The Role of Gendered Disinformation in the Rise of Illiberal Discourses: Analysing the Emergence of Russian Anti-Gender Frames on RT

Efforts by authoritarian regimes, like Russia, to influence public opinion in democracies through disinformation have gained scholarly attention. However, the gendered dimensions of these campaigns and their role in illiberal discourse, remain underexplored. While research has examined how Russian disinformation exploits gender narratives in Northern and Eastern Europe, less focus has been afforded to its anti-gender content in Western Europe. Moreover, conceptual contributions are lacking on the role of gendered disinformation in the rise of illiberal discourse. The aim of this paper is therefore twofold. First, using BERTopic modelling of articles by Russian state-owned RT Deutsch and RT France from 2017/18 and 2023/24, followed by frame analysis (Pan and Kosicki 2010), it offers a comparative analysis of anti-gender messaging employed in German- and French-speaking contexts over time. Preliminary findings show that anti-gender frames are predominantly used as a ‘symbolic glue’ to convey illiberal, anti-Western meaning. Second, this paper contributes to theorising the strategic use of anti-gender messaging for political goals, coined gendered disinformation. To explore how gendered disinformation fosters anti-democratic or illiberal attitudes among citizens, it integrates gender cleavage theory (Sass and Kuhnle 2023) in relation to literature on illiberal public spheres (Štětka and Mihelj 2024). While cleavage theory helps understand the extent to which Russian anti-gender content is capable of attracting conservative audiences, and fuel societal polarisation; it is argued that the dominance of illiberal, anti-western frames indicates its potential to amplify discontent with liberal democratic systems and leadership, echoing the concept of illiberal public spheres.