SDG 5: Gender Equality | SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Institutions: Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) | Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
The UN agency for women’s rights, UN Women, is sounding the alarm over a rapid and dangerous escalation of digital violence against women and girls, fueled primarily by artificial intelligence (AI), anonymity, and weak accountability frameworks. This warning coincides with the start of the “16 Days of Activism” campaign. Globally, 1.8 billion women and girls still lack legal protection from online harassment and technology-facilitated abuse. Alarmingly, less than 40% of countries have specific laws addressing cyber harassment or cyberstalking.
The rise of AI has dramatically amplified this abuse, making attacks faster, more targeted, and harder to detect. For instance, up to 95% of online deepfakes involve non-consensual pornographic images, with 99% of those targets being women. High-profile women, journalists, and activists face relentless gendered disinformation and coordinated harassment campaigns designed to silence, shame, and push them out of public life. As UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous noted, “What begins online doesn’t stay online,” as digital abuse quickly spills into real life, escalating into physical violence and femicide in the worst cases.
UN Women is calling for urgent action, stressing that laws must evolve with technology to ensure justice protects women both online and offline. The organization urges tech companies to embed accountability into AI design, hire more women in development roles, and swiftly remove harmful content. Policymakers are asked to tailor effective, multi-pronged approaches—including investments in digital literacy and culture-change programs targeting toxic online communities like the “manosphere”—to ensure technology serves equality, not harm.
This UN alarm requires India to urgently review and enhance its cybersecurity and technology laws (like the Information Technology Act) to specifically address AI-driven non-consensual synthetic content and ensure faster accountability for online aggregators and platforms, safeguarding digital participation for Indian women and girls.
What are AI-powered Deepfakes in the context of digital violence?→ AI-powered deepfakes are synthetic media—typically hyper-realistic video or audio—generated using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning techniques to fabricate false images or actions. In the context of digital violence, they are predominantly weaponized to create non-consensual pornographic content of women, making abuse faster, highly targeted, and extremely damaging, often leading to real-world consequences like job loss, social ostracization, or emotional trauma.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: What specific legislative changes and mandatory AI governance standards must India adopt to effectively prosecute the surge of AI-driven deepfake violence and ensure tech platforms prioritize victim protection and rapid content removal?
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