Fighting gendered disinformation: how women journalists stand up to dictators, shadowy foreign agents and digital conspiracy networks

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa learned how to stand up to a dictator when she was targeted by gendered disinformation linked to former president Rodrigo Duterte. The BBC’s Marianna Spring has been prolifically targeted with sexist abuse while reporting from the frontlines of the ‘disinformation war’, and the Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr was misrepresented and maligned in a misogynistic trolling campaign with links to Russia after exposing the Cambridge Analytica scandal and reporting critically on Brexit.

All three women join the International Center for Journalists’ (ICFJ) Julie Posetti - lead researcher on The Chilling, a global study which found that 41% of women journalists surveyed had experienced online violence as an aspect of coordinated disinformation campaigns. She also leads the research project at the heart of ICFJ’s Disarming Disinformation program. Together, they will discuss three new big data case studies focused on emblematic gendered disinformation targets and debate strategies for detecting and fighting this pernicious form of disinformation.

Organised in association with International Center for Journalists.