Women and girls are disproportionately experiencing violence fuelled by the increasing use of technology, a new report warns, with online abuse often spilling over into physical attacks and intimidation. The situation is especially worrying in the global south, where laws to protect women are often lacking.
For women worldwide, the internet era is a "blessing and a curse".
That's according to Dutch sexual health organisation Rutgers, which says that technology and online platforms are increasingly used as weapons to "tyrannise" women and other vulnerable groups "as part of an invasive 24/7 culture infiltrating workplaces, schools and homes".
Its research – based on interviews with people in Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda – found widespread links between online violence and the offline world.
Online abuse acts as a springboard for offline violence including sexual harassment, stalking and intimate partner violence, the report says.
In one case described in South Africa, a girl was bullied on and off social media before being beaten. Classmates filmed her and shared the video online, where it was widely viewed, and shortly afterwards the victim killed herself.
Meanwhile in Morocco, a civil society worker recounted that former partners sometimes use intimate pictures or videos for revenge, to get women to give up custody or alimony or to pressure them to hand over assets.
Activists under threat
Activists and women in the public eye are also targeted, in some cases withdrawing from professional life altogether to escape the abuse.
Moroccan activist Ghizlane Mamouni, founder of Kif Mama Kif Baba, an association that campaigns against gender-based violence and discrimination, has experienced the problem firsthand.
"Recently, I myself and other colleagues – fellow women activists or women perceived as activists – have been victims and targeted by online death threats and various attacks on social networks," she told RFI.
Mamouni is among the campaigners pushing for a reform of Morocco's laws, which she argues fail to protect women and girls.
The country is currently experiencing an "historic moment", she said, with reforms promised of both the penal and family codes. Governing marriage, divorce and family life as well as crimes affecting women, they have historically privileged the rights of men.
"We know that these two texts contain enormous legal violence against women and a glaring lack of protection against gender-based violence, particularly that which is facilitated by technology," Mamouni said.
Victims prosecuted
Uganda is one of the few African countries that actually has a law against such violence.
But victims who report it sometimes find themselves facing investigation and even prosecution if they fall foul of other laws criminalising pornography, premarital sex or sexual orientation, the report found.
"Laws that are seemingly there to protect victims actually do the opposite," said Abishiag Wabwire of Fida Uganda, an association of women lawyers that provides legal aid.
While LGBTQ+ people face a higher threat of online and offline abuse, for instance, Uganda's harsh laws against homosexuality mean survivors who come forward risk criminal charges themselves.
The report also pointed to cases where victims of "revenge porn" have been charged alongside the perpetrator under the Anti-Pornography Act.
"Patriarchal standards and the cyber law that should protect victims are instead being evoked to oppress them and upholding patriarchal standards," Wabwire told Rutgers.
Overlooked danger
While victims are predominantly women and girls, boys and men can also be affected, the report says – including male friends or relatives of women targeted.
Rutgers also stresses that abuse doesn't just take place via computers and smartphones, but can involve GPS tracking devices, drones or recording devices.
Despite posing a growing threat, gender-based violence facilitated by technology remains largely overlooked and underestimated by police and policymakers, Rutgers warns.
"Successive generations of women, girls, and vulnerable groups suffer new, brutal forms of violence – many of which go under the radar – with little protection from the police or justice systems," it said.
"Such violence has a chilling effect on women and girls' participation in civic and political spaces on and offline, threatening progress towards gender equality and democratic participation."
