Advocates of “incel” ideology are rebranding as “Sub5s” and adopting the language of self-improvement to push their content on TikTok, according to a study.
Hateful material is banned from the social media site but accounts disseminating the beliefs are said to be hiding behind new terms and “socially palatable” language.
One of the fundamental tenets of the involuntary celibate, or incel, ideology is the belief that society is organised based on a looks-based hierarchy.
Pseudo-scientific theories about self-improvement and attractiveness that are often misogynist in nature are now being promoted and “normalised”, it is claimed.
Anda Iulia Solea, a researcher at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Portsmouth, said this included a theory referenced in the Netflix drama Adolescence that suggests that 80% of women were attracted to 20% of men.
Another concept pushed by accounts on TikTok is that of the PSL scale, under which it is claimed that men can be ranked from one to eight according to attractiveness.
The PSL acronym comes from the first letters of three incel sites: PUAhate, Sluthate and Lookism.net.
Men are rated from being “PSL gods” (exceptionally attractive men) to “Chads” (generally attractive men) and finally “Sub5s” (unattractive men).
Men are encouraged to believe they can move up through the scale by a process called “looksmaxxing”, which can be as unproblematic as going to the gym or as damaging as changing the structure of the jaw using a hammer.
Such theories are said to be bound up with the belief that there is an ideal form of masculinity and that women are to blame.
When searching for the term “incel” on TikTok, an error message appears alongside a content warning about the phrase being associated with hateful behaviour. However, should a user search for “Sub5” content, they are offered a stream of material on the platform.
“We argue that facilitated by its rebranding through the frameworks of looksmaxxing and the PSL scale, misogynist incel ideology is being mainstreamed”, write Solea and Dr Lisa Sugiura.
“These mechanisms reframe overtly toxic, misogynistic and extremist rhetoric into socially palatable discourses of self-improvement and biological and racial essentialism, enabling its diffusion into broader digital spaces.”
TikTok has more than 1.9 billion users worldwide. A third of users in the UK are said to fall between the ages of 13 and 17, with 40.32% in the 18 to 24 age group.
The conclusions of the new paper followed analysis of videos on five accounts on TikTok identified as promoting incel theories.
Solea said: “What they try to do is to attract wider audiences and also to be permitted on the platform and accepted by others through rebranding. So you’ll see Sub5s, you’ll see the PSL scale, and then also they are being less directly offensive and violent towards women.
“I’m just going to mention the Adolescence show because everybody’s talking about that: the 80:20 rule, where 80% of women go for the 20% of men. There are lots of these theories. You’re more likely to believe that women are bad when they show you that, rather than just saying: ‘Oh, women are such sluts,’ especially when those words and insults are not allowed on TikTok.”
A TikTok spokesperson said: “Misogyny is strictly prohibited on TikTok and we take swift action to remove content that violates our policies.
“We continually refine our moderation using technology and expert insights, and 93% of hateful content that was removed from our platform last quarter was removed before it was reported to us.”
