A prison court docket lately pored over the social media posts of the ex-footballer Joey Barton and located them to be “grossly offensive”. Such a lot in order that he was once passed a suspended jail sentence, ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid paintings in the neighborhood and pay greater than £20,000 in prices.
We additionally tested Barton’s feedback on feminine footballers and pundits as a part of our analysis into destructive on-line rhetoric in opposition to girls and women in game.
Our learn about discovered that his posts now not simplest focused person women folk – together with Mary Earps, Eni Aluko, Lucy Ward and Ava Easdon – but in addition alleged that it fuelled a much broader tradition of on-line hostility towards feminine athletes.
This is a part of a virtual tradition which normalises misogyny, which then encourages on-line violence in opposition to women folk. They lend a hand to legitimise destructive narratives that may differently stay on the fringes of on-line discourse and extremes of society.
When other folks with vital succeed in interact in abusive or inflammatory remark, their posts act as catalysts that form polarised and adversarial virtual environments.
Right through our analysis we spotted that this may incessantly happen with the symbolic use of emojis, the use of apparently trivial icons as coded equipment of intimidation and mock. Within the intensive on-line abuse aimed toward feminine athletes and pundits, we discovered combos of weapon emojis equivalent to 🗡️ (knife), 🔫 (gun), or 💣 (bomb) which have been incessantly paired with female-identifying emojis or gendered slurs to suggest threats or intimidation.
We additionally discovered animal emojis like 🐷 (pig), 🐽 (pig snout), or 🐕 (canine) used to dehumanise women folk. There have been sexualised emojis equivalent to 🍑 (buttocks), 🍆 (phallic image), or 👅 (tongue) deployed along derogatory feedback to humiliate or objectify them.
Those emojis are incessantly used to masks hostility as humour, making abusive remarks seem playful, regardless of causing actual hurt. They have been additionally hired as a strategic software for evading moderation programs, which means that they are able to steer clear of having their feedback and messages got rid of.
Misogyny influencers
Virtual violence purposes as a mechanism {of professional} exclusion and financial sabotage. When feminine pundits are bombarded with threats of rape and dying merely for analysing a soccer fit, the objective of the abuse is apparent: to silence them and pressure them out of the business.
This creates a violent impact the place aspiring feminine reporters might self-censor or abandon their careers to steer clear of turning into the following goal of a misogynistic pile-on.
And whilst celebrities can themselves be the sufferers of on-line abuse, our analysis displays that they are able to additionally use their standing to incite hate. Networked misogyny and the mass flow of anti-women and anti-feminist sentiments on-line were perpetuated by way of fashionable on-line figures equivalent to Barton, growing a brand new type of influencer referred to as “misogyny influencers”.
Joey Barton arriving at court docket in November 2025.
Peter Byrne/PA Photographs
Those influencers wield disproportionate cultural energy. And once they interact in misogynistic or competitive rhetoric, they support and embolden destructive norms in on-line communities. Their affect can mobilise 1000’s of customers and create adversarial environments that girls in game will have to navigate day-to-day.
For our analysis displays that after public figures assault women folk on-line, their fans incessantly mirror and escalate the abuse. This turns private hostility into a wider marketing campaign of misogyny.
Barton’s conviction – which he’s interesting – demonstrates that standing or famous person does now not protect folks from duty when their phrases may just incite hate. It affirms that on-line violence carries penalties and that public figures who weaponise their affect to focus on women folk can now not suppose impunity.
On the other hand, we will have to additionally confront a paradoxical truth. For somebody like Barton, a suspended sentence is probably not a deterrent, however a advertising asset. Within the “manosphere” economic system, prison censure incessantly validates the influencer’s standing as an anti-establishment truth-teller being “silenced” by way of the state.
By means of averting instant prison time, Barton may just spin this verdict to his supporters as a combat scar in a “war on free speech”. This permits him to make use of the talk to his benefit, framing himself as a martyr whilst dealing with minimum restrictions on his liberty.
It’s obtrusive that on-line abuse is a continual and extremely vital societal factor that calls for consideration. It must be recognised as an instantaneous danger to the protection of recipients and the ones uncovered to such violence thru on-line platforms.
Protective athletes would require more potent insurance policies, clearer sanctions for repeat wrongdoer and make stronger for the ones focused. Addressing this rising danger is very important if girls and women are to take part safely and fearlessly in game.
