We analysed the hate speech on our social media videos - here’s what we found

After our recent videos on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) were flooded with online hate speech, we decided to investigate what was being said, and why.

*Some of the comments have been translated into English or slightly paraphrased for clarity, though the meaning has not been changed. 

This April, CIR published new findings on the presence of harmful TFGBV on TikTok and YouTube in Ethiopia. The message is clear: Ethiopian women and girls face a barrage of insults, stereotypes, and mockery on social media, which diminishes their voices and restricts their participation in public life. 

This built on work done by CIR’s TFGBV in Ethiopia project, which has previously shed light on gendered abuse on Facebook, Telegram, and X in Ethiopia, particularly targeting women in the public eye. 

CIR’s latest report aims to uncover the patterns, narratives, and intersectional dimensions of online abuse, to inform meaningful interventions, strengthen advocacy, and drive policy change to make safer online spaces for all. 

However, rather than solely communicating this to a researcher audience who may already be aware of such patterns, we wanted to also make these findings accessible to another of our target audiences: those spending the most time on social media, who rely on it for news and entertainment, and so may witness more online abuse. CIR therefore posted several video interviews on our TikTok with wellness expert and influencer, Lella Misikir, a vocal women’s rights advocate.

What happened next?

The videos receive praise, love and support, with viewers commenting “I’m SO GLAD this is being talked about”, and calling for Lella to “stay strong”, representing her supportive follower base.

However, one week on and 64% of the comments are negative. Negative comments leave an impression, especially when they are directly threatening to an individual.

Instead of ignoring these responses, we decided to analyse them. Interestingly, the comments reflect wider trends in gendered online abuse studied by CIR, and reinforce the need for more awareness on the topic.

Discrediting feminism

The comments under the videos of Lella seek to discredit her due to her feminist views, repeatedly labelling her as a “radical” feminist to justify levelling abuse at her. 

For example, one user commented, “feminism has no place in our country barya” – ‘barya’ is a particularly degrading word, meaning ‘slave’. Another wrote “Hiding behind feminism while constantly attacking men she twists the truth to play victim”. 

This trend is common and was identified in CIR’s research on TFGBV in Ethiopia. “The prevalent message is that if you speak out about women’s rights, you will likely be confronted with online abuse”, Felicity Mulford, who manages CIR’s research into TFGBV in Ethiopia, explains.

To unpack the contextual reasons for such trends, CIR also held workshops with Ethiopian TFGBV experts and survivors. Here, it was explained that feminism is so contentious in Ethiopia because patriarchal norms – reinforced by societal and religious values – underpin much of Ethiopia’s social fabric. 

As a result, online feminism is seen as a radical force with the ability to disrupt men’s superior standing and Ethiopian society itself. This surfaced in the recent comments on Lella’s video, with one user commenting: “she is literally the most hated female in Ethiopia by both men and women cuz she wants to push a culture we don’t want nothing to do with at all”. 

Accusations of Western influence and satanism

Further hate speech used to discredit Lella in the comments follows narratives CIR has observed in the wider dataset. 

This includes comments suggesting that Lella partook in CIR’s videos as a “paid agent”, or is sponsored by the “usual suspects” (Western organisations). This undermines her message by suggesting that her only motivation would be financial gain or funding by foreign actors. The partnership between Lella and CIR was unpaid, consensual and deliberate. 

CIR also identified the conflation of feminism with lesbianism in the comments under the videos, with users commenting “lesbian”, “she is gay and wants that culture here”, and “what she’s doing is unlawful and a felony according to the law of the land”.

This aligns with CIR’s previous findings: feminists are often framed as lesbians. This seeks to delegitimise them and their views, by associating them with behaviours considered taboo in Ethiopian society. This reinforces a culture of exclusion and hostility toward women advocating for gender equality, while further stigmatising the LGBTQ+ community. 

CIR also identified that Lella’s activism is frequently conflated with satanism or anti-religion, with themes of the devil and witchcraft. One user commented “she is a witch she practices things we as Christians and Muslims consider a satan worship, witchcrafts and stuff”. Another remarked, “her belief is by definition satanism”, while another called Lella “the walking dead”. 

Such accusations may not only be used as insults and dehumanisation, but as a means to threaten Lella’s safety and restrict her freedom. This was also reported by workshop participants who recalled harmful smear campaigns used against women’s rights activists as lesbians or witches, in order to threaten them into silence.

Commonplace attacks on TikTok

CIR’s recent research found that while there was more politicised hate on YouTube, more hate speech and objectification was observed on TikTok. Workshop participants agreed that TikTok is frightening for female influencers due to the abundance of hate speech on the platform. 

The significant number of personal attacks aimed at Lella in the video comments were therefore unsurprising. These largely focused on Lella not fitting traditional gender norms of women as docile, obedient, and supportive to justify attacks on her. 

Viewers suggested that Lella is mentally ill, commenting that “she is losing it” and “needs to be taken to a psychiatrist”. Others suggested that she is an attention seeker, “waiter please a cup of attention”, and overly sensitive “those girls perceive every ‘unfavourable’ comment as abuse”. Viewers also implied that she is out of touch with real Ethiopian women and has a victim complex:  “We have so many issues in our country, but this isn’t one of them. Some people want to be a victim so bad”.

A highly contentious topic

Many viewers focused on Lella’s statement about Amharic being used to abuse her, showing outrage and suggesting that she had insulted the language. Other commenters said that her focus on Amharic was misjudged, and that abuse can appear in all languages.

“We’ve seen TFGBV in all languages that we have studied, not just Amharic. ‘Language’ in general is a tool to undermine women, and social media is a medium through which abuse is amplified,” Felicity explains. “The response on social media reflects the tension surrounding discussions of TFGBV in Ethiopia, as well as people’s readiness to engage in an online debate even without full understanding of the context”.

CIR’s research also suggests that social media platforms are less effective at moderating online abuse in Ethiopian languages, meaning that abuse in languages like Amharic remains on the platform for longer, causing harm to women and girls.

Accordingly, alongside negative comments, various TikTok users instead supported the videos, recognising the pertinence of the issues in comments such as “you guys are literally proving her point in this comment section”, “Women’s issues in Ethiopia are not exaggerated” and “As an Ethiopian woman, I confirmed the words are causing a huge trauma for most of Ethiopian female content creators and woman rights defenders”.  

Lella’s experience is not unusual, but part of a wider trend of online abuse targeting Ethiopian women in the public eye. Notably, all of the narratives we observed in the comments on the recent videos of Lella are repeatedly documented in our research on TFGBV in Ethiopia. 

Find out more about our research here.