Article published in:
Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Vol. 7:2 (2019) ► pp. 240–268

Online hatred of women in the Incels.me forum

Linguistic analysis and automatic detection

| University of Hildesheim
| University of Antwerp
| University of Munich
| Columbia University
| University of Hull
| Textgain

This paper presents a study of the (now suspended) online discussion forum Incels.me and its users, involuntary celibates or incels, a virtual community of isolated men without a sexual life, who see women as the cause of their problems and often use the forum for misogynistic hate speech and other forms of incitement. Involuntary celibates have attracted media attention and concern, after a killing spree in April 2018 in Toronto, Canada. The aim of this study is to shed light on the group dynamics of the incel community, by applying mixed-methods quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyze how the users of the forum create in-group identity and how they construct major out-groups, particularly women. We investigate the vernacular used by incels, apply automatic profiling techniques to determine who they are, discuss the hate speech posted in the forum, and propose a Deep Learning system that is able to detect instances of misogyny, homophobia, and racism, with approximately 95% accuracy.

Keywords: misogyny, hate speech, social media, text analytics, forensic linguistics, text profiling
Published online: 08 July 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00026.jak
References

References

Argamon, Shlomo, Moshe Koppel, James W. Pennebaker, and Jonathan Schler
2009 “Automatically Profiling the Author of an Anonymous Text.” Communications of the ACM 52(2):119–23. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Berger, J. M.
2017 “Extremist Construction of Identity: How Escalating Demands for Legitimacy Shape and Define In-Group and Out-Group Dynamics.” ICCT Research Paper. https://​icct​.nl​/wp​-content​/uploads​/2017​/04​/ICCT​-Berger​-Extremist​-Construction​-of​-Identity​-April​-2017​-2​.pdf. Crossref
Blommaert, Jan
2017 “Online-offline Modes of Identity and Community: Elliot Rodger’s Twisted World of Masculine Victimhood.” Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies 200. https://​biblio​.ugent​.be​/publication​/8551305​/file​/8551306​.pdf
Bou-Franch, Patricia, and Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich
2016 “Gender Ideology and Social Identity Processes in Online Language Aggression against Women.” In Exploring Language Aggression against Women, edited by Patricia Bou-Franch, 59–81. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Brennan, Michael, Zadia Afroz, and Rachel Greenstadt
2012 “Adversarial Stylometry: Circumventing Authorship Recognition to Preserve Privacy and Anonymity.” ACM Transactions on Information and System Security 15(3): Art. 12. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Alexander
2017 “What is Hate Speech? Part 1: The Myth of Hate.” Law and Philosophy 36: 419–468. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Rachel
2016 Defusing Hate: A Strategic Communication Guide to Counteract Dangerous Speech. https://​www​.ushmm​.org​/m​/pdfs​/20160229​-Defusing​-Hate​-Guide​.pdf
Brown, Rupert, and Hanna Zagefka
2005 “Ingroup Affiliations and Prejudice.” In On the Nature of Prejudice, edited by John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, and Laurie A. Rudman, 54–70. Maldon, MA, etc.: Blackwell. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chollet, François
2015 Keras: Deep Learning Library for Theano and Tensorflow.
https://​keras​.io
Colleoni, Elanor, Alessandro Rozza, and Adam Arvidsson
2014 “Echo Chamber or Public Sphere? Predicting Political Orientation and Measuring Political Homophily in Twitter Using Big Data.” Journal of Communication 64(2):317–32. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Michael
2002 “Discriminative training methods for hidden markov models: Theory and experiments with perceptron algorithms.” Proceedings of the ACL-02 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing 10: 1–8. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
De Smedt, Tom, and Walter Daelemans
2012 “Pattern for Python.” Journal of Machine Learning Research 13: 2063–2067. http://​www​.jmlr​.org​/papers​/volume13​/desmedt12a​/desmedt12a​.pdf
De Smedt, Tom, Guy De Pauw, and Pieter Van Ostaeyen
2018 “Automatic Detection of Online Jihadist Hate Speech.” CLiPS Technical Report Series 7: 1–30. https://​www​.uantwerpen​.be​/images​/uantwerpen​/container2712​/files​/hate​-speech​-detection​.pdf
Dholakia, Utpal M., and Richard P. Bagozzi
2004 “Motivational Antecedents, Constituents and Consequents of Virtual Community Identity.” In Virtual and Collaborative Teams: Process, Technologies, and Practice, edited by Susan H. Godar and Sharmila P. Ferris, 252–67. Hershey/London: Idea Group Publishing. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
DiMauro, Dina
2008 “Reluctant Virginity: The Relationship between Sexual Status and Self-esteem.” Theses and Dissertations 717. http://​rdw​.rowan​.edu​/etd​/717
Donnelly, Denise, Elisabeth Burgess, Sally Anderson, Regina Davis, and Joy Dillard
2001 “Involuntary Celibacy: A Life Course Analysis.” The Journal of Sex Research 38(2):159–69. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, Karen M.
2009 “Psychology, Discrimination and Hate Groups Online.” In The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology, edited by Adam N. Joinson, Katelyn Y. A. McKenna, Tom Postmes, and Ulf-Dietrich Reips, 155–63. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gilmore, David D.
2001 Misogyny: The Male Malady. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ging, Debbie
