Twitter Trial of the Tainted Trio: Misogyny Against Activists and Celebrity Women

Abstract

By giving voice to millions of people all around the world social media acts as a democratising
agent. Any person, can share and speak out their mind, and each act of speaking-out can
potentially reach thousands of people; the entire world, theoretically. However, reality as we
know is far from this. The disempowered and the marginalised of the real world continue to be
kept on the fringes of this information utopia – the doubly-marginalised women of the global
south are one such group. This paper uses content analysis of the discourse in the content posted
on Twitter against three well-known Indian women accused of different crimes. This paper
seeks to explore how women, even those who may be considered empowered – celebrities and
social activists – may be subjected to the abusive power of patriarchy.