Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration to Combat Cyberviolence & Cybersexism: Insights from Youth Activists

It is estimated that one in ten women have already experienced a form of cyberviolence since the age of 15.¹ What can and should be done?

A rapidly evolving digital landscape in which women and girls are being left behind
 “The digital divide has become the new face of gender inequality”² – Ms. Sima Bahous, Executive Director UN Women, Opening Statement CSW67.

The internet revolution has undeniably transformed daily life, weaving technology and internet access into the very fabric of society. While this digital shift has empowered women and girls across Europe by unlocking educational pathways, professional and personal opportunities, access to information, resources and a platform to raise their voices, it has also cast a dark shadow – a realm of online violence known as cyberviolence, online gender-based violence (OGBV) and/or technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). 

This troubling phenomenon disproportionately impacts women and girls, with a staggering 13% of women and girls across the EU, UK, and North Macedonia experiencing cyber harassment in just the past five years.³ Cyberviolence can take many forms, from harassment, revenge porn⁴ to threats of violence – all with real-world consequences. Online abuse silences and excludes women, posing a significant threat to their basic rights and freedom of expression, and hindering them from benefiting from the myriad opportunities brought about by digital technologies. 

In response to the growing concern over cyberviolence against women and girls, international organisations and governments are stepping up. The theme of International Women’s Day 2023, “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality“, addressed this issue, followed by further discussions at the 67th CSW in New York – leading to a push for stricter regulations on online platforms, particularly concerning hate speech and online sexism. The implementation of the European Union’s Digital Services Act is a prime example, requiring platforms to actively combat cyberviolence against women alongside other online threats. However, international recommendations call for a more comprehensive approach. Proposals include increased public awareness campaigns to prevent cybersexism and violence, promoting equal access to technology and digital literacy skills, respect freedom of speech and investment in AI solutions. 
Here is the challenge: current solutions are limited. Platforms often rely on simple reporting mechanisms, and AI is largely developed by non-diverse teams which perpetuates existing biases. Furthermore, the underrepresentation of women in the cybersecurity field (11% in Europe)⁵ and AI (22% globally)⁶ highlights the need for a more inclusive approach. Governments do still not yet fully recognize online gender-based violence as a systemic issue, which is crucial for developing comprehensive solutions that address the root causes and can prevent future occurrences. 

Even beyond governments, the issue of OGBV continues to be addressed by civil society, research institutions, and think tanks in a siloed manner. Unlike approaches to tackle gender based violence (GBV) where issues and stakeholders now exhibit more significant overlap and intersectionality, approaches to OGBV remain compartmentalized. This compartmentalization hinders collaboration and cross-pollination of diverse perspectives, resulting in a dearth of comprehensive understanding and collaborative efforts. Limited in scope⁷, stakeholders may miss online issues and victim experiences outside their current focus.

On 7 March 2024, the Council of Europe adopted a first-ever EU law on violence against women and domestic violence which includes cyberviolence.⁸ Progress? Yes. But the law is limited as it only criminalizes cyberstalking, cyber harassment and cyber incitement to hatred or violence across the EU.⁹

In response to these shortcomings, civil society and organisations are increasingly coming together and joining forces to combat cyberviolence.

Importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration in tackling online violence

The 17 feminist principles of the Internet, which are a series of statements that offer a gender lens on critical internet-related rights initiated by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)¹¹, equally reflecting the urgency to act, globally with everyone involved.

Governments play a key role in this fight: mainstreaming gender in digital policies is needed to ensure that women and girls are protected and can enjoy an equal and safe cyberspace. This should be accompanied by comprehensive training programs for law enforcement and legal professionals to improve victim support services and ensure fair and just adjudication of criminal cases. 

Multicultural and diverse teams should be set up in tech and social media companies to counter as many biases as possible in the programming and creation of generative algorithms, to prevent technologies from reproducing dangerous human behavior that harm women and girls.  

Investing in research and data is also needed to not only build algorithms capable of distinguishing hate messages and preventing attackers from using the increasingly common bypass techniques, but also to collect the necessary data needed to tailor the fight against cyberviolence accurately. Indeed, too little data is yet available on the subject.

Ensuring that women know how to use the internet to their benefit and to be safe online should start from an early age, starting in school by learning about topics such as online safety. Teachers need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and resources to be able to help students who face online GBV. This should also apply to families, psychologists and centers who welcome survivors – they should be equipped to guide and act accordingly as the responsibility for safety should not solely rest on the survivors [the girls].

In this sense, primary prevention of violence against women and girls from an early age must also be considered and implemented by relevant actors to address the root causes of OGBV, with a focus on the education of men and boys, as they represent the majority of perpetrators of online sexism, violence, and misogyny. Failing to educate the public about boundaries, healthy relationships, masculinities, discrimination, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and violent extremism allows these to flourish, exacerbating existing power imbalances and societal norms. This ultimately fuels a surge in online hate speech and harassment.

Finally, beyond professional expertise of each stakeholder, we should not forget to engage in dialogue and collaboration due to intersectionality and privileges, which have significant implications for OGBV. Each social group possesses unique experiences and deserves to be acknowledged and heard. To achieve this, we must actively seek out and engage with diverse perspectives.

