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Concrete interventions needed to prevent the online abuse that silences women journalists

Concrete interventions needed to prevent the online abuse that silences women journalists
GENEVA - JUNE 08: The United Nations emblem iss seen in front of the United Nations Office (UNOG) on June 8, 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland. Housed at the Palais des Nations, the United Nations Office at Geneva serves as the representative office of the Secretary-General at Geneva. A focal point for multilateral diplomacy, UNOG services more than 8,000 meetings every year, making it one of the busiest conference centres in the world. With more than 1,600 staff, it is the biggest duty stations outside of United Nations headquarters in New York. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)
Nabeelah Shabbir
By Nabeelah Shabbir
7 Nov 2024
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A 2022 report by the International Center for Journalists revealed that 73% of women journalists have experienced online violence. This abuse, often misogynistic and coordinated, silences voices, discourages reporting, and can even endanger lives. The researchers behind the report call for stronger protections for women journalists and accountability for social media platforms.

The Beijing +30 Regional Review Meeting, held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 21 and 22 October 2024, offered a crucial platform to assess progress toward gender equality and women’s empowerment in the UN Economic Commission for Europe (Unece) region. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPa4gJepD5Y

Co-convened by Unece and UN Women, the meeting, titled “Reviewing 30 years of Beijing Commitments to Accelerate Gender Equality in the ECE Region”, examined the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in light of the 2030 Agenda.

During a session focused on women’s leadership and equal participation in decision-making, Nabeelah Shabbir, Deputy Director of Research at the International Centre for Journalists, presented her team’s findings in a discussion on how media can dismantle gender stereotypes and promote gender equality over the next five years. Her speech is included below.

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16 October marked seven years since the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta. The online abuse she experienced began before she started writing about corruption in 2008 on her blog, and continued after her killing. 

By 2017, nearly a decade later, and the year in which she was assassinated, the online abuse had reached a fever pitch and had begun to spill offline. Daphne was stalked, repeatedly doxxed, hacked, Photoshopped and memed with misogynistic fervour. The public inquiry into her death concluded in 2021 that the state had created an “atmosphere of impunity” and “failed to take reasonable steps to protect her”. 

We urge the government to speed up reforms to create a safer environment for the media community there.

The United Nations emblem in front of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo: Johannes Simon / Getty Images)



Daphne’s case offers us researchers an opportunity to study the trajectory of online abuse to offline violence in a case which involves the target suffering the most extreme consequence: murder with a degree of impunity. Since 2019, I have worked on global research projects on gender-based online violence targeting women journalists for the International Center for Journalists, commissioned by Unesco, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Our team of researchers, led by Professor Julie Posetti, has investigated the incidence, manifestations and impacts of online violence against women journalists in 15 countries; in our original report, we surveyed more than 700 women journalists and conducted in-depth interviews with more than 180 media workers and experts. 

Also — with computer scientists from the University of Sheffield — we’ve since studied approximately 18 million social media posts targeting women journalists whose cases are emblematic globally (Maria Ressa, Carole Cadwalladr, Rana Ayyub, Ghada Oueiss, Carmen Aristegui, and the women journalists of Daily Maverick to date). We have also created 15 “indicators” to monitor online violence against women journalists in collaboration with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (also published in Ukrainian), and we are expanding on that research with an online violence dashboard (in collaboration with key newsrooms around the world, also Daily Maverick) of sorts, and to politicians, too.

Key findings from our survey conducted in 2020:

  • 73% of respondents experienced online violence in the course of their work.

  • 41% experienced online violence associated with coordinated disinformation campaigns.

  • 37% identified political actors as top perpetrators of online violence.


We called that 2020 study “The Chilling”. Why?

  • 38% of women journalists had made themselves less visible.

  • 4% said they had quit their jobs.

  • 2% abandoned journalism altogether.

  • 20% had experienced offline attacks connected to episodes of online violence.


Online violence does not stay online


We know from our research that nearly half of the women journalists surveyed identified gender as the story theme most associated with online attacks, followed by politics and elections, and human rights and social policy. 

Northern Irish investigative journalist Patricia Devlin told us: “I do believe that the online violence against me has created real life threats that are inciting criminals and very dangerous loyalist paramilitaries to issue threats against me. And that’s put my life in grave danger.” As a result of her abuse, she also left her newspaper job. 

If we talk about dismantling gender stereotypes, this abuse is almost always misogynistic. Misogyny is weaponised, and it is at its worst when it intersects with other forms of discrimination, such as racism, religious bigotry and homophobia. 

A US journalist reporting on far-right extremists and disinformation networks told us: “The consequences of reporting on the far right are real, and they take a toll… White nationalists think that I don't deserve to live in this country… Being Chinese, being Jewish, being a woman just becomes part of the content of the harassment… they Photoshop me with horns and a Jewish star, and discuss my racial make-up with quite intense and disgusting fervour.” 

If Generative AI technologies will create more disinformation at scale with image-based abuse, what would it look like if created more believably, and with more algorithmic drivers by the social media platforms – and will the tools detecting that disinformation work as fast and at scale? 

Again, orchestrated disinformation campaigns operationalise gendered online violence to expose their targets to increased risk through viral smears. Arab-identifying women respondents were also significantly more likely to experience offline attacks associated with online violence than other ethnic groups. 

Al Jazeera’s Ghada Oueiss said about comments targeting her on YouTube, and Google Search results: “You can never know who I am for my journalism. You only see attacks, attacks, attacks… you would think that either I’m a terrorist, or I’m a whore.”

I want to add too that targeted online attacks on women journalists are also increasingly networked, sophisticated, and at times state-linked, as UN special rapporteurs acknowledged in the case of Iranian authorities harassing BBC Persian journalists based in the UK. 

The role and responsibilities of Big Tech 


Social media platforms are the major vectors for online violence against women journalists. There is a lack of accountability there. As Nobel laureate Maria Ressa said: “The only way it will stop is when the platforms are held to account, because they allow it... They have enabled these attacks.” 

For women journalists to be able to work safely online, Big Tech’s business models and algorithms that have been found to drive hate, and prioritise profit over human rights, must be overhauled.

This all points to the need for responses to online violence to be strengthened in technological sophistication and collaborative coordination. It also indicates a real need for concrete UN interventions, including, among others:

  • Recognise misogynistic online abuse as a form of hate speech.

  • A more inclusive approach should be adopted to recognise and call out the intersectional nature of online violence that exacerbates abuse against the women journalists targeted.

  • Ensure that mechanisms and protocols to defend the safety of journalists and end impunity explicitly address violence against women journalists (online and offline).

  • Consider a UN-level conduit to channel complaints against state actors engaged in targeted online violence campaigns and social media companies that facilitate attacks on women journalists with impunity. DM

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