2017 “Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere.” Men and Masculinities. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haines, Russel, Jill Hough, Lan Cao, and Douglas Haines
2014 “Anonymity in Computer-mediated Communication: More Contrarian Ideas with Less Influence.” Group Decision and Negotiation 23(4):765–86. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hamm, Mark S., and Ramón F. J. Spaij
2017 The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism. New York/Chichester: Columbia University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haythornthwaite, Caroline
2009 “Social Networks and Online Community.” In The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology, edited by Adam N. Joinson, Katelyn Y. A. McKenna, Tom Postmes, and Ulf-Dietrich Reips, 121–137. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jane, Emma A.
2014a “Back to the Kitchen, cunt”: Speaking the Unspeakable about Online Misogyny. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 28(4):558–70. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2014b “ ‘You’re a Ugly, Whorish, Slut’. Understanding E-bile.” Feminist Media Studies 14(4):431–46. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2017 “Systemic Misogyny Exposed: Translating Rapeglish from the Manosphere with a Random Rape Threat Generator.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 21(6):661–80. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kämper, Andreas
2011 [r]echte Kerle. Zur Kumpanei der MännerRECHTSbewegung. Münster: UNRAST.Google Scholar
Kim, Yoon
2014 “Convolutional Neural Networks for Sentence Classification.” arXiv: 1408.5882, https://​arxiv​.org​/pdf​/1408​.5882​.pdf
Kleinke, Sonja, and Birte Bös
2015 “Intergroup Rudeness and the Metapragmatics of its Negotiation in Online Discussion Fora.” Pragmatics 25(1):47–71. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Larkin, Ralph W.
2018 “Learning to be a Rampage Shooter: The Case of Elliot Rodger.” In The Wiley Handbook on Violence in Education: Forms, Factors, and Preventions, edited by Harvey Shapiro, 69–84. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Liu, Bing
2012 Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining. San Rafael, CA: Morgan & Claypool. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mantilla, Karla
2013 “Gendertrolling: Misogyny Adapts to New Media.” Feminist Studies 39(2):563–70. https://​www​.jstor​.org​/stable​/23719068
ed. 2015 Gendertrolling: How Misogyny Went Viral. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Press.Google Scholar
Marx, Konstanze
2018 “Cybermobbing aus sprachwissenschaftlicher Perspektive.” Sprachreport 1/18: 1–9. https://​ids​-pub​.bsz​-bw​.de​/frontdoor​/index​/index​/docId​/7209
Musolff, Andreas
2012 “The Study of Metaphor as Part of Critical Discourse Analysis.” Critical Discourse Studies 9(3):301–10. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Matthew L., Carla J. Groom, Lori D. Handelman, and James W. Pennebaker
2008 “Gender Differences in Language Use: An Analysis of 14,000 Text Samples.” Discourse Processes 45: 211–36. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Neuman, Yair, Dan Assaf, Yochai Cohen, and James L. Knoll
2015 “Profiling School Shooters: Automatic Text-based Analysis.” Frontiers in Psychiatry 6: Art. 86. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Nockleby, John T.
2000 “Hate Speech.” In Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. Vol. 3, 2nd ed., edited by Leonard W. Levy and Kenneth L. Karst, 1277–1279. Detroit: Macmillan Reference US.Google Scholar
Pennebaker, James W.
2011 The Secret Life of Pronouns. What our Words Say about us. New York: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Pennebaker, James W., Martha E. Francis, and Roger J. Booth
2001 Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count: LIWC 2001. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Plummer, Ken
2005 “Male Sexualities.” In Handbook of Studies on Men & Masculinities, edited by Michael S. Kimmel, Jeff Hearn, and R. W. Connell, 178–195. Thousand Oaks/London/New Delhi: Sage. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rego, Richard
2018 “Changing Forms and Platforms of Misogyny: Sexual Harassment of Women Journalists on Twitter.” Media Watch 9(3):472–485. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Salter, Anastasia, and Bridget Blodgett
2012 “Hypermasculinity & Dickwolves: The Contentious Role of Women in the New Gaming Public.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 56(3):401–16. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, Anna, and Michael Wiegand
2017 “A Survey on Hate Speech Detection Using Natural Language Processing.” Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop on Natural Language Processing for Social Media: 1–10. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Suler, John
2004 “The Online Disinhibition Effect.” CyberPsychology & Behavior 7(3):321–6. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Turnage, Anna K.
2007 “Email Flaming Behaviors and Organizational Conflict.” Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1):43–59. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Valkenburgh, Shawn P.
2018 “Digesting the Red Pill: Masculinity and Neoliberalism in the Manosphere.” Men and Masculinities. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Waltman, Michael, and John Haas
2011 The Communication of Hate. New York: Peter Lang. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, Shannon, Luisa Ryan, and David Duriesmith
2018 “Recognizing the Violent Extremist Ideology of ‘Incels’.” Women in International Security policybrief 09/2018: 1–5. http://​www​.academia​.edu​/37532571​/Recognizing​_the​_Violent​_Extremist​_Ideology​_of​_Incels
Cited by

