We are currently in an era where technology shapes nearly every aspect of public and private discourse. From how we live and work to how we organise, influence, and protest, technology has become the backbone of our social, economic, and political lives. It is slowly defining our daily lives by shaping who is heard, who is visible, and who holds power. 

This is a systemic issue

For millions of women and girls in all their diversities, the digital world has proven not to be a safe space but of violence, exploitation and extraction. Womankind’s latest research, Unsafe by Design: An Analysis of the TFGBV Continuum, underscores that technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) is not just an isolated phenomenon. It is systemic, gendered, and deeply connected to offline inequalities. The same patriarchal norms and biases that silence women in public, are being coded and amplified online. From coordinated harassment campaigns to non-consensual image sharing, cyberstalking, doxxing, and AI-enabled abuse, digital platforms are not just hosting violence, they are enabling it.  

While policy responses remain fragmented and reactive, reporting systems are inconsistent and laws are struggling to evolve with technological developments. Survivors of TFGBV struggle to navigate complex legal systems that were never designed to address digitally mediated harm and are forced to relive harm through redress processes that rarely deliver justice. The burden remains on women to ‘log off’, ‘block,’ or ‘grow a thicker skin’. 

It is political

When women journalists leave the profession, when women politicians decide not to run for office, and when young women limit their expression online, the digital world becomes narrower, more hostile, and less representative. Democracy becomes weakened with a shrinking civic space blocking young women from fully expressing themselves online. Today, technology is increasingly being weaponized to silence women and human rights defenders thus exploiting gendered inequalities, targeting marginalised groups through sexualised abuse with threats of outing, and identity-based harassment amongst many other forms of TFGBV. Online discrimination continues to mirror and reinforce offline power hierarchies, compounding marginalization and deepening exclusion of women and girls from safe and meaningful digital participation. 

A safer digital ecosystem is possible

It is paramount to recognise that TFGBV is a structural issue rooted in gender inequality and demands coordinated responses across technology companies, governments, donors, and civil society. Building on Womankind’s report- a feminist digital future demands that we prioritise building digital spaces where women and girls in all their diversities can participate freely, safely, and with full agency, grounded in feminist principles, evidence, and coordinated collective care and action.  Accountability must move beyond voluntary guidelines. Transparency in safety by design, meaningful content moderation investment, and survivor-centred reporting systems should not be optional add-ons but baseline responsibilities. Policy must be informed by those most affected ensuring that they are at the frontlines of both innovation and solutions, and this can be achieved to comprehensively address TFGBV in both policy and in practice. Womankind’s recently launched playbook, Reboot the online system, make it safer: a feminist playbook for responding to TFGBV, offers practical, actionable and feminist guidance on making this a reality.  

We have the opportunity to transform the digital world from a site of violence and exclusion into one of agency, solidarity, and justice for all women, girls and marginalised groups. We cannot wait! The future of our autonomy and our digital lives depend on it. 

Source: Jill Anami, Ag. Policy and Advocacy Manager, VAWG / Womankind Org