The only moral panic that has been stirred up has been the one against JKR and the GC movement. NOT the other way around.
The characteristics of a moral panic are not demonstrated by the GC movement, precisely because of the conditions its had to navigate in.
Moral panic is defined as a public mass movement, based on false or exaggerated perceptions or information that exceeds the actual threat society is facing. Moral panic is a widespread fear and often an irrational threat to society's values, interests, and safety.
Key point: irrationality and disproportionality.
The gender critical movement has at every point been force to demonstrate and quantify issues to illustrate its point. At times this isnt easy because of the deliberate obstruction of getting research done in this climate. Where it has been done it only serves to demonstrate real issues that are being overlooked: comorbidity, disproportionate over representation of particular groups who are already at risk, higher rates of crimes, over representation in adults who pose higher risk, patterns which replicate other scandals, lack of ethical practice, lack of oversight on safety, lack of protection of vulnerable groups, patterns of group contagion, lack of understanding on basic safeguarding.
This demonstrates there isn't irrationality or disproportionality going on.
On the flip to that the TRA side pushes narratives that firmly go against known research: the suicidal intent (with no thought to comorbidity or whether transition reduces risk), the risk of murder (the whole conflating south America deliberately whilst ignoring risk profiles of women and over representation of serious offenders presenting as trans) and the entire premise of hate crime and the narrative that to be pro-woman you are actually anti-trans which isn't the case.
This is very firmly a weaponisation of the nature of moral panics against safeguarding, to undermine safeguarding and women's rights. It understands that woman tend to be left out of power which is punching down on this and those who are involved in it are more susceptible to the emotional whipping up of be kind over logic and critical thought. Social media has pushed politics of all kinds down this route of emotion over rationality and this has been identified as a real problem for our age across the board with many suggesting in other areas of politics this has been a very deliberate strategy employed by a tiny minority with certain agendas which would normally otherwise go against the public interests on a much wider level.
It is the Brexit effect. It is the Trump effect. It is the Bolsonaro effect. We see it replicated. Its powerful and influencial males who are seeking financial reward and power over the public in a way that will harm them by deliberate disinformation.
If you put the tra movement into context with wider political trends you would expect to find a top down effect with a small number of influential males leading it.