Cited by other publications

No author info given
2020. Incels, in-groups, and ideologies. Journal of Language and Sexuality 9:2 Crossref logo
Chang, Winnie
2020. The monstrous-feminine in the incel imagination: investigating the representation of women as “femoids” on /r/Braincels. Feminist Media Studies ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Dynel, Marta
2020. Vigilante disparaging humour at r/IncelTears: Humour as critique of incel ideology. Language & Communication 74 ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Dynel, Marta & Fabio I.M. Poppi
2020. Arcana imperii*. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 8:1 ► pp. 57 ff. Crossref logo
Gill, Paul, Zoe Marchment, Sanaz Zolghadriha, Nadine Salman, Bettina Rottweiler, Caitlin Clemmow & Isabelle Van Der Vegt
2020.  In Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization [Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, ], ► pp. 55 ff. Crossref logo
Menzie, Lauren
2020. Stacys, Beckys, and Chads: the construction of femininity and hegemonic masculinity within incel rhetoric. Psychology & Sexuality ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Modha, Sandip, Prasenjit Majumder, Thomas Mandl & Chintak Mandalia
2020. Detecting and visualizing hate speech in social media: A cyber Watchdog for surveillance. Expert Systems with Applications 161 ► pp. 113725 ff. Crossref logo
Sang, Yisi & Jeffrey Stanton
2020.  In International Conference on Social Media and Society, ► pp. 5 ff. Crossref logo
Witt, Taisto
2020. ‘If i cannot have it, i will do everything i can to destroy it.' the canonization of Elliot Rodger: ‘Incel’ masculinities, secular sainthood, and justifications of ideological violence. Social Identities ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 03 september 2020. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.