Unsafe by Design: A Tech-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence Analysis

Technology facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) is no longer just an emerging risk but an escalating reality targeting, silencing and harming women and girls in all their diversities. As digital spaces advance, TFGBV magnifies the existing gendered inequalities, and is reshaping the landscape of violence in ways that demand our urgent and coordinated, action. The harassment, sexual exploitation, and silencing that women and girls face offline is now being amplified through online coordinated digital attacks. These harms are widespread, affecting women and girls across contexts and identities, yet institutional responses continue to underestimate the complexity of the problem. Further more, we see individuals who identify as LBTQIA+, people with disabilities, minority groups, human  rights defenders, activists, journalists, and leaders face heightened risks in digital spaces.

This report, Unsafe by Design: An Analysis of the TFGBV Continuum, draws on the experiences and expertise of Womankind’s partners and feminist movements across our focus countries and beyond. Whilst it highlights how technology is being weaponised against women and girls; it focuses on the strong resistance and creative solutions already being led by women’s rights organisations and defenders. The report includes A Vision for Feminist Digital Futures, with strategies to prevent online harm, which centre the experience, voice, and agency of all women and girls, and advocate for the creation of digital spaces that are truly safe, inclusive, and accessible.