Gender-Based Digital Violence: The Battle for Online Safety

For millions of women, the internet feels like a war zone. Yet it once promised equal connection. Early advocates hailed it as a frontier of open speech. Today, it amplifies misogyny at unprecedented scale.^{1 2} Gender-based digital violence targets women and girls online. It’s also knowns as Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls (CVAWG). This abuse includes grooming, cyberbullying, and doxxing. It also encompasses revenge porn, deepfakes, and sextortion. Perpetrators coordinate campaigns to silence women’s voices, erasing their perspectives and participation.

This year, the UN Women’s 16 Days of Activism is spotlighting gender-based digital violence. Research traces the crisis to the “manosphere” and extremist online communities. These networks combine misogyny with political grievance, spreading anti-equality narratives from obscure forums to mainstream discourse. In some countries, they even shape governing power. As we reflect on the movement’s evolution, let us challenge ourselves to confront anti-equality structures in daily life.

In this article you will learn:

• What is Gender-Based Digital Violence?
• What Does Gender-Based Digital Violence Look Like?
• The Data: A Global Snap Shot
• The Prevalence of Gender-Based Digital Violence
• Silencing Women and Girls in Digital Spaces
• Ending Violence Against Women and Girls
• Final Thoughts
• References

What is Gender-Based Digital Violence?

Gender-based digital violence does not occur in isolation. Not only is it is called otherwise known as Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls but also CVAWG.³ It extends a continuum of violence against women and girls.^{4 5} This abuse stems from persistent social and structural gender inequality worldwide.⁶ Moreover, it exploits digital tools to inflict harm.

Gender-based digital violence is intersectional.⁷ It manifests in varied patterns across different groups of women and girls. The violence intensifies when perpetrators target individuals based on gender and other factors, such as:⁸

• Age
• Ethnicity
• Sexual orientation
• Gender identity
• Disability
• Religion, or belief.

Ultimately, gender-based digital violence seeks to achieve feminine subjugation.

What Does Gender-Based Digital Violence Look Like?

The cyber element of violence against women and girls amplifies harm. It introduces new tactics, and creates unique patterns of injury. By the same token, perpetrators exploit a wide array of tools. These include smartphones, computers, cameras, and everyday devices with GPS or recording capabilities, to harass, control, and abuse victims.⁹

Moreover, gender-based digital violence has become a profitable business within the rage-bait economy.^{10 11} In this system, online platforms enable the scapegoating of women and girls. This is accomplished by permitting users to carry out abusive behavior. Because of this, the scale of harm grows rapidly.

Types of Gender-Based Digital Violence

The most common kinds of gender-based digital violence are misogynistic digital architectures and digital coercive control.

Misogynistic Digital Architectures

• Algorithmic Bias – This type violence stems from sophisticated digital systems. It exists in AI image generators and social media feeds. The systems reinforce misogynistic stereotypes. They disproportionately restrict content visibility for women. Or, they outright censor material from marginalized groups. Such systemic actions cause measurable and demonstrable harm.¹²

Digital Coercive Control

Digital coercive control is a pattern of online behaviors that uses technology to monitor, track, and isolate. The goal is dominating, continuous influence. The target is a current or former intimate partner. Perpetrators deploy insidious tools like spyware. They use tracking applications or control digital accounts.¹³

Character Assassination

• Gendered Disinformation – Coordinated, malicious campaigns that intentionally disseminate false or misleading narratives specifically constructed to damage, attack, and undermine women and gender-diverse individuals, an increasingly common tactic used against women in political leadership or journalism.¹⁴
• Grooming – The systematic act of building a relationship, trust, and emotional connection with a child or adolescent online for the specific malicious purpose of sexual abuse, exploitation, or assault, often spanning an extended period of time using various digital platforms.
• Online Gender-Based Hate Speech – Inciting violence or hatred against a person or group based on characteristics like race, religion, or gender. Victims are frequently the target of massive smear campaigns by multiple perpetrators.

Financial Abuse

• Digital Blackmail – Perpetrator threaten to publicly share sensitive data. This includes private images or compromised account data. The victim must meet specific, escalating demands. Demands often involve mandatory financial payment. Furthermore, the goal may also be coerced provision of intimate content.

Monitoring

• Cyber Harassment – Persistent, repeated intimidating conduct. Its chief aim is inflicting severe emotional distress. It often cultivates a justifiable fear of physical harm.¹⁵
• Cyber Stalking – is a methodical, persistent form of digital control. It is specifically motivated by the victim’s gender or sexual orientation. The perpetrator uses electronic means to monitor and intimidate. Incidents are typically repeated and often escalate in severity. The goal is often to inflict sexualized or reputational damage. It creates a profound, justifiable fear in the recipient of the abuse.¹⁶
• IoT Facilitated Violence – Violence perpetrated or facilitated through internet-of-things (IoT) devices, such as using smart home systems, network-connected security cameras, or vehicle GPS trackers to monitor, isolate, intimidate, or exert coercive control over a victim in their own physical space.
• Non-Consensual Access/Hacking – Unauthorized logging into or taking control over an individual’s critical digital accounts—including social media, email, financial portals, or personal devices—in order to spy on the victim, steal information, or intentionally sabotage their digital life.

