Understanding and Preventing TFGBV

Understanding TFGBV

Module 1: Understanding TFGBV Module Overview Technology has transformed how people communicate, build relationships, organise, learn, work, and participate in public life. At the same time, digital technologies can be used to perpetrate, facilitate, amplify, or intensify gender-based violence. This module introduces Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV), its relationship with other forms of gender-based violence, its common forms and characteristics, and the ways in which online harms can affect people’s safety, dignity, rights, and participation both online and offline. The module pays particular attention to the experiences of women and girls in all their diversity, gender- and sexually diverse people, SOGIESC communities, Indigenous women and girls, young people, activists, human rights defenders, and other people who may face heightened or intersecting risks. Learning Objectives By the end of this module, learners will be able to: * Define Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) and explain its key characteristics. * Understand the relationship between gender-based violence and technology-facilitated violence. * Identify common forms and manifestations of TFGBV. * Explain the online–offline continuum of gender-based violence. * Recognise how gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, disability, social status and other intersecting factors can influence exposure to TFGBV. * Understand the individual, social and human-rights impacts of TFGBV. ⸻ Lesson 1.1 — What is TFGBV? Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence, commonly abbreviated as TFGBV, refers broadly to gender-based violence that is committed, assisted, aggravated, or amplified through the use of digital technologies or other technological tools. These technologies can include: * social media platforms; * messaging applications; * mobile phones; * email; * websites and online forums; * dating applications; * cameras and recording devices; * location-tracking technologies; * cloud-storage services; and * emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. Technology itself is not the root cause of gender-based violence. Rather, technology can provide perpetrators with new tools, spaces, reach, speed, persistence, and anonymity through which existing gender inequalities, discrimination, control, harassment, and violence can be reproduced or intensified. For example, harassment that once occurred only face-to-face can continue through messaging applications and social media. A perpetrator may use multiple accounts to repeatedly contact someone, publish private information, monitor their location, impersonate them, or distribute intimate material without consent. TFGBV should therefore be understood as a form and extension of gender-based violence, rather than simply as a cybersecurity or technology problem. Key idea TFGBV is about both technology and power. Understanding the technology is important, but understanding gender inequality, discrimination, consent, control, and abuse of power is equally important. ⸻ Lesson 1.2 — Common Forms of TFGBV TFGBV can take many forms, and several forms may occur simultaneously. Online harassment Repeated or severe abusive, threatening, degrading, sexualised, or intimidating communication directed at a person through digital platforms. Cyberstalking and technology-enabled surveillance Using digital technologies to repeatedly monitor, track, contact, intimidate, or observe another person without their consent. This can involve social media monitoring, location tracking, spyware, repeated messaging, or monitoring someone’s online activities. Doxxing Publishing or distributing someone’s private or identifying information without their consent, particularly when this exposes the person to harassment, intimidation, discrimination, or physical danger. Non-consensual sharing of intimate images Sharing, publishing, threatening to share, or otherwise distributing intimate images or videos without the person’s consent. Sextortion and technology-facilitated blackmail Using intimate images, sexual information, private conversations, or other sensitive material to threaten or coerce someone into providing money, sexual content, continued contact, or other actions. