Zimbabwe Peace Project
DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Below are some of the terms commonly used in this baseline report:
Hate speech refers to any kind of communication in speech, writing or
behavior that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with
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Sexist hate speech relates to expressions that spread, incite, promote or justify
hatred based specifically on a person’s sex or gender
Body shaming refers to the action or practice of mocking or stigmatising
someone by making critical comments about the shape, size, or appearance of
their body.
Character assassination refers to the malicious and unjustified harming of a
person's good reputation
Gender stereotype means ascribing to an individual woman or man specific
prejudiced or preconceived attributes, characteristics, or roles by reason only
of her or his membership in the social group of women or men.
Misogyny refers to the dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against
women
Gendered disinformation: According to the Best Practice Forum on Gender
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and Digital Rights, the term refers to the weaponisation of gendered narratives
to promote social or economic objectives. It refers to activities such as
creating, sharing and dissemination of content which attacks people on the
basis of their gender.
Disinformation refers to the deliberate dissemination of false information
deliberately creation to harm a person, social group, organisation or country.
3
Misinformation is when false information is shared, but no harm is intended. 4
Mal-information is when genuine information is shared to cause harm, often
by moving information designed to stay private into the public sphere.
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1. Online gendered disinformation and sexist hate speech, Learning Brief No. 2, Intersectional Feminist Media Development
https://www.mediasupport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IMS-Online-gendered-disinformation_final.pdf
2. IGF 2021 Best Practice Forum Gender and Digital Rights Exploring the concept of Gendered Disinformation BPF OUTPUT DOCUMENT DECEMBER 2021
https://www.intgovforum.org/en/filedepot_download/62/20661
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Iid
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