Teenagers who disengage with manosphere still fed misogynistic content

Teenage boys say they continue to be fed misogynistic content through social media algorithms, regardless of whether they engage with the manosphere.

Eighteen-year-old Zac Roebig's social media feed mostly reflects his interest in music, with most suggested videos featuring artists performing. 

But there is also the occasional unwanted video on the manosphere, a topic most teenagers are highly familiar with.

"It's sometimes hard to disconnect from it," Zac said. "Politics is everywhere."

"I know it's been put there to keep me on there, make me angry, make me interact with it. It makes you share the content, argue with it, comment on it, argue in the comments.

"They [content creators] craft these hot takes and political opinions that get pushed by the algorithm. They get so many shares and comments."

Zac told the ABC he never searches for the content and is never sent it by friends. 

Still, his age and gender mean it continues to appear on his feed, pushed into his sight by the platform's algorithm.

"The whole manosphere thing … 'I need to have 10 wives, they need to be in the kitchen and can't vote', whether you actually agree with it or not, a lot of people find it funny because it's shocking," he said.

"So, they'll like it, share it with friends, and say 'whoa, look at this guy. What's he doing?' and it helps [the creators].

What is the manosphere?

Professor Dan Angus, director of QUT's Digital Media Research Centre, described "manosphere" content as "content that has toxic attitudes towards women, and toxic attitudes towards those young men themselves".

According to UN Women, manosphere content often opposes feminism and represents men as victims of the current social and political climate.

One of the best-known examples is controversial online personality Andrew Tate.

The self-described misogynist urges men to exercise absolute authority over their female partners, asserting that women bear "some responsibility" for being raped, and has said women should not drive or work.

Alongside his brother Tristan, 39-year-old Tate was recently arrested in Miami on rape and sex trafficking charges.

Social media platforms including Meta and TikTok have banned Tate, as well as content that promotes or glorifies him.

How do algorithms work?

A social media algorithm shows users content it thinks will appeal to them based on factors like age, sex, and what they have engaged with or previously searched for.

Platforms have filtering and monitoring tools, and content that is reported or deemed harmful may be taken down or ineligible for recommendation. 

On some platforms, users can also mark themselves as not interested in videos or choose which topics they want to see more or less of. 

While these measures are designed to reduce promotion of damaging posts, misogyny continues to appear in many users' feeds. 

Seventeen-year-old twins William and Connor Faulds said they never search for manosphere content.

"Even though I haven't searched it, it just comes up … and after that, if I watch the full video, it just comes up again and again," Connor said.

Professor Angus said that was not a surprise to him.

"Once you get enough of these young men watching this content, then that gives signals to these systems that it may do well in front of the rest of that audience," he said.

Dr Chang Liu is a research fellow at QIMR Berghofer Institute and is part of the EU-funded BootStrap project, which is looking at predictors of problematic internet use among 22,500 adolescents.

Problematic use, she explained, refers to "excessive, uncontrolled use of social media — despite it impairing daily function and performance".

Dr Liu said BootStrap researchers had found content marketed as self-improvement often rapidly led users down an extremist rabbit hole.

"So, the researchers make fake accounts, pretend to be males, and the search began with normal gym, fitness, workouts," she said.

"They eventually discovered the feed led into outrage like anti-feminist content quite quickly. By the end of the experiment, on average, over 70 per cent of the content was considered anti-feminist.

Negative content can also hold users' attention for longer than neutral or positive content, she said.

"Due to evolution, something we perceive as a threat, danger, are always at a higher attentional priority."

Is misogyny getting worse?

In August, a Melbourne University study found boys aged 13 to 17 were the most likely of any age group or gender to hold hostile attitudes toward women. 

Roughly a third of the group express misogynistic attitudes, mistrust of women, and a belief in 'traditional' gender roles, as well as being the most likely group in the study to hold right-wing extremist or white supremacist beliefs.

According to researchers, "teachers surveyed reported students quoting influencers such as Andrew Tate and repeating manosphere language in class to justify refusing instructions from female staff while complying with identical instructions from male colleagues. 

This behaviour was reported among children as young as six.

But Professor Angus said social media is not wholly to blame for increasingly misogynistic attitudes.

"A lot of the research points to the home environment being one of the most critical here, as well," he said.

"How do we adjust those home environments, so those young boys are seeing positive role models in their lives — who believe in equality and believe that a free and fair society involves all of its members?"

Can you switch off the algorithm?

The federal government has introduced laws which would make social media giants provide and option to "opt out" of the algorithm.

But Dr Angus said it is not that simple.

"We can't really turn the algorithms of social media off completely, because algorithms are through the entire experience — from moderating harmful content … to the recommender systems, which drive the order of content within our feeds," he said.

"There is some nuance, and I think we need to have a bigger conversation about what does an alternate social media feed look like, where we give users greater agency?"