How Russian gender-based disinformation could influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event in Raleigh, N.C., on Aug. 16, 2024. Harris is already a target of disinformation campaigns. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart) by Owen Wong, Queen’s University, Ontario Most people have a general understanding of disinformation — false information that is intentionally created to cause harm. Disinformation becomes “gendered” when deliberately false information draws on common understandings of issues like masculinity, femininity and sexual violence. Although gender-based disinformation does not receive as much attention as race-based disinformation, it’s particularly dangerous because it taps into deep-seated beliefs about our own identities. Narratives about gender identity are also harder to fact-check than simple true or false stories. As the Democratic Convention gets underway in Chicago, Vice President Kamala Harris is increasingly vulnerable to gender-based disinformation campaigns — if she isn’t already a victim of them. Russian gender-based disinformation Scholars have long understood that women politicians regularly experience misogynistic comments, but gender-based disinformation is insidious in other ways. States like Russia target the citizens of western countries with gender-based disinformation to promote their foreign policy goals. When Canada assumed leadership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) battle group in Latvia, Russia spread gender-based disinformation to Latvian Russian-speakers...