Seven in ten women in public life report experiencing online violence; dramatic increase in offline harm experienced by women journalists

Online violence against women journalists, activists, and human rights defenders has reached a tipping point, often fuelling offline attacks, finds new research lead by Professor Julie Posetti, Chair of the Centre for Journalism and Democracy at City St George’s, University of London for UN Women.

The report Tipping Point: The chilling escalation of violence against women in the public sphere, shows that 70 per cent of surveyed women have experienced online violence in the course of their work, with three quarters of women journalists experiencing online violence while doing their jobs.  Furthermore, over 40 per cent of respondents in these groups reported offline harm linked to online abuse.

For women journalists the link between online abuse and offline harm is even more concerning. In a 2020 global survey led by Professor Posetti and published by UNESCO, 20 per cent of women journalists associated the offline attacks or abuse they experienced with online violence. In the new 2025 survey for UN Women conducted presented in the new report, that share has risen to 42 per cent of women journalists and media workers – more than double.

Professor Posetti is also Director of the TheNerve’s Information Integrity Initiative which is a UN Women partner conducting the research, and she said:

This data shows that in the age of AI-fuelled abuse and rising authoritarianism, online violence against women in the public sphere is increasing - and increasingly escalating to offline harm.

But, what’s truly disturbing is the evidence that women journalists’ experience of offline attacks, abuse and harassment associated with online violence has more than doubled since 2020, with 42 per cent of 2025 survey participants identifying this dangerous and potentially deadly trajectory.

Dr Lea Hellmueller, Associate Professor in Journalism at City St George’s and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Communication & Creativity, was a co-author on the report. She said:

The most striking and shocking result of this research is the vanishing point between online and offline violence. What begins online can quickly fuel real-world harm and physical violence.

Just like violence against women, violence against women in public life such as journalists, activists and human rights defenders occurs all over the globe.

The report also finds that more than nearly one in four surveyed women human rights defenders, activists and journalists have experienced AI-assisted online violence, such as deepfake imagery, manipulated content and AI-generated abuse, with writers or public communicators, who focus on human rights issues (e.g., social media content creators and influencers) facing the highest exposure at 30 per cent.

“Gender-based online violence is not a new phenomenon, but its scale certainly is. AI tools enable the production of cheaper and faster abusive content, which is detrimental to women in public life – and beyond,” Professor Hellmueller said.

Without strong countermeasures, this risks driving women out of digital spaces, undermining democracy and freedom of expression.

“Our next steps include publishing data from the survey about the opportunities for, and barriers to, law enforcement and legal redress for survivors of online violence. We will also focus on creative efforts to counter gender-based online violence and policy recommendations to help hold the Big Tech facilitators of this dangerous phenomenon accountable,” Professor Posetti said.

City St George’s Lecturer in Journalism Dr Pauline Renaud was also a co-author of the report.

The study was commissioned by EU-UN Women’s ACT to End Violence against Women programme in partnership with researchers from TheNerve, City St George’s, University of London and the International Center for Journalists, in collaboration with UNESCO.

It was released in Geneva at the UN as the world wraps up the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. This year’s campaign is dedicated to raising awareness about digital violence with calls for stronger laws and policies to recognize technology-facilitated violence against women as a human rights violation; robust regulation and accountability for tech companies; safety protocols and support systems for women human rights defenders, activists, journalists; and investment in research and data to monitor trends, understand intersectional impacts, and inform evidence-based policy and practice.

UN Women will close the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign with the launch of a new corporate strategy to prevent and respond to technology-facilitated violence against women focused on strengthening accountability, closing evidence and data gaps, accelerating prevention and survivor-centred responses as well as building greater resilience and amplifying the voices of women’s rights movements and women leaders.