Study Says Deepfakes and Online Violence Are Pushing Women Out of Public Life
NEW DELHI — Deepfakes, AI-assisted sexual abuse and online harassment are driving women away from public life, according to a new study by UN Women, City St George’s, University of London, and data forensic company TheNerve.
The report found that online violence against women in public-facing roles is becoming more technologically sophisticated, with attacks increasingly involving artificial intelligence, manipulated images and coordinated harassment campaigns.
“AI-assisted ‘virtual rape’ is now at the fingertips of perpetrators. This phenomenon accelerates the harm from online violence inflicted on women in public life. This violence serves to fuel the reversal of women’s hard-won rights in a climate of rising authoritarianism, democratic backsliding and networked misogyny,” said Julie Posetti, Professor of Journalism and Chair of the Centre for Journalism and Democracy at City St George’s.
“The rollback of women’s rights is enabled and exacerbated by technologies which – by design –amplify misogynistic hate speech for profit,” added Posetti, the project’s principal researcher and the report’s lead author.
The report analyzed the experiences of 641 women journalists, media workers, activists and human rights defenders from 119 countries. The women were surveyed in late 2025.
Researchers found that 27% of respondents had been targeted with unsolicited sexual advances through direct messages, unwanted intimate images, cyberflashing, sexual innuendos or nonconsensual sexting.
About 12% said personal images, including intimate images, had been shared without their consent. Another 6% said they had been targeted with deepfakes or manipulated images and videos.
The study found that such attacks were often deliberate and coordinated, aimed at silencing women in public life while damaging their professional credibility and personal reputations.
The consequences were significant. Nearly 24% of respondents said they had experienced anxiety or depression linked to online violence, while 13% reported being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. About 41% said they self-censored on social media to avoid abuse, and 19% said they self-censored at work.
The report also found that many women struggled to obtain accountability. While 25% of respondents reported incidents of online violence to police and 15% pursued legal action, researchers said justice remained difficult to secure.
“The chilling effect of online violence is pushing women out of public life. Law enforcement is outsourcing the responsibility for protection to the survivors by telling women to remove themselves from social media, to avoid speaking publicly about controversial issues, to move into less visible roles at work, or to take leave from their respective careers,” said co-author Lea Hellmueller, Associate Professor of Journalism and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation at City St George’s. (Source: IANS)
