Hate speech, sexualisation, and misinformation: New battles for women politicians

“Even if we use powder, we’re humiliated on Facebook,” says Ananthy Sasitharan, an Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) politician.

In any field, women face many challenges, and this is no different in the field of politics. As modern-day politics adapts to the harsh realities of technology of trolling, sexualisation, ‘hate engine optimisation’, and misinformation, women politicians are encountering fresh problems. This is shown through the experiences of women politicians in the North and the East who faced serious social media harassment following the 2020 parliamentary election.

On social media, women politicians are forced to battle attacks on their dignity, being disregarded by their male counterparts, subsequent interruptions to their career progression, and the reality that this ‘new age harassment’ would push even the few women in politics out of it completely. Watch their story here.

The visual story was originally published on MoJo News.lk on 11 October 2024 under 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩, 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖

Hot this week

Belgian students take to the streets to make their voices heard 

Speed Read Thousands of students in French-speaking Belgium have been...

Were the Detentions During Anti-CEC Protests in India Legal?

Experts call out the legality of detentions, which they...

Applications are now open for the 2026 cohort of the MSF Without Borders Media Fellowship

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) South Asia, in partnership with...

Sri Lankan worker Anojan’s death sentence overturned, but release from Saudi detention remains uncertain

Speed Read Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court set aside the death...

In some part of Sri Lanka, Malaiyaha Tamil children fight for equal access to education

Speed Read A grade 4 student’s mastery of the periodic...

Topics

Belgian students take to the streets to make their voices heard 

Speed Read Thousands of students in French-speaking Belgium have been...

Were the Detentions During Anti-CEC Protests in India Legal?

Experts call out the legality of detentions, which they...

Applications are now open for the 2026 cohort of the MSF Without Borders Media Fellowship

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) South Asia, in partnership with...

In some part of Sri Lanka, Malaiyaha Tamil children fight for equal access to education

Speed Read A grade 4 student’s mastery of the periodic...

Why Buddhist monks may have to wear lay clothes in court?

COLOMBO— Controversial Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and Bodu Bala...

DBS Jeyaraj, the journalist who explained one Sri Lanka to another

Speed Read Jeyaraj reported on Sri Lankan politics and the...

Why so many of Dhaka’s children remain on the streets

Hunger and violence push children from home. Drugs, criminal...

Related Articles

Popular Categories