UNITED NATIONS, New York – As technology reshapes our world, a staggering 85 per cent of women have witnessed online violence against other women, and 38 per cent have been personally affected.
Yet despite its proliferation, technology-facilitated gender-based violence is still too often dismissed or inadequately addressed, by both policymakers and technology companies.
At the 59th Commission on Population and Development, held at the United Nations Headquarters this month, global leaders agreed there can be no digital inclusion without digital safety. As they convened to discuss how technology and research are influencing sustainable development, participants also examined the urgent need for digital spaces that are designed and governed with safety and human rights at their core.
A central concern is the rise of technology-facilitated gender-based violence – including cyberstalking, doxxing, digital surveillance and non-consensual sharing of intimate images – which disproportionately affects women, girls and other marginalized groups.
To address this growing crisis, on 4 and 5 March 2026, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, which is the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, hosted the fourth Global Symposium on Technology-facilitated Gender-based Violence.
Held online in partnership with Global Affairs Canada and the Association for Progressive Communications, the event brought together governments, civil society organizations, frontline service providers, researchers, digital rights advocates, technology companies and UN partners to connect, visit virtual exhibition booths, learn from expert speakers, and forge partnerships across regions and sectors.
The symposium drew more than 2,600 participants from 158 countries – a powerful indication of the momentum UNFPA is building to address this pervasive yet often overlooked form of violence.
The growing threat of digital violence
“We are currently standing in a virtual world which we recognize is ravaged by extreme misogyny, by racism […] which is not only prevalent, but has been turbocharged with a form of algorithmically-facilitated mass radicalization,” said keynote speaker Laura Bates, author and founder of The Everyday Sexism Project. “And those are the foundations on which the new technologies we are seeing emerging and being adopted very rapidly are being built – with profit prioritized over safety.”
Her speech set the tone for two days of in-depth presentations and discussions that examined topics including digital surveillance and data rights, survivor experiences in the justice system, safety-by-design in practice and the way technology-facilitated gender-based violence manifests in humanitarian contexts.
Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is often highly sexualized and manifests in forms such as online harassment, gendered hate speech, doxxing and the non-consensual creation and use of images and video, including deepfakes.
“Eliminating sexual and gender-based violence in all its forms, including [technology-facilitated gender-based violence], is of high importance for Canada, both domestically and internationally,” said Jevone Nicholas, Director of the Gender Equality Division at Global Affairs Canada.
“In a fragmented global landscape marked by growing backlash against human rights and gender equality, the need for reinforcing gender equality grows in importance as a strategic lever for global stability, economic resilience and security.”
Building safer digital spaces
A key theme across the symposium was the need for safety to be embedded in technology design – that is to say from the very beginning of product development, rather than as an afterthought once deployed. From how data is collected and stored to what features are prioritized, digital platforms and tools must be built with accountability, inclusion and human rights at their core.
Many panelists spoke about the importance of centring the needs of those most at risk of abuse.
“If you design technology for your most vulnerable user, for instance, a survivor of [technology-facilitated gender-based violence], whose phone may be monitored by an abusive partner, or whose language isn't recognized by mainstream safety tools, you end up building something safer for everyone – not just for the survivor, but for all users,” said Dina Hanania, a humanitarian adviser at CARE International.
In a youth-led session titled ‘From AI-Generated Harm to Misogynoir in Gaming’, speakers made clear that when systems are not designed with women’s safety in mind, the result is systematic exclusion and exposure to harm.
Jennifer Lufau, founder of Afrogameuses, described how racism and misogyny create structural barriers for Black women at every stage of the gaming experience – discrimination that most platforms have failed to address. “Gaming should be a way for you to socialize, to share a passion with people, to improve your communication skills, your leadership skills, your strategy skills. You are losing all of that because of online harassment.”
Youth advocate Nora has witnessed friends targeted by non-consensual AI-generated imagery, and called on tech companies and policymakers to include youth in building solutions to this abuse. “Young people are already living with the consequences of AI, so please include us. We have our stories, we have our experiences, and we want to help shape solutions.”
The annual event forms part of UNFPA’s global efforts to advance multi-sectoral, collective action to prevent and respond to all forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence across the humanitarian-peace-development nexus, in a bid to make all spaces safe for all.
