Friend,

Instagram is letting abusive comments including sexist slurs, and threats of rape and death remain on the platform, targeting women candidates.

CCDH reported 1,000 such comments, but 93% remained live a week later despite going against the platform’s community standards.

CONTENT WARNING: Violence against women, sexual harassment, and other forms of misogyny.

We analyzed 560,000 comments on Instagram posts from ten high-profile women politicians including:

• Democrat: VP Kamala Harris, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, Nancy Pelosi and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

• Republican: Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Maria Elvira Salazar, Anna Paulina Luna, Lauren Boebert and Senator Marsha Blackburn.

What did we find?

• 77% of the 1,000 abusive comments contained gendered terms.

• Instagram failed to act on 92% of abusive comments targeting VP Kamala Harris, including sexist and racist abuse.

• Comments included “Hope someone leaves you for a dead in a ditch.” directed to Sen. Marsha Blackburn, and “Keep your f*cking legs closed.” directed to Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Gendered slurs like “b*tch,” “r*pe,” and “wh*re” are used to attack women politicians, aiming to discredit and intimidate them out of leadership.

Meta’s Instagram is becoming a weapon in this assault, failing to step up to make its platform safer as the US election approaches.

Instagram must enforce its guidelines to stop enabling this violent behavior, and lawmakers must hold the platform accountable for its failure to act on violence against women.

Share our new research with your friends and family and help us expose Instagram’s failure.

Best wishes,

The CCDH Team