What is Online Violence Against Women?

Online Violence Against Women (Online VAW), is the umbrella term for violence against women and girls that is committed using the internet or information communication technologies. It is also variously known as Cyber Violence Against Women, Digital Violence Against Women, and Technology-Facilitated Gender-based Violence. This form of violence against women and girls has been around for as long as the internet has existed but has rapidly escalated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. [1]

Online VAW can be defined as any acts or threats of gender-based violence committed by individuals or groups that:

• Are perpetrated online and assisted, amplified and/or aggravated partially or completely through the use of information and communication technologies, social media, or digital media
• Are committed online with the intention and/or consequence of causing physical, psychological, emotional, economic, and sexual and reproductive harm to women and girls. [2]

Online Violence Against Women: Some Key Facts

• 1 in 10 women have experienced a form of online VAW since the age of 15. [3]
• 52% of young women and girls have experienced online abuse, including threatening messages, sexual harassment and the sharing of private images without consent. [4]
• Based on a UN study of 86 countries, only 26% of law enforcement agencies are taking legal action to fight online VAW. [5]
• Across 51 countries, 38% of women have reported personally experiencing online VAW, 65% of women know other women in their personal and professional networks who were targeted with online VAW, and 85% of women have witnessed online VAW. [6]

Types of Online Violence Against Women

Online VAW includes (but not limited to):

• Gender-based/sexist hate speech
• Gender-based harassment
• Video and image-based abuse
• Online stalking and surveillance
• Doxxing and swatting
• Online pile-ons/takedown or cancel culture

Gender-based/Sexist Hate Speech

Gender-based/sexist hate speech online refers to written, audio, and video expressions which spread, incite, promote or justify sexist and misogynistic hatred against women. [7]

Such hate speech is widespread across the internet and takes on varying forms of intensity ranging from misogynistic memes on social media to ideas and terminology spread by the ‘Manosphere’ – male-dominated online spaces and communities which perpetuate toxic masculinity, teach other men how to abuse women, and undermine efforts towards gender equity and equality. [8]

Perpetrators of gender-based hate speech online include the following groups: [9]

• “Pick-Up Artists” (PUAs), who try to seduce women through manipulation
• “Men’s Rights Activists” (MRAs) who believe men suffer from gender discrimination more than women
• “Men Going Their Own Way” (MGTOW) which are men who have cut women out of their lives in response to feminism
• “Incels”—shorthand for “involuntary celibate.”

There may also be a potential and feasible connection between the gender-based/sexist hate speech coming out of these online spaces and groups with gun massacres where the male perpetrator targets and murders multiple women in acts of violent misogyny. [9]

Gender-based Harassment

The gender-based harassment experienced by women and girls online includes:

• Threats of rape and sexual assault
• Threats of bodily harm
• Death threats

Such harassment, especially online rape and sexual assault threats, are usually made by incels and other misogynists against women who are perceived as a threat to patriarchal power or male dominance.

Women and girls who are at high risk of such threats include:

• Female gamers
• Female politicians
• Female journalists
• Women’s human rights activists and advocates

Video and Image-based Abuse

There are three (3) major forms of video and image-based online VAW:

• Dick pics
• Revenge porn
• Deepfake porn

Dick pics

A dick pic is a picture of a man’s penis sent to the recipient using the direct messaging function of dating websites and social media networks as well as messaging services such as WhatsApp, Signal, and Facebook Messenger.

Within the context of violence against women, dick pics are usually unsolicited explicit pictures of a man’s penis that are sent by that man to a woman in order to harass her by forcing her to see unwelcome pornographic pictures of himself.

Revenge Porn

“Revenge porn” is the distribution of sexually explicit images or video of individuals without their consent. The offending images or video may be made by a partner of an intimate relationship with or without the knowledge of the victim.[10]

These images and or videos can then be used by perpetrators to blackmail the victims into performing other sexual acts, to coerce them into continuing the relationship, as punishment for ending the relationship, or to silence them.

Deepfake Porn

Deepfake pornography is a form of online violence where someone’s likeness is imposed into sexually explicit images using artificial intelligence (A.I.) and distributed online without their consent. [11]  Perpetrators almost exclusively target women and girls.

