right euphemisms and symbols such as “1488”.
And Breitbart, a Steve Bannon-backed alt-right media organization.
Gab content is punctuated by western chauvinism, alt-right groups, Qanon, and British ultra-nationalism. Among the groups most frequently mentioning trans related terms alongside the word “suicide” was a group for the Daily Stormer website run by conspiracy theorist, Andrew Anglin. This website calls for a second genocide of Jews and “degenerates”.
On Parler, it’s ultra-conservatives, Qanon, Trump supporters, and the disinformation front Epoch Times.
On the Scored (formerly .win) network, the charge is led by thedonald forum known for its involvement in the January 6th coup attempt in the US as well as QAnon conspiracy groups.
Conclusion
Across all of the platforms studied, there is a remarkable increase in gross numbers of this trans-antagonistic content since 2016 (it's important to note, that the use of many of these platforms is rising around the same time). There are peaks punctuating each major news cycle targeting trans people. The data clearly shows that anti-trans content is erratically but steadily rising and with it, concomitant violence.
Platforms that either tolerate or actively welcome this, such as Gab (itself led by an anti-trans instigator), will continue to bear responsibility for the violence that occurs at their behest. However, these figures often want this to occur and do so in full knowledge of its impacts (if occasionally masked in dog-whistles to avoid culpability).
This activity has gone on unchecked for years by living in the shadow and under the guise of their home platforms' stance on moderation (or complete lack thereof). It is through the research of our community that we can begin to shed the light on the darkest and most hateful corners of the internet. Join us in this fight! Build visualizations of your own to untangle the web of hate and disinformation. As always, feel free to get in touch with us at info@openmeasures.io.
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