Gender Based Violence: Digital Abuse and Technology-Faciliated Violence

Editorial Assistant Jordan Jayanthi examines the contemporary usage of technology in tactics of digital violence and its hazardous ramifications for vulnerable women. 

Content Warning: this article contains mentions of online sexual harassment, deepfakes, and grooming.

Imagine discovering footage of you has been altered into explicit content and splashed across the internet—images of you circulating without your consent. Technology mediates our lives now, and the use of social media such as Instagram, Snapchat, and X (formerly ‘Twitter’) is growing exponentially everyday. While social media is a good tool to use for communication and access to information, it poses an increased risk for technology-faciliated violence (‘TFV’) against women and girls.

Studies have shown that between 16 to 58 percent of women and girls experience this type of violence per year [1]. The new digital revolution has exacerbated previous forms of gender-based violence such as sexual harassment, impersonation and defamation while creating new forms of image and video based abuse—deepfakes, doxxing, and online grooming. 

Across the world, millions of women every year are being affected by TFV:

1. Eastern Europe and Central Asia: research across 13 countries shows over 50 percent of women have been affected [2]. 

2. Arab states: 60 percent of women internet users have been affected [3]. 

3. Sub-saharan Africa: 28 percent of women have been affected by online violence [4].

Some groups of women are at a higher risk of digital abuse such as young girls and women using social media as a platform to connect and communicate with peers. This includes women in the public eye such as celebrities like Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian, and women in front-facing political roles such as journalists and news reporters. A UNESCO study has found that 73 percent of women journalists have experienced online violence, 20 percent being by the same user online and offline [5]. 

Some actions currently being taken by UN women include shaping laws and policies, and supporting feminist movements [1]. 

by Jordan Jayanthi

References 

[1] United Nations General Assembly. (2024). Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls: Technology-facilitated violence against women and girls: Report of the Secretary-General. https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2024/10/intensification-of-efforts-to-eliminate-all-forms-of-violence-against-women-report-of-the-secretary-general-2024 

[2] UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia. (2023). The dark side of digitalization: Technology-facilitated violence against women in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. https://eca.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2023/11/the-dark-side-of-digitalization-technology-facilitated-violence-against-women-in-eastern-europe-and-central-asia 

[3] United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). (2021). Violence against women in the online space: insights from a multi-country study in the Arab States. https://arabstates.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2021/11/violence-against-women-in-the-online-space 

[4] Association for Progressive Communications. (2020). Alternate realities, alternate internets: African feminist research for a feminist internet. https://www.apc.org/en/pubs/alternate-realities-alternate-internets-african-feminist-research-feminist-internet 

[5] Posetti, J., Aboulez, N., Bontcheva, K., Harrison, J., & Waisbord, S. (2020). Online violence Against Women Journalists:  A Global Snapshot of Incidence and Impacts. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375136