MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Kamala Harris has built a substantial political career, but that has long included attacks in memes, videos, and tweets not just about what she's done but on who and what she is. Just this weekend, the Republican nominee, the former president, ridiculed the way she laughs, and the vice presidential nominee has implied that her public service isn't really work. And those are mild compared to some of the attacks online.
If Harris does become the nominee, how should voters go about evaluating these attacks? Nina Jankowicz joins us now to talk about this. She is the co-founder and CEO of the American Sunlight Project, and she researches disinformation targeting women in politics. She also served on Biden's short-lived DHS Disinformation Governance Board. Good morning, Nina.
NINA JANKOWICZ: Hi, Michel. Great to be with you.
MARTIN: Good to have you. You tweeted yesterday that Americans should prepare for a, quote, "wave of misogyny" online after Biden endorsed Harris. What did you mean by that? And how do people prepare for that?
JANKOWICZ: Well, in 2020, I led a study investigating gendered abuse and disinformation against women in political life. And over two months, we found over 336,000 pieces of abuse or disinformation targeting 13 candidates across the political spectrum on a bunch of different social media platforms, and 78% of that was targeted at Kamala Harris.
Now, we saw three different groups of narratives about her - sexualized narratives claiming she slept her way to the top or that she's sexually promiscuous, transphobic narratives claiming that she's secretly a man and couldn't have gotten to a position of power without having secretly been a man, and then racist and racialized narratives. Kind of similar to with President Obama, users falsely claimed that Harris was not eligible for the presidency because of her immigrant parents and also claim that she wasn't Black enough or Indian enough to claim those identities.
And I just think it's really important at this historic moment that we label these narratives and lies as what they are, an attempt to undermine Kamala Harris' public service and her record of public service because of her gender, her background and her skin color.
MARTIN: Do we know anything about the source of these attacks and who's behind it? And, I mean, I'm like, wow. I'm still trying to wrap my head around some of the things you've told us. But do we know about who's behind these?
JANKOWICZ: Well, I think some of the narratives - in particular, the narrative that she, quote-unquote, "slept her way to the top" - have been around as long as Kamala has been around. And that is, unfortunately, part of the criticism and abuse that women in public life frequently receive. Those narratives have been around for, you know, decades and have morphed online and taken on new life of their own.
But the transphobic narratives, for instance, come from the QAnon conspiracy theory. And the racist and racialized narratives, Michel, I would say, frankly, are pretty endemic to American society, and we've seen them deployed against many other women of color in public life as well.
MARTIN: Let me just briefly - and this may seem like a ridiculous question to you. But in your research, have you ever found similar rhetoric targeting men in politics? Have you ever found rhetoric saying that, you know, men use their sexuality to get ahead or things of that nature?
JANKOWICZ: Well, I think the proof is in the pudding with the presidential candidate that the Republicans are running, who has had multiple marriages and affairs that have been quite public, but we don't seem to be criticizing him for the same things that they allege against women in politics.
And I would also say that when men are abused or harassed online, they're frequently abused and harassed with gendered tropes that are used to describe women or women's body parts. So I think that shows, you know, just how, disincentivized being a woman in politics is today.
MARTIN: Do you - would you say that - 0how much of this messaging has become part of mainstream discourse about the vice president?
JANKOWICZ: Well, I think these narratives are fairly prominent, and in fact, just after the announcement of President Biden's endorsement of Vice President Harris for president yesterday, we saw them surging up almost immediately.
That being said, these people who are engaging with them and amplifying them - they are a vocal minority. They're a loud minority, absolutely, but still a minority. The popular vote supported a woman in 2016. Yesterday alone, Democrats donated more than $50 million to Vice President Harris.
So I think that should give us some hope. I think we all are used to these things now, and if we want to reject them, the best thing that we can do is call them out. And if, you know, that calls to you, also support Vice President Harris' campaign.
MARTIN: OK, briefly, we've seen conspiracy theories about this election before, like the violence and assassination attempts against Trump, but that actually happened. So how do people think about this? - people who don't sort of follow this as closely as you do.
JANKOWICZ: I mean, I think we just need to absolutely reject the violence and violent rhetoric that has been plaguing our politics for so long. And make no mistake, online abuse is part of that.
MARTIN: That is Nina Jankowicz. She's the co-founder and CEO of the American Sunlight Project. Nina, thank you so much.
JANKOWICZ: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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