Deepfakes, online violence driving women from public life: Study

NEW DELHI: A team of global researchers on Thursday said that deepfakes, AI-assisted rape and unwanted advances are pushing women out of public life.

The report by UN Women, City St George's (University of London) and data forensic company TheNerve found that online violence against women in public life is becoming increasingly technologically sophisticated.

"AI-assisted 'virtual rape' is now at the fingertips of perpetrators. This phenomenon accelerates the harm from online violence inflicted on women in public life. This violence serves to fuel the reversal of women's hard-won rights in a climate of rising authoritarianism, democratic backsliding and networked misogyny," said Julie Posetti, Professor of Journalism and Chair of the Centre for Journalism and Democracy at City St George's.

"The rollback of women's rights is enabled and exacerbated by technologies which - by design -amplify misogynistic hate speech for profit," added Posetti, project's principal researcher and the report's lead author. The report analysed the experiences of 641 women journalists and media workers, activists, and human rights' defenders from 119 countries.

The women were surveyed in late 2025, and the researchers concluded that 27 per cent of women respondents were targeted with unsolicited sexual advances via direct message, receiving unwanted intimate images, "cyberflashing", sexual innuendos or nonconsensual sexting.

About 12 per cent of respondents had their personal images, including those of an intimate nature, shared without their consent, and 6 per cent of respondents have been subjected to deepfakes or manipulated images and videos.

These attacks were often deliberate and coordinated, aiming to silence women in public life while undermining their professional credibility and personal reputations, found the study. (IANS)

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