Illustration by Sahar Khan
Digital networks have become a battleground where hegemonic power is both consolidated and challenged. As governments, corporations and Big Tech assert control over online spaces, the internet, once imagined as a space for free expression, has increasingly become a tool for surveillance, censorship and repression. This shift, often described as digital authoritarianism, has profound consequences for women human rights defenders (WHRDs), whose work disrupts entrenched power structures and exposes them to unique forms of online violence.
The erosion of democratic principles and the rise of digital repression go hand in hand. Institutional frameworks and political and economic development in Global South countries are shaped by colonial legacies that give rise to digital authoritarianism, which does not operate in isolation. It is deeply entangled with offline political dynamics, reinforcing state and corporate control and shrinking civic space in ways that exhibit a distinctly patriarchal approach to violence. Through surveillance laws, content moderation policies and internet shutdowns, governments and tech companies justify the silencing of dissent while shielding themselves from accountability. The six countries examined in this research, i.e. Brazil, Ecuador, India, the Philippines, Uganda and Tanzania, vary in their democratic structures, yet share a common fragility in their institutions.
For WHRDs, the internet is both a vital space for resistance and a site of profound risk. It enables mobilisation, facilitates community building and allows for the articulation of feminist, environmental and human rights struggles across borders. Yet it also exposes them to relentless attacks: ranging from coordinated defamation and harassment campaigns to doxxing, stalking and threats of physical violence.
The current anti-rights backlash is deeply gendered. WHRDs are targeted not only for their activism but also for their identities, as women, queer individuals or gender-diverse people challenging patriarchal norms. The violence they face online functions as a mechanism of silencing, reinforcing broader systems of oppression.
This research situates digital violence in six countries within a Feminist Holistic Protection framework, as defined in the methodology section, recognising that threats against WHRDs are never isolated. The intersection of gender-based violence with digital repression amplifies existing inequalities, making it harder for WHRDs to counter violence or access justice. At the same time, technological advancements combine with evolving state and corporate repression to constantly reshape the digital landscape, creating new risks that outpace existing rights-protecting responses.
Through an analysis of legal frameworks and WHRDs’ experiences in Brazil, Ecuador, India, the Philippines, Uganda and Tanzania, this research explores the interconnection between technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) and digital authoritarianism, highlighting the ways activists resist, adapt and reclaim space amid escalating online and offline threats.
The findings reveal several key trends:
- The weaponisation of gender, bodies and sexuality as primary sites of attack, with WHRDs facing misogynistic rhetoric and online abuse that reinforce patriarchal and conservative ideologies.
- A continuum between online violence and offline repression, where tactics like doxxing, smear campaigns and surveillance escalate into physical threats, arrests and even assassination attempts, all exacerbated by the failure to implement or establish rapid response protection mechanisms.
- Structural discrimination embedded in technology, with racialised, Indigenous and marginalised WHRDs disproportionately targeted through algorithmic bias, state surveillance and exclusion from digital security frameworks.
- The weaponisation of legal systems to criminalise dissent, using anti- terrorism, cybercrime and morality laws to silence WHRDs, alongside financial repression tactics that restrict funding and operational capacity.
- The unrestrained expansion of surveillance, with spyware, biometric tracking and facial recognition technologies deployed under the guise of security, intensifying repression.
- The intersection of digital authoritarianism and extractivism, where both natural resources and personal data are exploited to consolidate power, with Indigenous land defenders facing heightened risks.
WHRDs across the six countries have urged governments to implement gender- sensitive cybersecurity laws that explicitly address digital violence and to establish holistic, rapid response mechanisms to prevent escalation. Special attention must be given to grassroots, Indigenous and rural WHRDs, who face disproportionate, multi-layered risks. Accountability for Big Tech requires an effective governance model and stronger policy enforcement by social media companies such as Meta and X (formerly Twitter) to curb digital violence, censorship and the proliferation of hate speech globally.
Safeguards against state surveillance must also be enforced to prevent misuse under national security pretexts, ensuring judicial oversight and proportionality. Combating disinformation through robust fact-checking initiatives is crucial to dismantling smear campaigns that put WHRDs and marginalised communities at risk.
This research highlights the urgent need for systemic change, not only in policies and legal frameworks, but also in the underlying structures that enable digital and physical violence against WHRDs around the world.