Key points:
- UN Women report says 70% of women in public roles now face online abuse
- Over 40% report real-world attacks linked to digital harassment
- AI tools are making threats faster, louder and harder to trace
- Authors call this moment “a tipping point” for women’s safety and free speech
ISLAMABAD: Online abuse is no longer staying online — and that simple idea, stated plainly in a new UN Women report, has stunned even veteran researchers.
The study, titled Tipping Point: The Chilling Escalation of Violence Against Women in the Public Sphere in the Age of AI, opens with a sentence that stops readers in their tracks: “What begins on a screen is now crossing into streets, newsrooms, homes and daily lives.”
The report draws on testimony from nearly 7,000 women — journalists, activists and human-rights defenders — across 119 countries. In their own words, these women describe a world where harassment does not end when they log off. Instead, it grows wings.
Authors at UN Women funded by the European Union write in the report that “seven in ten women in public-facing roles have suffered technology-facilitated violence.” Even more alarming, “four in ten have experienced physical or sexual violence, stalking, or other harm linked to online abuse.”
Researchers say this jump from online to offline attacks is happening at a speed they did not see even five years ago. The report notes, “The connection between digital abuse and real-world violence has more than doubled, marking a dangerous new phase.”
Part of the shift comes from tools that did not exist a few years back. Generative AI, deepfake engines and automated harassment networks have made it easier for abusers to produce fake images, threaten women at scale, and hide behind anonymity. The report warns that AI “is now a weapon in the hands of those seeking to silence women.”
The tone throughout the document is calm, yet each line raises a new question. Why are women who speak out paying such a steep price? Who benefits from silencing them? What will public life look like if they withdraw?
The report says the world is now at “a tipping point,” where fear is reshaping behaviour. Many women interviewed said they avoid certain topics, limit their visibility or change how they report the news. Some have already left public work altogether.
And then comes the line that may haunt policymakers: “This violence is not random. It seeks to drive women out of public life.”
UN Women calls for urgent action — stronger laws, fast removal of abusive content, better protection from platforms, and real support for women who are targeted. But above all, the authors stress that the global community must see online abuse for what it has become: not a nuisance, not a debate, but a growing form of violence that follows women far beyond their screens.