We need a more equal multistakeholder collaboration – this common thought led us to publish 12 recommendations on how to address and fight against cyberviolence and cybersexism¹² following our round table. These recommendations address all stakeholders who tackle and should tackle TFOGBV, including governments, institutions, legal systems, law enforcement agencies, social media platforms, civil society and the general public. 

The youth are building a safer space online

Today’s youth was born with the internet: it is intrinsic to our lives. So how can we contribute to fighting against all the violence that is happening on the platforms and tools we use every day? 

As youth activists, we believe in the power of informing and raising awareness. This can be done through discussing with key actors of the fight against cyberviolence, such as the WAVE podcast episode “The need to end cyberviolence” that we recorded with Dr. Eleonora Esposito, a Seconded National Expert at the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). Or for example, by creating and sharing social media campaigns. Last year, we joined the 16 days of activism to prevent violence against women and girls, and shared information on the current status of online violence in our respective countries, France and Sweden. This informed Instagram users who follow our account, but also our close personal and professional circle. Even though this represents a small group of people around you, it doesn’t matter; you have to start somewhere, and these sensitized individuals will, in turn, inform their own close circles.

We can take the example of the online training sessions of the French collective #NousToutes on the rape culture and how to help GBV victims in public spaces. Initially, the collective only raised awareness among a small circle of Parisian feminist activists. Through word of mouth, the training gained momentum and each training session can now accommodate 1000 people from all over the country.

Through intersectional feminism and decolonization, those in power must recognize the experiences of those facing injustice. They need to work together with other stakeholders to propose adapted, reality-based solutions that are tailored and address the current issues women and girls face online. 

Young people have a long history of driving positive social change. Look no further than the significant impact of movements like Fridays for Future by Greta Thunberg, or the power of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter -movements widely amplified by young people around the world, who protest and share their stories on social media.

Technology provides a powerful platform to amplify our voices and advocate for change. In the fight against online gender-based violence, we are not just bystanders – we are all affected by this issue, whether we are aware of it or not. Our lived experiences and deep understanding of these issues make us uniquely positioned to bring about change. Our voices deserve to be heard by decision-makers, and we can all contribute with actions, however small, on our own scale. You can join the fight by creating your own campaign, joining an organization, talking to your friends/families, sharing information on your social media platforms, reading books, joining movements etc – no matter what you choose to do, the most important thing is that you start doing it.

Written by

Feminist youth activists and 3rd generation WAVE Youth Ambassdors¹³ Raphaëlle Jouannic (France) and Lena Östlund (France/Sweden)

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1. https://eige.europa.eu/publications-resources/publications/combating-cyber-violence-against-women-and-girls ↩︎
2. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/statement/2023/03/csw67-opening-statement-digital-rights-are-womens-rights ↩︎
3. https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2020-lgbti-equality-1_en.pdf ↩︎
4. “Image-based abuse: ‘The sharing of (or threat to share) intimate images without the consent of the person in that image… Image-based abuse is often referred to as ‘revenge porn’ or ‘cyberharassment.’ Other terms used to explain this form of abuse include: sexploitation or sextortion, where someone blackmails another person by threatening to reveal explicit images; and e-venge, referring to the electronic distribution.’”; https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/Technology-facilitated-violence-against-women-Taking-stock-of-evidence-and-data-collection-en.pdf ↩︎
5. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/women4cyber-registry-database-european-women-cybersecurity ↩︎
6. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375429/PDF/375429eng.pdf.multi ↩︎
7. Major topics currently addressed: Freedom of expression with cyberviolence against women journalists; Threat to democracy with cyberviolence against women politicians; Sexual and sexist harassment with cyberviolence against content creator and feminist activists; Cybersafety related to school harassment against adolescent girls; Racism with cyberviolence against women from marginalized communities; Child exploitation and abuse; Gender digital divide; Just and ethical AI with the massive dissemination of fake news and disinformation. ↩︎
8. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/02/06/violence-against-women-council-and-european-parliament-reach-deal-on-eu-law/ ↩︎
9. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/05/07/council-adopts-first-ever-eu-law-combating-violence-against-women/#:~:text=The%20law%20that%20was%20adopted,incitement%20to%20hatred%20or%20violence ↩︎
10. See the article of Marie Lamensch “Women Activists Lead the Struggle against Online Gender-Based Violence Worldwide” which greatly gives an overview of the premises of the movement. ↩︎
11. The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is a global network of civil society groups using ICTs to advance peace, human rights, development and environmental protection. In April 2014, APC convened a global meeting in Port Dickson, Malaysia, bringing together 50 participants from six continents. This gathering aimed to bridge the gap between feminist and internet rights movements. The event resulted in the creation of 17 feminist principles for the internet, a living document designed to shape policy discussions on internet governance. ↩︎
12. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sFIRq7F3DnxnWiRsr-nNQycWXqaLSKKi/view?usp=drive_link ↩︎
13. https://wave-network.org/all-generations-wave-yas/ ↩︎

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or opinion/position of Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE).