In this age of authoritarians, online abuse of women is soaring – and it’s leading to ‘real-world’ violence | Julie Posetti

Our UN report reveals the link between the online misogyny and offline crimes that are hounding women out of public life

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etworked misogyny is now firmly established as a key tactic in the 21st-century authoritarian’s playbook. This is not a new trend – but it is now being supercharged by generative AI tools that make it easier, quicker and cheaper than ever to perpetrate online violence against women in public life – from journalists to human rights defenders, politicians and activists.

The objectives are clear: to help justify the rollback of gender equality and women’s reproductive rights; to chill women’s freedom of expression and their participation in democratic deliberation; to discredit truth-tellers; and to pave the way for the consolidation of authoritarian power.

These are not the rantings of a “crazy cat lady” or a “fat, ugly whore”, although I’ve been called both. This analysis is rooted in hard – and frankly terrifying – data from new research I led, which has just been published by UN Women.