The Morality of Making Hate (In)visible - Engaging with political Anti-Gender Posts on Facebook

Right-wing populist parties agitate against LGBTQA+-movements on social media as they challenge heteronormative ideas. Thus, anti-genderism is considered a central element in the right-wing-ideology. In European countries, these ideological orientations are represented to varying degrees, so that differences in the public thematization and acceptance of gender and sexual discrimination can be identified. This study examines the influence of moral orientations on the (in)visibility of anti-gender posts on Facebook, using Germany and Hungary as examples. Germany is considered rather gender-egalitarian, whereas in Hungary rather patriarchal and homophobic attitudes dominate the societal discourse. By liking, sharing, or commenting, users disseminate political issues such as gender justice and express their agreement with political positions and evaluations of political issues. They influence the visibility of attitudes and opinions about gender and sexual identities. In this context, the concept of visibility targets the representation of social groups, norms in the representation and interaction of these groups, and power relations between social groups. The paper therefore examines both more low-threshold and endorsing (liking, sharing) and more cognitively involving and rejecting (flagging) forms of engagement with anti-gender hate speech that vary in their contribution to the (in)visibility of such content. Following Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), it can be assumed that social media users judge potential hate on the basis of their moral orientations, as these foundations influence the perception of their own and other groups. In this regard, MFT distinguishes between two moral systems: The Individualizing System involves more liberal beliefs that emphasize the rights and protections of individuals, whereas the Binding System involves more conservative orientations such as ingroup-loyalty and obedience to authority. Therefore, moral attitudes belonging to the Individualization System are hypothesized to (H1a) a negative effect on making anti-gender posts visible (liking, sharing) and (H2b) a positive effect on making anti-gender posts invisible (flagging). Furthermore, it is hypothesized that moral attitudes attributable to the Binding System have (H2a) a positive effect on making anti-gender posts visible (liking, sharing) and (H2b) a negative influence on making them invisible (flagging). Accounting for the culturally specific conditions under which moral and ideological orientations shape public discourse, we also investigate to what extent the influence of moral foundations on engagement with anti-gender posts interacts with the cultural context (RQ1). We conducted an online survey examined users’ engagement with anti-gender hate speech. Participants were randomly exposed to vignettes in which hate-speech-content and source characteristics were systematically varied to control for their effects. For each of the posts, participants indicated whether they would like, share, or flag it. The results partially confirm that individualization has a negative influence on the intention to like anti-gender posts, while the influence on the intention to share is not significant. Binding, as expected, fosters the intention to like and share anti-gender posts and decreases the willingness to report hate posts. Across countries, the findings suggest that moral foundations are drivers of the visibility and invisibility of anti-gender hate speech. Our results indicate that anti-gender hate speech is more visible in Hungary than in Germany.