The annual campaign 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence takes place between 25 November and 10 December. This year’s theme, “There is #NoExcuse for Online Abuse”, underlines the urgent need to address the dangers of digital spaces, which have become a minefield of harassment, abuse, and threats to the safety of women.
The statistics are daunting: 16-58% of women and girls face digital violence, 90-95% of deepfake videos are sexual images of women, yet fewer than 40% of countries have laws protecting women from cyber harassment or cyber stalking1. We shouldn’t forget that behind these numbers stand the lives and experiences of real women. Especially for young women with online realities deeply integrated into their everyday life, technology-facilitated violence can be not only psychologically and physically harmful, but also an obstacle to their full participation in society. The digital world has become yet another patriarchal tool of control over women’s autonomy.
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