Online Violence from an Intersectional Perspective: Abusive Language and Microaggressions Faced by Immigrant-Origin Women in the 20th German Bundestag

Based on the analysis of more than 13,000 Tweets, this article focuses on the online violence that immigrant-origin women politicians in the German Bundestag faced during the 2021–25 legislative period. It asks about the forms and types of online abuse they were subject to, the difference that national background, party affiliation and electoral cycle make, and compares the abuse with that of non-immigrant women politicians. The findings indicate that online abuse is widespread in Germany and suggest that it is more prevalent during normal parliamentary work than during election campaigns and coalition negotiations. They also demonstrate that in German politics, immigrant-origin and non-immigrant women receive similar levels, forms and types of online abuse, which primarily focuses on their policies rather than their identities. Confirming the reactive model of social media, individual Twitter behaviour and the topics which MdBs focus on explain variation in online abuse, rather than party affiliation or national background. By taking intersectionality seriously, comparing different phases in the electoral cycle and going beyond the usual focus on English-speaking countries, this study makes an important contribution to the emerging research on online violence in politics and advocates for more intersectional and comparative research.