About one in three comments made to candidates on social media in the lead up to and during the 2026 election campaign was abusive - with women receiving "the sharper end", according to new data.
By Lillian Hanly of RNZ
An analysis of almost 150,000 comments on 34 candidate and campaign accounts between August 1 and November 6 showed that, overall, negative comments outnumbered positive ones by more than two to one.
It comes after RNZ reported threats against MPs had risen astronomically in recent years, and revealed a specialist parliamentary security team handled more than 200 requests for help in just three weeks.
The analysis covered 24 accounts owned by women and nine by men, examining more than 110,000 comments on women's accounts and more than 30,000 on men's.
Of the comments women candidates received, about half were negative while only 18% were positive. That compared with 38% negative comments and 27% positive for men.
Jacqueline Comer, chief product officer and co-founder of Areto Labs, who is based in Aotearoa New Zealand, told RNZ it reflected global trends.
Comer said every candidate in the campaign had to scroll past some of this, whatever their party, but she noted women got the "sharper end of it".
"More viciousness, more slurs, more attacks on their identity, more of the worst," she said.
"We tend to file that under the rough and tumble of politics. It isn't. It's a cost we've quietly attached to standing for office, and women are paying more of it."
The Canadian tech company which conducted the analysis, Areto Labs, found the abuse women received was more severe, with 5.1% of comments labelled as extreme - twice the rate for men at 2.4%.
Comer described "extreme" as anything that no one would disagree was "extremely toxic or abusive".
"Things like rape threats or just vicious, really pointy racist abuse, where there's certain phrases that we've all agreed as society that are unacceptable.
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"Things like that are just a lot more aggressive."
Personal attacks were the most common abuse for every candidate, and racism was the most common form of identity-based abuse - detected more than twice as often as sexism.
Comer described the focus on race as "a bit unique".
"Usually, if there's more women than men in the data, you tend to see sexism as the higher one. But here, it's racism, which is quite a sad state of affairs, really."
Identity-based abuse made up a fifth of the abuse women received (20%), against an eighth for men (12.5%).
Women also received far more gender-related abuse than men, at nearly four times the rate. That included sexist, transphobic and homophobic comments, gender microaggressions and body shaming.
Comer said it was hugely concerning, and asked who was attracted to a combative environment.
"We'll start to see a shift in the types of people who are running for office as well, where you potentially they get that sort of dopamine hit and rush from combat rather than from collaboration."
Prior to the election, RNZ spoke with former chief science advisor Sir Peter Gluckman about the political landscape.
One issue he raised was the way social media drove "short-termism".
He also noted the way in which political discourse had become more abusive, reflecting the way anonymous and ad hominem attacks had become easier to make online.
"That's the sad reality of what social media has done. It's changed the way we have discourse. 50 years ago, this would not have been acceptable forms of conversation."
Politicians unsurprised
RNZ approached all political parties in Parliament for their response to the analysis, and received replies from Labour and the Greens.
The Greens' Tamatha Paul told RNZ it wasn't surprising. She described having to pay someone to moderate her social media because of the issue.
Paul was also part of a Parliament trial to use an AI tool to moderate her social media platforms to detect negative sentiment, abuse or death threats.
She described it as "going to pretty great lengths" to "protect my own peace" as well as uphold a safe online forum for her followers.
Paul described having to have "Parliament security guards and four uniformed police officers" at every electorate debate during the campaign.
"We had to have a layer of physical protection, so it's not even just in the online space.
"I almost envy people who only get online abuse because it always inevitably turns into physical, real threats."
Paul then told RNZ she'd dealt with a death threat on Wednesday where somebody had told her they planned to "murder" her.
The past political term had made her want to work across the aisle on social media regulation, "because these platforms are not being accountable for the harm that they're allowing to happen".
"They're not being accountable for the democratic chilling effect that it's having, and that women don't want to participate in politics anymore because we have to pay for it physically with our safety, which is an expectation that isn't required of men."
Labour's Carmel Sepuloni said she frequently received comments which were racist and misogynistic, many of which targeted her physical appearance.
"Like many women in politics, I make a conscious effort to shut it out, to the point where I'm concerned I've become desensitised to it. But I don't think anyone can be exposed to that kind of vitriol day after day without it taking a toll."
She said politicians should be challenged and held to account: "That's how democracy works.
"But criticism and abuse are two very different things, and no one should face threats, personal attacks or hate just for doing their job."
Sepuloni was worried most about the "long-term cost".
"I'm concerned for women's mental health given what we now endure online, and that it will drive good people out of politics or put them off standing in the first place.
"Parliament works best when it reflects the people it serves, and that means more women in the House, not fewer."
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