New research shows online abuse against women is turning physical

When Ljubica Fuentes stood up to a university lecturer who told female students they were not real lawyers but were only there “to pick up some guy,” she had no idea the backlash would force her to flee campus in the middle of the night.

Then a law student at Ecuador's largest public university, Ljubica was immediately labelled a "feminazi" (a derogatory, insulting term) by her peers after she objected to the lecturer's remark. In a recent interview with UN Women, she described how what began as bullying in the classroom quickly turned into a digital nightmare.

Private messages on Instagram warned her to stop speaking up for women's rights. Anonymous users filled her campus Facebook page with threats. Notes with rape threats were passed around campus. Then one day, she overheard that someone had been paid to physically attack her. "I realised that I needed to be away from campus for my safety and had to flee for a semester abroad in the middle of the night," she told UN Women.

Despite the ordeal, she pressed on with her studies and became a lawyer. Today, she is a human rights lawyer and runs an organisation fighting gender-based violence in higher education. Her story is far from unusual. Online abuse has become a growing threat worldwide, and women and girls are the biggest targets.

Attacks on women journalists more than double

A new survey by the European Commission has found that online violence against women human rights defenders, activists and journalists has reached a dangerous level, with digital attacks increasingly spilling into the real world.

The report, titled Tipping Point: The Chilling Escalation of Violence Against Women in the Public Sphere, shows that seven in 10 of the women surveyed have faced online violence because of their work, while four in 10 reported being physically harmed as a result of online abuse.

For women journalists and media workers, the situation has grown far worse. In a 2020 survey published by Unesco, one in five women journalists linked the physical attacks they suffered to online abuse. In the 2025 survey, carried out by the same researchers, that number has more than doubled to 42 per cent.

The report also found that nearly one in four of the women surveyed have been targeted using artificial intelligence tools such as deepfake images and doctored content. Writers and public communicators who focus on human rights, including social media creators and influencers, face the highest risk at 30 per cent.

Read: Betrayal, filming, blackmail: How trusted relationships become gateways to online sexual abuse

“These figures confirm that digital violence is not virtual. It is real violence with real-world consequences,” said Sarah Hendricks, Director of Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division at UN Women.

“Women, who speak up for human rights report the news or lead social movements, are being targeted with abuse meant to shame, silence and push them out of public life. These attacks no longer stop at the screen. They end at women's front doors,” Sarah added, warning that online platforms must not become tools for silencing women and weakening democracy.

Prof Julie Posetti, lead researcher and Director of the Nerve's Information Integrity Initiative, said the findings paint a worrying picture at a time of AI-driven abuse and rising authoritarianism. “What is truly disturbing is the evidence that women journalists' experience of real-world harm linked to online violence has more than doubled since 2020, with 42 per cent of those surveyed in 2025 reporting this dangerous and potentially deadly trend,” she said.

Kenyan women on the frontline

In Kenya, women and girls are increasingly being targeted through online stalking, technology-facilitated trafficking for sexual exploitation, image-based abuse, doxing, and the sharing of intimate images without consent.

Branice Okanga, a content creator in Vihiga County, has faced cyberbullying and stalking on TikTok and Facebook. To fight back, she joined the Vihiga Hamashisho Movement, a local initiative working to tackle technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV).

“We are running awareness campaigns through public baraza, church gatherings, school visits and youth forums where we teach young people and community members about cybercrimes and what the law says," Branice told the Nation.

Her message to women is simple: do not give in to online threats or let digital bullying stand in the way of your dreams. Branice has since trained in digital safety and security. The skills have been vital in her work against online violence.

University students hit hardest

A recent study by the Collaborative Centre for Gender and Development, carried out with the University of Nairobi Women's Economic Empowerment Hub and backed by the United Nations Population Fund, shows that TFGBV is growing in Kenya, with university students among the worst affected. The study found that 64.4 per cent of female students have experienced at least one form of online violence, compared to 35.5 per cent of male students.

The most common forms reported were online defamation at 21.9 per cent, cyberbullying at 19.1 per cent, and non-consensual pornography at 17.8 per cent. Among female students, online defamation was the most common at 34.4 per cent, followed by non-consensual pornography at 24.4 per cent. Male students mostly faced online defamation at 43 per cent and cyberbullying at 39.4 per cent.

Social media platforms are the main battleground. X, formerly Twitter, recorded the highest rate at 18.4 per cent, followed by WhatsApp at 17 per cent, Facebook at 16.8 per cent, Telegram at 14.2 per cent, Instagram at 14.2 per cent and TikTok at 13.7 per cent. Female students remain the primary targets, facing attacks such as defamation and the sharing of intimate images without their consent, with lasting effects on their mental health, social lives and finances.

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