75% women journalists are victims of online violence, one in four receives physical or death threats: UNESCO
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Study finding that 14% of women journalists have experienced real-world violence linked to online threats. |
New Delhi: A recent UNESCO report states that nearly 75% of women journalists have faced online violence, and one in four has received physical or death threats. According to the report, Artificial intelligence (AI) is now being used to dangerously amplify these threats, from deepfakes to doxing.
Online violence, including gendered disinformation, surveillance, and targeted harassment, is being used to silence and discredit women journalists. The report warns that digital attacks are increasingly spilling over into the physical world, with a recent study finding that 14% of women journalists have experienced real-world violence linked to online threats.
In Ukraine, a survey found that 81% of women journalists had experienced online violence, while in Zimbabwe the figure was 63%. These threats often extend to family members and escalate into offline harassment.
The UN cultural agency has launched a new campaign to address this growing abuse. UNESCO’s campaign, ‘CTRL + ALT + MUTE’, aims to combat the rise in AI-enabled harassment through policy action and advocacy.
UNESCO stated, “As generative AI becomes more powerful, so too do the digital tools used to silence women journalists, and all women.”
When an AI-generated deepfake of a woman journalist goes viral, it’s not just her image that’s attacked – it’s her credibility, safety, and voice. As generative AI becomes more powerful, so too do the digital tools used to silence women journalists, and therefore all women.
American Journalist Reveals Israeli Guards of "Extreme Brutality" and Threats of Rape to Her #Gaza #Journalism #reporting #Media https://t.co/0Y0HilG3V2
— VOiCE OF MEDIA (@voiceofmedia1) October 14, 2025
That’s why UNESCO is partnering with high-profile media outlets on a campaign to highlight how women journalists are increasingly exposed to AI-powered threats. Online, women journalists face gender-based disinformation, surveillance, deepfakes, and harassment. This is a form of abuse known as technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), and it is designed to silence, humiliate, and discredit them. Now, with the rise of generative AI, this form of abuse has escalated alarmingly.
A 2022 UNESCO study, The Chilling, revealed that 73% of women journalists had experienced online threats, with one in four experiencing offline attacks as a result. More broadly, 58% of young women and girls worldwide have experienced online harassment on social media platforms, underscoring the scale of the problem beyond journalism.
The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI), observed annually on November 2, highlights the urgent need to protect journalists and hold perpetrators accountable. IDEI 2025, under the theme "Chat GBV: Raising Awareness of AI-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence Against Women Journalists," seeks to address these escalating threats and strengthen the implementation of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.
The 2025 IDEI campaign slogan emphasizes the dangerous ease with which AI technology can be misused to silence women journalists, distort their words, erase their presence, and spread hate. The organization stated that ensuring the safety of women in the media is essential to protecting everyone's freedom of expression.
