In Focus: 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence 2025

Technology-facilitated violence against women and girls (VAW/G) is accelerating — and the harm is real. As daily life becomes increasingly digital, online spaces are used to replicate and amplify gendered inequalities, coercion and control.  

Studies suggest 16–58% of women experience online violence, from harassment and stalking to deepfakes (90–95% targeting women), doxxing, sextortion, non-consensual sharing of intimate images and coordinated attacks. Globally, 38% of women have personally experienced online violence, and 85% of women who spend time online have witnessed it happening to others. 

Young women and girls face the highest exposure, with certain groups facing stacked risks — including LGBTQI+ women, women with disabilities, Indigenous and rural women, migrants and those with limited digital literacy. Public-facing women are targeted with particular intensity: journalists, human rights defenders, students and women in politics routinely face coordinated attacks aimed at silencing them. 

A global pulse: demand for support is surging 

The UN Trust Fund’s Calls for Proposals offers a clear pulse on global needs. In 2025, civil society and women's rights organizations collectively requested one quarter of a billion dollars to address technology-facilitated violence against women and girls — an 81% increase since 2023. 

Although 10% of applications centered on this issue, 88% of our grantee partners reported in a survey earlier this year encountering digital violence in their work — underscoring how widespread it has become. 

Technology-facilitated violence: What not to overlook 

UN Trust Fund grantee partners on the frontlines of digital abuse and technology-facilitated violence highlight three key insights that deepen our understanding of the issue and guide effective action. 

It does not happen in a vacuum — and its consequences are real. 
Technology-facilitated violence crosses the online-offline continuum, affecting women and girls’ safety, mental health, freedom of movement and ability to take part in school, work or public life. Effective action demands integrated responses connecting digital safety to psychological, legal and community support. 

It does not affect everyone equally — and deepens existing inequalities. 
Young women, LGBTIQ+ communities, women with disabilities, Indigenous and rural women, migrants, and those with limited digital literacy face higher exposure and fewer protections. Public-facing women — politicians, journalists, human rights defenders, students — also endure coordinated attacks aimed to silence them. Digital-safety measures, survivor services, and collective-protection efforts must be intentionally tailored to the specific risks faced by these groups. 

It stems from systemic failures — not individual choices. 
Technology-facilitated violence is enabled by platform design flaws, ineffective reporting systems and fast-evolving perpetrator tactics — not by anything survivors do or fail to do. Survivors need rapid protection and timely takedowns, not slow or retraumatizing legal pathways. 

Women’s organizations are essential – and under threat 

Civil society and women’s rights organizations are driving the frontline response to digital violence. They are: 

• adapting survivor-centred services to digital harms and supporting rapid takedowns and strengthening digital evidence collection; 
• protecting human rights defenders, journalists and women in public life , while reaching the most exposed groups; 
• mobilizing communities and building collective resistance to counter online attacks and harmful narratives;
• generating critical evidence for awareness-raising, accountability and policy and legal advocacy;
• innovating faster than systems or platforms, creating proactive digital-safety approaches and forging new alliances across feminist, digital-rights and media ecosystems.

But as they respond, many are being targeted themselves. Online harassment, doxxing, smear campaigns and surveillance weaken their safety and wellbeing, shrink civic space and jeopardize the lifelines they provide to survivors.  

UN Trust Fund’s Commitment 

Under its Strategic Plan 2026–2030, the UN Trust Fund will invest in core, flexible and long-term funding along with wraparound support that strengthens the resilience of women’s organizations — so they can keep innovating and responding swiftly and safely to emerging forms of digital violence. 

There is #NoExcuse for Online Abuse.