Joe Biden’s Department of State, led by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, claims that the Russians are targeting western women in positions of power with “gendered disinformation” to smear and discredit them.
According to a new State Department Global Engagement Center report released on March 27 titled: Gendered Disinformation: Tactics, Themes, and Trends by Foreign Malign Actors, America’s foreign adversaries are spreading “false or misleading gender and sex-based narratives, often with some degree of coordination, to deter women from participating in the public sphere.”
“Both foreign state and non-state actors strategically use gendered disinformation to silence women, discourage online political discourse, and shape perceptions toward gender and the role of women in democracies,” claims Biden’s State Department.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is what our State Department is doing. No doubt winning hearts and minds around the world! https://t.co/Ezaowi7PFr
— Jay W. Richards (@DrJayRichards) March 30, 2023
The government points to Russia and China as two of the worst “gendered disinformation” spreaders, who use state power to “control” media, information, and even “troll farms” to slander female politicians and journalists.
According to the report, these countries “utilize their media assets, control of the information environment, and sometimes state-backed troll farms to spread disinformation about women politicians, policy makers, journalists, and activists, and even policies targeted at women.”
“Our research captured 13 unique themes of gendered disinformation that include the wide use of gendered stereotypes, hyper-sexualization, and political targeting of women to shame and discredit them,” claims the State Department.
“Perpetrators use a combination of identity-based and political themes, revealing that disinformation can target any vector of a person’s identity to discredit and shame either them and/or their communities,” the report claims.
GPA Photo Archive / Flickr
The Biden administration maintains that “gendered disinformation” is spread in “media articles, memes, bespoke hashtags, public statements by politicians or other influential people, and even manga cartoons.”
The department also expressed their concern that female victims of these efforts would “leave their jobs or stop speaking out online.”
“Our research underscores the importance of using a gender and identity-based lens to analyze the tactics used by foreign state and non-state actors to spread gendered disinformation that deliberately polarizes attitudes, sows division, and undermines social cohesion,” the report states.
“The spread of gendered disinformation harms not only the targeted individuals, but also democracy,” the department added.
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