Since United States President Donald Trump’s election victory, violent language against women may be skyrocketing online, experts and advocates say.

The phrase "your body my choice", for instance, began trending on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) following election day on November 5 last year.

Far-right extremist Nick Fuentes popularised the comment, satirising the "my body my choice" motto from the pro-choice movement. His tweet and video went viral, gaining more than 50,000 likes on X, and persists in many activist comment sections today.

Chicago-based content creator Kylie Brewer has a combined social media following of 77,000, where she shares pro-choice, pro-women content. Her progressive political stance makes her a prime target for "your body my choice" bigotry.

"I definitely saw a lot of comments like that, even in schools where I teach," Brewer said.

"It was almost like the election was 'man versus woman', not the respective candidates themselves, and because the man came out on top, then that vindicated their pre-existing misogynistic beliefs in some way."

RMIT digital media researcher and senior lecturer Dr Jay Daniel Thompson explained how social media gave such rhetoric its viral status.

"We know that volatility, conflict, these are the things that get clicks. They get likes. They get follows. It’s the sort of thing that the algorithm prioritises," Thompson said.

Brewer says this volatility has violently infiltrated her everyday life.

"Street harassment in the last six months has been worse than previous years," she said.

She says her online advocacy has threatened her safety and wellbeing, with vicious messages flooding her socials, and she has had to enter a registry due to multiple threats of being swatted.

"The harassment and threats that people like content creators get in this sort of niche of video, like, advocacy spaces: it’s really bad," she said.

Research shows that, with political activism, being online is increasingly dangerous. A study published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences found social media is key to the increase in political volatility, with divisive content gaining more attention from audiences.

Further, as people are taken into political echo chambers by algorithms, their tolerance for other opinions is dissipating, as research by The Brookings Institute in 2021 shows. 

Such political polarisation is also exacerbated by politicians, who use social media mechanisms to spread fear, according to Thompson.

"I think the world is in a particularly bad time at the moment. And I think people like Trump know how to exploit fear, how to exploit anxiety," he said.

By tapping into the underlying class tensions, he said, Trump mobilised many working-class voters dealing with the rising cost of living.

"It’s a testament to his brilliance as a populist leader that a man with huge wealth and privilege … can portray himself, and portray himself effectively, as being one of the people," Thompson said.

That messaging was spread on social media by both inspired Republicans and furious Democrats. Thompson explained that social media aided Trump as his verbose way of communicating already has a viral quality.

"I mean, he’s a showman: it’s the tan, it’s the hairstyle, it’s the bombast. The man’s always been his own commodity," he said.

Despite the dangers of social media in perpetuating partisan hate, on the flipside, some activists say social media can protect democracy in many ways. The successes of the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements are a testament to just how powerful the internet is as a protesting tool.  

Canadian political advocate Aileen McDonald has found social media key to community building, as she prepares for her country's impending trade war with the US.

By sourcing online advocacy groups, she said, she was able to attend her first rally for the unification of Canada in the face of Trump's tariffs.

"I found out about (the rally) simply because of a Facebook feed," McDonald said.

The value of social media for McDonald is its ability to mobilise people with an immediacy that traditional media lacks.

"I'm learning a lot about Canada. I've seen a lot of nationalism, which is not Canadian; like, normally, we're not very outwardly patriotic," she said.

Brewer also believes that empathetic advocacy online can bridge gaps across the political spectrum.

"Getting people who were sort of in a bit of a cult mindset to branch out a little bit, I think is really helpful, even if it’s only a few people," she said.

The question then arises over whether online polarisation will plateau in the following years.

Thompson thinks not yet.  

"I predict it will get worse. And yet it’s not surprising. Not after the 6th of January 2021," he said.

The insurrection of the White House with more than 1200 arrests demonstrates the rising dangers of extreme partisan animosity.

Violent language like "your body my choice" could prove to be difficult to combat.  

"It would require nothing less than a shift in policy about what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour," Thompson said.

"It could involve boycotting platforms that don’t adhere to this — and that’s really difficult for me to say as a digital media researcher."

McDonald has not considered getting off social media quite yet, especially as her country faces threats to sovereignty.

"Right now, it's still serving me well and is positive. So, you know, I'll stay on it. It also helps me connect to likeminded people that want to do something about this," she said.

So, if social media is not being abandoned by users, what will stop this rise in dissent?

Thompson said the effort may need to start on the ground.

"Just because someone says something outrageous or stupid or pathetic or racist online, we don’t have to respond. That is what they want. They want emotion. They want polarisation. They want the fight. Donald Trump wants the fight. And he’s got it," he said.

Democratic safeguards may be hard to implement. Yet McDonald equally has hope for the future of politics in the media — and in the individual responsibility to not perpetuate hate as the right place to start.

"I'm an optimist. I think there will be enough intelligent people that believe in truth and that eventually there will be more guardrails."