[Note added April 17, 2025] In the past few days, this blog post has received an unusual spike in visits, linked to distribution via a mailing list I was able to trace. I also received a violent and hateful email, sent from a mobile iPhone app and an IP address I identified and reported to the Italian and Austrian authorities. I stand by the scientific work discussed here and will not tolerate coordinated online harassment, threats, or intimidation. Academic dialogue and dissent — as well as support for any moral values — must be grounded in reason, not hate.

[Original blog post] My latest work, now online in Information, Communication & Society, explores how social media is used to amplify moral conservative advocacy in the digital space.

In the paper “Mainstreaming and Transnationalization of Anti-Gender Ideas through Social Media: The Case of CitizenGO”, along with an international group of talented young researchers, we examine how major social media platforms like Facebook serve as powerful tools for disseminating and globalizing radical ‘anti-gender’ ideas. Despite the growing transnational appeal of these ideas, the role of digital networks in this process remains largely underexplored. By analyzing a decade of multilingual social media activity (2013–2022) from the leading conservative organization CitizenGO using advanced computational methods, we shed light on key strategies that drive the digital presence of the anti-gender agenda.

Our findings reveal that CitizenGO strategically employs a diverse array of social media accounts to coordinate and amplify moral-conservative messages across different languages and regions. An amplification network sharing their content also facilitates their rapid transnational expansion.

For those interested in a deeper dive into our research, you can read the full paper here.

Righetti, N., Kulichkina, A., Almeida Paroni, B., Cseri, Z. F., Aguirre, S. I., & Maikovska, K. (2025). Mainstreaming and transnationalization of anti-gender ideas through social media: the case of CitizenGO. Information, Communication & Society, 1–24. doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2470229