What is digital abuse?

 

Digital tools are increasingly being used to stalk, harass, and abuse women and girls. This includes:

• Image-based abuse/ non-consensual sharing of intimate images – often called revenge porn or leaked nudes. 
• Cyberbullying, trolling, and online threats. 
• Online harassment and sexual harassment. 
• AI-generated deepfakes such as sexually explicit images, deepfake pornography, and digitally manipulated images, videos or audio. 
• Hate speech and disinformation on social media platforms. 
• Doxxing – publishing private information. 
• Online stalking or surveillance/tracking to monitor someone’s activities. 
• Online grooming and sexual exploitation. 
• Catfishing and impersonation. 
• Misogynistic networks – e.g. manosphere, incel forums. 

These acts don’t just happen online. They often lead to offline violence in real life (IRL), such as coercion, physical abuse, and even femicide – killing of women and girls. The harm can be long-lasting and affect survivors over a prolonged period of time. 

Digital violence targets women more than men, across all walks of life, but especially those with public or online visibility – such as activists, journalists, women in politics, human rights defenders, and young women. 

The impact is even worse for women facing intersecting forms of discrimination, including race, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.