n this extended tool lunch Sofie Thorsen, Signe Sophus Lai and Christoffer Bagger will present how they have used 4CAT to harvest data from Reddit and deploy hatespeech-algorithms to analyse Incel culture on Reddit. Furthermore they are introducing the potentials of 4CAT* as a tool, while at the same time giving insight into their empirical study of incels.

'Incels’ refer to a subgroup of the Manosphere that identify as involuntary celibates; men that are unable to find a sexual partner, despite desiring one. They are typically blaming social liberalism, feminism, and sexually active men for their rejection from women.

Studies of incels have so far problematised that the incel community promotes more sexually explicit, violent, racist and homophobic language. They have also highlighted that incels’ misogynistic community has been ideologically linked to recent acts of violence, including Alek Minassian’s 2018 van attack in Toronto and Elliot Rodger’s 2014 school shooting in Isla Vista.

But how can we actually track what goes on in online incel communities? How is incel subculture constructed, negotiated and demarcated? Is the hate-speech in the community directed equally at men and women? And how have levels of hate-speech changed over time and across fora, as some subreddits have been banned by the platform for being too toxic?

*4CAT is a capture and analysis tool that allows researchers to harvest data from sources like 4chan, 8chan, Reddit, Telegram, Instagram and others, while at the same time making various analytical modules available.