Assessing the Degree of Extremism of the Incel Community Online: A Comparative Analysis of Social Media Platforms

Abstract

The term "incel" is an abbreviation for "involuntary celibate" and is used to describe a man who desires a romantic or sexual relationship with women but is unable to obtain one. They blame women for their inability, claiming females reject them solely on the basis of their appearance. This belief led many of them to develop misogynistic views, which they express in hateful and degrading speeches or, in the most extreme cases, by glorifying violence against women and sexually active men. The majority of the Incel community exists online. The majority of users report having little to no social life in the real world, which is why they seek out online communities where they can interact with people experiencing similar challenges. The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the extremism levels of the incel community on two social media platforms. The first one is the most popular forum in the community, Incels.is, while the second one is the relatively new Twitter community "Incel Talk". For the purpose of the analysis, the author will perform content analysis and critical discourse analysis of the posts shared by users on both social media platforms between October 5 and December 31. She collects more than 640 tweets for Twitter and more than 13,000 for Incels.is. The findings indicate...