Twenty-three minutes. That is how long it takes a social media account set up to look like a 16 to 18 year old boy to be shown misogynistic content, according to the audit Tanya Plibersek, Federal minister for social services, cites in this piece. Not sought out. Delivered.
Plibersek’s argument is blunt: young men are not choosing this content, they are being stalked by it. Everyday frustrations, rejection, loneliness, a bad week, get reframed by the algorithm as proof of a system rigged against men. Writing in The Saturday Paper, she traces how that reframing hardens into grievance, and how fast grievance gets monetised.
The research behind her figure, from Dublin City University, is worth knowing on its own terms. Ten sockpuppet accounts, nearly 29 hours of video and a pattern that repeats: once one “manfluencer” video lands, the next one follows faster. By the two to three hour mark, most of what YouTube Shorts and TikTok serve up is toxic by the researchers' own definition.
It’s a short read, and an uncomfortable one if you have sons. Read it.
Dismantling the manosphere — Tanya Plibersek, The Saturday Paper, July 2026
Original research: TikTok and YouTube Shorts push misogynistic videos to young male watchers, study finds — Anna Desmarais, Euronews, April 2024