Decoding Technology-facilitated Gender-based Violence: A Reality Check from Seven Countries

"Often, digital violence is trivialised - including by police and authorities - as something that happens online and without impacts in the physical world."

This report shares the findings of a study on technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) in seven countries: Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda. It looks at the nature of TFGBV and its impacts, revealing how local contexts, culture, and legislation affect how violence is perpetrated and experienced, as well as how people access accountability and justice, or avoid or are prevented from doing so. The study also examines the effectiveness of efforts to prevent and mitigate TFGBV and offers recommendations for how nations, organisations and communities can take action.

The study was conducted by the Generation G partnership, which works with youth leaders to tackle the root causes of gender inequality, promote gender justice, and prevent (technology-facilitated) GBV. Rutgers, a member of the partnership, commissioned the study to grow the knowledge base on TFGBV - both within countries where the Generation G partnership is active, and globally. It is hoped that governments and organisations around the world can draw on the findings to help shape research and interventions and work together to protect people and communities facing "unprecedented technological and social change".

Through 50 interviews with stakeholders and a literature review, the research had the following three overarching objectives:
 

1. Understand the nature of TFGBV: Define the different forms of TFGBV, their prevalence, contextual specificities, risk factors, and mental, physical, and social impacts on individuals, societies, and civil society movements within the focus countries.
2. Review the effectiveness of existing efforts to prevent and mitigate TFGBV, including accountability mechanisms for TFGBV at national and global levels.
3. Draw on this evidence to generate recommendations to enhance current efforts around addressing TFGBV.

Related to the first objective of the study, the research revealed the following on the nature of TFGBV across the seven countries:

• TFGBV is not widely or systematically recognised as a form of GBV across societal groups, including those most at risk from TFGBV, potential perpetrators, and those in a position to respond (e.g., lawmakers). The threat and potential severity of TFGBV are widely underestimated, despite evidence demonstrating the growing burden and harmful impact of experiencing TFGBV. Yet, recognising when violence occurs and the severity of TFGBV is an important first step toward much-needed efforts to address and prevent TFGBV.
• Online forms of TFGBV are intricately linked to offline consequences, underscored by the reality that online TFGBV often escalates into acts of offline violence. Although physical violence is a grave concern, other critical consequences exist, including physical and emotional distress and social and economic damages.
• TFGBV has a disproportionate impact on specific individuals based on various socio-economic and demographic factors, such as their job and digital presence. Across all seven countries, evidence suggests that five distinct groups are disproportionately at risk of experiencing TFGBV: activists, women in the public eye, members of the LGBTQI+ community, children, and young people. Alongside this heightened risk, there are diminished protection mechanisms for groups considered outliers to socio-cultural norms, such as sex workers.
• The influence of patriarchy, social ideas of morality, and socially imposed gender roles are the greatest magnifiers of TFGBV. Patriarchy and religion are strongly interwoven with prevailing social notions of morality and rigidly enforced gender roles. These factors are deeply ingrained in the cultural fabric of some of the focus countries and are often used to perpetuate TFGBV, particularly against women and LGBTQI+ persons. 
   

Findings related to the effectiveness of prevention and accountability mechanisms:
 

• Legislation addressing TFGBV exists across countries, but notable limitations lie in the narrow scope of these regulations and poor implementation. The disparity between the existence of protective laws and their practical enforcement diminishes their reliability in effectively combating TFGBV,
• Legislation aimed at protecting against TFGBV clashes with other articles in some focus countries. This scenario criminalises survivors rather than offering protection and deters people from reporting crimes via existing mechanisms.
• Reporting mechanisms for TFGBV have limited effectiveness, as reporting is often disadvantageous for survivors. Underreporting is found to be cyclical and is largely influenced by complex and burdensome reporting mechanisms and histories of limited consequences for perpetrators. Pervasive restrictions to reporting mean that legislation, or other potential accountability mechanisms for TFGBV, cannot be fully implemented.
• Various stakeholders are implementing initiatives to combat TFGBV. However, evidence suggests that most activities focus on awareness building and education around TFGBV. Effectively combatting TFGBV demands sustained collaboration among government officials, technology companies, society, and individuals to foster a safer and more equitable online environment across the spectrum of the issues raised in this report.

Based on the findings, the report highlights a number of recommendations for future TFGBV interventions. In brief, they fall under the following areas:  

 

• Research: Conduct further national and regional research into TFGBV. This activity could involve, for example, building research capacity on TFGBV, including support to local teams and innovative methodologies to measure TFGBV.
• Awareness: Elevate existing efforts to increase awareness of TFGBV, its forms, and its recognition as a critical form of GBV, segmenting messaging to focus on vulnerable sub-populations. An example cited under this recommendation involves engaging stakeholders (local and global) who are already working to address TFGBV when designing and implementing new programmes and activities.
• Legal reform: Establish programmes focused on reviewing and advocating for legislative reform, creating a strong legislative foundation for more survivor-centred law enforcement. For example, organisations and governments could implement knowledge-building activities around national-level legislation (TFGBV legislation and counter legislation).
• Reporting: Focus efforts on advocating for the improvement of TFGBV reporting and accountability mechanisms across all stakeholder levels. An example cited under this recommendation involves conducting advocacy activities calling for the refinement of law enforcement reporting mechanisms and social media/tech platform reporting mechanisms.
• Gender and patriarchy: Address the patriarchal norms that are magnifiers of TFGBV in programmes. One specific recommendation cited here is to engage men and boys in TFGBV awareness-raising activities.
• Adaptability: Design programmes and interventions to keep up with the evolving nature of technology while safeguarding mechanisms to target forms of TFGBV prominent in each context. 
   

Click here for the English version of the 19-page executive summary in PDF format.

Click here for the French version of the 19-page executive summary in PDF format.