Put-Downs

• Cyber Bullying – In this context, is repeated, hostile acts that target a person’s gender or sexuality. It leverages digital platforms for communication and abuse. The content is explicitly misogynistic or overtly sexualized. Its deliberate purpose is to shame, silence, or degrade the individual. This targeted violence causes demonstrable social harm.¹⁷
• Trolling – The deliberate and repeated posting of inflammatory, off-topic, or aggressive material in online discussion sites with the core aim of provoking an emotional reaction, disrupting genuine conversation, or interfering with the positive exchange of ideas among legitimate participants.

Threats

• Deepfakes and Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse (NCIIA) – This act is the non-consensual sharing of explicit content. Perpetrators distribute this material without explicit consent. They use social networks or public and adult sites. This malicious act overwhelmingly targets women. The perpetrator is often a malicious former intimate partner. The primary motive is calculated revenge or pure malice.
• Doxxing – This tactic involves researching and publishing private data. A person’s identifying information is released without consent. The action carries explicit malicious intent. The goal is subjecting the victim to digital harassment. This often escalates into demonstrable real-world harm.
• Flaming – A deliberate and calculated act of luring others into unproductive, circular, and often aggressive discussions within online forums or comment sections, thereby successfully shifting the dialogue into a confusing and ultimately unproductive exchange of inflammatory, insensitive, or abusive messages.¹⁸
• Outing – This is the public disclosure of a person’s private sexual orientation or gender identity without their explicit and informed consent. Its aim is to cause the individual severe emotional distress or place them in physical danger.
• Revenge Porn – The malicious and non-consensual sharing sexually explicit or intimate images to humiliate or blackmail the victim.
• Sextortion – Threatening to share a victim’s existing sexual images or private information unless the victim complies with explicit demands to perform additional sexual acts or provide more intimate content, leveraging fear and shame to force compliance.

The Data: A Global Snapshot

According to a recent global survey summarized by UN Women:

• 38% of women have experienced cyber violence against women and girls.¹⁹
• 85% of women have witnessed some form of gender-based digital violence.²⁰
• 73% of women journalists report facing gender-based digital violence in the course of their work.²¹
• 20% of women journalists report experiencing offline attacks in connection with gender-based digital violence targeting them online.²²

The forms of abuse are diverse and evolve with technology.²³ In fact, many of the deepfake images circulating online are non-consensual pornographic content — overwhelmingly targeting women.²⁴

The distribution of risk is uneven. Younger women, women with multiple marginalized identities (based on race, ethnicity, sexuality, disability), and those with public visibility — journalists, activists, politicians — face disproportionately high rates of technology-facilitated abuse.²⁵

These statistics underscore a simple — and terrifying — truth: being online as a woman or girl is no longer neutral. It is, for many, dangerous.

The Prevalence of Gender-Based Digital Violence

Global statistics underscore the pandemic of gender-based digital violence. However, the risk does not distribute evenly. Moreover, prevalence rates fluctuate dramatically based on geography, age, and identity. This highlights the intersectional nature of this abuse.

• Age as a Key Risk Factor: Globally, this abuse targets young women and girls. A UN Women study quantified this threat directly.²⁶ It found 58% of young women faced some form of harassment. In Europe and Central Asia, the disparity is stark and quantifiable. The 18–24 age group is targeted four times more often. This compares sharply to women over the age of 65.
• Regional Prevalence: The regional prevalence of technology-facilitated abuse varies significantly. Research in Eastern Europe and Central Asia remains profoundly concerning. Over 50% of women over 18 report lifetime technology-facilitated abuse.²⁷ Rates in some Eastern European countries reach as high as 64.2%. In contrast, surveys in Europe and the USA suggest a different scope. Lifetime prevalence for women aged 18–55 is situated around 23%.²⁸
• Intersectionality: Multiple marginalized identities drastically amplify the danger. Research consistently confirms higher rates of digital violence. Targets include Black women and Native American women. Women with disabilities and LGBTIQ+ people also face elevated risks. Their abuse often compounds existing racism and ableism. Attacks are frequently layered with homophobia or transphobia.²⁹
• Public Life Targets: Women in public life endure targeted, coordinated attacks. Men rarely experience this level of sustained psychological violence. In Finland, 64% of female local politicians reported online harassment.³⁰ Worldwide, four out of five (80%) women parliamentarians are targeted. They endure psychological violence in the course of their political work.³¹

Silencing Women and Girls in Digital Spaces

The ultimate goal of gender-based digital violence is not merely to harass; instead, it seeks to silence.^32 33 By making the digital sphere toxic and dangerous, perpetrators shrink civic space. Consequently, they undermine democratic discourse by erasing women’s and girls’ voices.³⁴ This silencing takes two primary forms: psychological harm and self-censorship.

This silencing effect creates a chilling intergenerational impact. When young women observe abuse, they witness politicians and activists driven offline. This observation deters them from public participation. As a result, they avoid entering public life or sharing their opinions. This perpetuates the exclusion of diverse voices from critical public conversations.³⁵

The abuse often extends beyond the screen. Online abuse causes stress, anxiety, or panic attacks for 55% of women. Furthermore, 63% report difficulty sleeping due to the attacks. Alarmingly, digital abuse directly links to real-world fear. Consequently, 41% of women report threats to their physical safety.³⁶

The fear of abuse forces women to withdraw from online spaces. Among harassed women, over three-quarters (76%) report changing their platform use.³⁷ Consequently, they restrict participation in public discourse. Indeed, 32% of women stopped posting opinions on certain issues.³⁸ A significant number of women report self-censoring their posts. Some politicians and journalists entirely abandon their public digital roles.³⁹

Ending Digital Violence Against Women and Girls

The crisis of digital violence requires a comprehensive multi-stakeholder response that moves beyond individual reporting and demands systemic accountability from the key actors.⁴⁰ Ending this violence is a fundamental governance, human rights, and democracy issue.

1. Legislative and Justice System Reform

The legal framework must catch up with the pace of technology.

• Expand Legal Definitions: Governments must strengthen and enforce laws that explicitly recognize misogynistic digital architectures, digital coercive control, and gendered disinformation as serious criminal offenses. The European Union’s 2024 Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence provides a strong template, making these acts punishable across member states.
• Close the Impunity Gap: Weak enforcement, cross-border complexity, and anonymity allow perpetrators to act with impunity. Specialized, mandatory training must equip justice systems – police, prosecutors, and the judiciary – to handle digital evidence. This training must also ensure justice is survivor-centered and develop an understanding of the psychological impact of CVAWG.
• Ratify International Standards: States should ratify and implement key international instruments. Specifically, these instruments must recognize technology-facilitated violence. For example, states can adopt the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention. Furthermore, they must implement the ILO Convention No. 190.

2. Platform Accountability

Technology companies, which have profited from the rapid expansion of digital spaces, must be held accountable for the safety and design of their products.

• Safety-by-Design: Platforms must integrate safety and human rights principles from the outset. This includes implementing robust, gender-sensitive community standards and employing machine learning and human moderators who are trained to detect patterns of misogynistic abuse and coordinate attacks.
• Survivor-Centred Reporting: Reporting systems must be made transparent, accessible, and fast. Companies must commit to swift removal of harmful content, especially non-consensual intimate images, using technologies like hash-matching to prevent re-sharing.
• Algorithmic Transparency: Companies must urgently address algorithmic bias that disproportionately amplifies misogynistic content (like that from the “manosphere”) and contributes to the censorship or targeting of marginalized users.

3. Prevention and Culture Change

Long-term change requires shifting the social norms and power imbalances that fuel this violence.

• Digital Literacy: Education is essential for both girls and boys on digital citizenship, online ethics, consent, and media literacy, starting in school curricula.
• Engaging Men and Boys: Prevention programs must actively involve men and boys as allies to challenge harmful ideologies, promote positive online behavior, and confront the misogynistic narratives that normalize abuse.
• Invest in Women’s Rights Organizations: These organizations are often the first responders and experts in gender-responsive support. They require sustained, significant funding to provide legal aid, psychosocial support, and digital security training for survivors.

Final Thoughts

The internet envisioned a global public square. Ideally, every voice ought to contribute to the marketplace of ideas. However, the persistent threat of gender-based digital violence destroys this potential. Consequently, cyber violence against women and girls creates a profound democratic deficit.

When a journalist self-censors, we lose a unique voice. Similarly, when a politician deletes her social media, we lose critical perspectives. This erodes the very foundation of an equitable society. The systematic silencing of women and girls online weakens democracy. Furthermore, it is an attack on the human rights of more than half of the global population.

As we conclude these 16 Days of Activism, we must recognize the urgency of this moment. Gender-based digital violence is not a “virtual problem.” Rather, it is a real-world crisis. It requires real-world laws and real-world accountability. Now is the time to move from awareness to action. The promise of equality in the digital age must become a reality for all people everywhere.

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How to Cite This Page

Wakefield, Manya. (2025). Gender-Based Digital Violence: The Battle for Online Safety. Narcissistic Abuse Rehab. Retrieved from https://www.narcissisticabuserehab.com/gender-based-digital-violence-the-battle-for-online-safety on [Date].

