Votes and Vitriol: Online Abuse Targeting Women Candidates in the 2024 French Legislative Elections

Authors: Pauline Zaragoza and Allison Castillo

Published: 26 March 2025

TikTok is struggling to tackle the persistent issue of online gender-based violence (OGBV) against women candidates in elections. This analysis explores the nature of online violence targeting women candidates on TikTok during the French legislative election campaign, held from 9 June to 7 July 2024. Our findings reveal that women candidates in France often received misogynistic slurs and gendered disinformation. Gender-based abuse also frequently intersected with references to ‘race,’ class, religion and other personal characteristics and traits. TikTok’s inadequate moderation of OGBV appears insufficient in light of obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) to mitigate harmful impacts on electoral processes. As TikTok becomes increasingly important to electoral campaigning and political discourse, it is crucial that the platform ensures that candidates from marginalised groups – including women, LGTBQ+ individuals and ethnic minorities – are not disproportionately targeted by hatred and disinformation.

This briefing is part of a series examining online gender-based violence (OGBV) on TikTok in English, German, French and Hungarian. It is part of a project titled ‘Monitoring Online Gender Based Violence Around the European Parliament Election 2024’, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.