There has been an exponential rise in this form of online VAW in recent years due to the increasing popularity of ‘nudifying’ apps which use A.I. to undress women. [12]

One of the most high-profile cases of deepfake pornography took place in South Korea in 2024 where organised deepfake pornography rings in universities and schools used Telegram to distribute A.I.-generated pornography images of women and girls. [13]

Online Surveillance and Stalking

Online Surveillance

Online surveillance is the use of  “smart” or “connected” devices that can communicate through a data network for the purposes of monitoring people or places. Perpetrators misuse these devices and the systems that control them to monitor, harass, threaten or harm the victim.

A common form of online surveillance can be seen when abusive husbands and partners use smartphone apps that were originally created for parents and guardians to monitor the safety of children and teenagers to track and control their wives, girlfriends, and female partners instead. [14]

Online Stalking

Online stalking is the term used to describe the misuse of the internet or other technology to stalk or harass someone.

A perpetrator may do one or more of the following:

• contact a victim via email, social media sites, messaging apps and/or other online platforms.
• post inappropriate content about their victims, including sharing pictures or personal information to threaten or harass.
• track victims’ locations or to monitor their online (and offline) activity.

An increasing number of perpetrators with additional technology skills also use their devices to hack into victims’ devices and therefore their personal information. [15]

Doxxing and Swatting

Doxxing

Doxxing is a form of online violence that involves analysing information posted by someone online and misusing that information to make the victim a target of other malicious attacks.

Perpetrators may reveal the personal information of victims such as their real names, workplaces, and home addresses to open them up to further online or offline attacks.

Swatting

Swatting refers to the action of making a fake or hoax call to emergency services in an attempt to draw a large number of police officers to a specific address.

Swatting is typically done by a perpetrator who wishes to punish an internet user who has annoyed, angered or offended them.

Online Pile-ons/Takedowns or Cancel Culture

Cancel culture is a form of online public shaming in which a large group of people unite to relentlessly attack a (usually high-profile) victim over an accusation of negative behaviour or actions which are usually later proven to be false or exaggerated.

The “cancelling” has the effect of ostracising the victim from a particular social or professional circle in an effort to show disapproval or to exert social pressure.

While cancel culture can affect anybody of any gender, women and girls are disproportionately affected by it and those who experience this form of public shaming usually take longer than male victims to recover their reputation and good standing in their communities and networks. [16]

The Consequences of Online Violence Against Women

There can be many detrimental and lasting effects for women who are victims of online violence. Women can suffer from various long-term psychological and physical effects such as those listed below.

Psychological and Emotional:

• Loss of self-esteem
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Post-traumatic stress disorder

Physical:

• Loss of privacy
• Femicide
• Eating disorders
• Sleeping disorders
• Increased headaches
• Gastrointestinal disorders
• Suicide attempts
• Substance and alcohol addiction

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Footnotes and Further Reading

1. “Accelerating Efforts to Tackle Online and Technology Facilitated Violence Against Women and Girls”, UN Women
2. “Online Violence”, Amnesty International
3. “Cyber violence against women and girls”, European Institute for Gender Equality
4. “Free to be Online? Girls’ and Young Women’s Experiences of Online Harassment”, Plan International
5. “Urgent action needed to combat online violence against women and girls, says new UN report”, UN Women
6. “Measuring the Prevalence of Online Violence Against Women”, The Economist Intelligence Unit.
7. “Combatting Sexist Hate Speech”, Council of Europe
8. “What Is The Manosphere?”, Equimundo
9. “Misogyny, Extremism, and Gun Violence”, Everytown Research & Policy
10. “Revenge Porn Legislation Activists and the Lessons from Sexual Harassment Jurisprudence: Gender Neutrality, Public Perceptions, and Implications”, NYU Review of Law and Social Change, Volume 40
11. “Deepfake Porn: Why We Need to Make It a Crime to Create it, Not Just Share It”, The Conversation
12. “Nudify Apps that Use A.I. to Undress Women are Soaring in Popularity”, Forbes
13. ‘Inside the Deepfake Porn Crisis Engulfing Korean Schools”, BBC
14. “Hundreds of Apps Can Empower Stalkers to Track Their Victims”, New York Times
15. “How Domestic Abusers use Smartphones to Spy on Their Partners”, Vox
16. “Selective Cancel Culture is Inherently Misogynistic”, The Daily Free Press, Boston University

Video Credits and Further Viewing

1. Online Violence Against Women: “We need to break the shame, break the taboo.”
2. Online violence against women in politics
3. Online violence against women journalists harms everyone. Let’s end it!
4. One in 10 female gamers feel suicidal over abuse they face while playing online