References

Click here to view the key sources and data consulted for this article:

1. Ging, D. (2023). Digital Culture, Online Misogyny, and Gender-based Violence. In The Handbook of Gender, Communication, and Women’s Human Rights (eds M. Gallagher and A.V. Montiel). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119800729.ch13 ↩︎
2. Tracie Farrell, Miriam Fernandez, Jakub Novotny, and Harith Alani. 2019. Exploring Misogyny across the Manosphere in Reddit. In Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Web Science (WebSci ’19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 87–96. https://doi.org/10.1145/3292522.3326045 ↩︎
3. EIGE. ↩︎
4. Esposito, E., Fabre Rosell, C., Samadi, A., and Baldessari, A. (2022). Combatting Cyber Violence against Women and Girls. European Institute for Gender Equality. Page 7. Retrieved on December 1, 2025. ↩︎
5. EIGE. (2024). Cyber violence against women. European Institute for Gender Equality. Retrieved December 1, 2025. ↩︎
6. Mijatović, Dunja. (2022, March 15). No space for violence against women and girls in the digital world. Council of Europe. Retrieved December 1, 2025. ↩︎
7. Esposito et al. Page 7. ↩︎
8. Esposito et al. Page 7. ↩︎
9. Christie, L., Wright, S. (2020, November 13). Technology and domestic abuse. UK Parliament. Retrieved on December 1, 2025. ↩︎
10. Bartow, A. (2009). Internet defamation as profit center: The monetization of online harassment. Harv. JL & Gender, 32, 383. ↩︎
11. Palermo, Luiza. (2025, April 28). Misoginia na internet vira negócio lucrativo. Deutsche Welle. Retrieved December 6, 2025. ↩︎
12. International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. (2025, November 27). Violence against women in the digital space: A growing threat to democracy. International IDEA. Retrieved on December 1, 2025. ↩︎
13. Brookfield, K., Fyson, R., and Goulden, M. Technology-Facilitated Domestic Abuse: An Under-Recognised Safeguarding Issue?, The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 54, Issue 1, January 2024, Pages 419–436, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcad206 ↩︎
14. Blatnik, Ana. (2024). An Overlooked Threat To Democracy? Gendered Disinformation About Female Politicians. Women In International Security. ↩︎
15. Esposito et al. Page 14. ↩︎
16. Esposito et al. Page 14. ↩︎
17. Esposito et al. Page 14. ↩︎
18. Tech Terms. Flaming. Sharpened Productions. Retrieved December 1, 2025. ↩︎
19. Carmo, Ana. (2025, November 20). UN News. AI and anonymity fuel surge in digital violence against women. Retrieved December 1, 2025. ↩︎
20. Ibid. ↩︎
21. UNESCO. (2020, December 15). UNESCO’s Global Survey on Online Violence against Women Journalists. UNESCO. Retrieved December 1, 2025. ↩︎
22. Ibid. ↩︎
23. Carno. ↩︎
24. Ibid. ↩︎
25. UN Women. (2025, November 13.) FAQs: Digital abuse, trolling, stalking, and other forms of technology-facilitated violence against women and girls. UN Women. Retrieved December 1, 20205. ↩︎
26. United Nations. General Assembly. (2024). Report of the Secretary-General: Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls: technology-facilitated violence against women and girls. (Seventy-ninth session, Agenda item 27). United Nations. Retrieved December 6, 2025. ↩︎
27. UN Women & World Health Organization. (2023). Technology-facilitated violence against women: Taking stock of evidence and data collection. UN Women. Retrieved December 6, 2025. ↩︎
28. Ibid. ↩︎
29. Ibid. ↩︎
30. Van Sant, Kristina, Fredheim, Rolf, Bergmanis-Korâts. (2021). Abuse of Power: Coordinated Online Harassment of Finnish Government Ministers. NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. ↩︎
31. UN Women & WHO. ↩︎
32. Council of Europe. What is gender-based violence? COE. Retrieved December 6, 2025. ↩︎
33. Peyton, Nellie. (2017, November 20). Online abuse silences women and girls, fuels violence, survey shows. Reuters. Retrieved December 6, 2025. ↩︎
34. Peyton, Nellie. 2017. ↩︎
35. Amnesty International. (2017, November 20). Amnesty Reveals Alarming Impact of Online Abuse Against Women. Amnestic International. Retrieved December 6, 2025. ↩︎
36. Peyton. 2017. ↩︎
37. Amnesty International. 2017. ↩︎
38. Ibid. ↩︎
39. Van Sant et al. 2021. ↩︎
40. UN Women. (2025, November 18). Digital violence is intensifying, yet nearly hald of the world’s women and girls lack legal protection from digital abuse. UN Women. Retrieved December 6, 2025. ↩︎

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