New report shows rise in violence against women journalists and activists linked to digital abuse

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GENEVA (AP) — More than two-thirds of women journalists, rights defenders and activists have reported violence online, with over 40% saying they have faced real-world attacks linked to digital abuse, according to a study published Tuesday by UN Women and partners.

The report focuses on an escalation in violence targeting such women alongside the rise of social media and artificial intelligence, and draws on input from more than 6,900 human rights defenders, journalists and activists in 119 countries.

The study by UN Women, the United Nations agency that promotes women’s rights, gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, and partners follows a similar report by the U.N. cultural and educational agency UNESCO in 2021.

“Online violence against women has become a growing global crisis,” UN Women said. “What begins on a screen can quickly fuel harassment, intimidation and even real-world harm.”

Some 41% of respondents said they experienced offline attacks, abuse or harassment that they linked with online violence in the forms of physical or sexual assault, stalking, verbal harassment and “swatting,” a tactic to get authorities to respond to an address by making bogus claims of violence happening inside.

Women writers, influencers and social media content providers who focus on human rights are most often affected by such online violence, through the use of new tools like deepfake images or manipulated content, according to the study complied with partners like the European Commission and TheNerve, a data research firm.

Lead researcher Julie Posetti, speaking to reporters in Geneva, said the tally of cases of real-world harm linked to online violence against women journalists has more than doubled over the past five years, with 42% of respondents in 2025 identifying "this dangerous and potentially deadly trajectory.”

Posetti also expressed concerns about “digital misogyny” and the “manosphere ” promoted by some high-profile online influencers, and personal attacks against some women journalists by government leaders including by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“When a president or a prime minister or some senior official makes such egregious comments, it tends to stir up the mob online," she said.

“It’s not even a dog whistle, which is a kind of subtle way of triggering a mob reaction. It’s an overt attack,” added Posetti, a journalism professor and director of the Information Integrity Initiative at TheNerve.

The authors call for stronger laws and better monitoring to pinpoint violence against women linked to technology, more accountability for tech companies and increased efforts to amplify voices of men and others speaking out against such practices.

“Women who speak up for our human rights, report the news or lead social movements are being targeted with abuse designed to shame, silence and push them out of public debate," UN Women policy director Sarah Hendricks said. “Increasingly, those attacks do not stop at the screen — they end at women’s front doors."