Disinformation and the Ghost of Margaret Sanger

Bibliographic Data

ID2414844
AuthorsSarah Whitmarsh (0009-0000-5439-3880, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume10
Issue4
Publication date2024-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Media + Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2056-3051 • E-ISSN: 2056-3051
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/20563051241290848
OpenAlexW4403844546
LanguageEN
References cited25

This study sought to investigate the prominence of U.S. birth control pioneer and eugenicist Margaret Sanger in social media discourse through a critical disinformation studies lens. Using computational and qualitative analysis techniques, 60 months of public Facebook posts and Google search data were analyzed to explore the scope, reach, and engagement with messages that reference Sanger and examine how injustice frames utilizing Sanger's historical ties to eugenics are being used today to misinform and disinform on abortion and other issues. Injustice frames featuring Sanger were deployed to portray abortion as a method for Black genocide; vilify feminism as racist, anti-woman, and anti-motherhood; and depict the Black Lives Matter social justice movement and cancel culture as hypocritical. This analysis also captured a moment in time when Sanger's legacy was being reconsidered by Planned Parenthood, the organization she founded, indicating that a long-sought-after reckoning with the racist roots of the early birth control movement in the United States may be underway-with both predictable and unpredictable rippling effects in disinformative spaces

Art · Disinformation · Social media · World Wide Web · Computer Science · History · Misinformation and Its Impacts

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