UN Women, launching its 16 Days of Activism campaign (2025), warned that AI-driven digital violence is rising at “alarming speed,” leaving 1.8 billion women and girls globally without legal protection against online abuse.

About the Campaign

• The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is an annual global campaign led by UN Women to raise awareness and mobilize action to end violence against women and girls worldwide.
• 2025 Theme: “UNiTE to End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls”. 
• Duration & Key Dates: The campaign runs every year from 25 November to 10 December.
  • 25 November – International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
  • 10 December – Human Rights Day.
• Purpose: The campaign aims to increase public awareness, influence policy, and mobilize governments, civil society, youth, and communities toward ending gender-based violence.

Nature of the Digital Violence Crisis

• Rapidly Increasing Abuse: Widening Harm: Digital violence including cyberstalking, doxing, deepfakes, harassment, non-consensual image sharing, and gendered disinformation is expanding across borders and platforms.
• AI as a Multiplier: 
  • Amplified Abuse: Artificial intelligence and online anonymity are accelerating the creation and spread of digital abuse.
  • Detection Difficulty: AI-enabled content is harder to detect, trace, and remove, making accountability more difficult.
• Lack of Legal Protection: 
  • Global Exposure: According to the World Bank, fewer than 40% of countries have laws addressing cyber harassment or cyberstalking.
  • Scale of Vulnerability: As a result, 1.8 billion women and girls lack legal protection against online abuse.

Impact on Women in Public Life

• High-Risk Groups: Women in leadership, politics, business, and journalism are increasingly targeted by deepfakes, coordinated harassment, and disinformation, often designed to silence or discredit them.
• Threats Against Journalists: One in four women journalists report receiving online death threats or threats of physical violence.
• Offline Spillover: UN Women warns that digital abuse often escalates into offline violence, including stalking, sexual violence, and femicide.

Structural Weaknesses in Protection and Accountability

• Underreporting of Abuse:  Many survivors avoid reporting due to stigma, fear of retaliation, and lack of trust in institutions.
• Weak Justice Systems:  Courts and law enforcement agencies are often ill-equipped to investigate or prosecute digital violence, especially when it crosses jurisdictions.
• Platform Impunity: 
• Technology companies face minimal accountability and often lack robust safety standards or effective content moderation tools.
• Fragmented Approach: Although 117 countries have initiated steps to address digital violence, UN Women warns that these efforts remain fragmented and insufficient.
• Global Legislative Responses: Some countries have enacted stronger digital safety laws, including the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act, Mexico’s Ley Olimpia, Australia’s Online Safety Act, and the European Union’s Digital Safety Act.

Why Digital Violence is a Governance Challenge

• Rights-Based Governance: Digital violence undermines the rights to equality, dignity, privacy, and safe participation in public life.
• Institutional Credibility: Weak protection mechanisms reduce public trust in digital governance, law enforcement, and justice systems.
• Silencing Effect: Gendered digital abuse reduces women’s participation in politics, media, and public discourse, weakening democratic processes.

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India’s Governance Perspective

• Legal Framework: India addresses digital violence through provisions under the IT Act, 2000; the DPDP Act, 2023; cyberstalking and harassment provisions under the IPC/BNS; and the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
• Institutional Measures: The National Commission for Women operates cyber labs, helplines, and awareness programmes to support survivors.
• Systemic Gaps: India faces challenges such as poor digital literacy, limited capacity in cyber cells, slow investigations, and the rapid spread of AI-generated deepfakes that outpace existing laws.

Global Standards

• UN Norms: The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and UN Women guidelines emphasise technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
• AI Ethics: UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence promotes safe and rights-based AI systems.

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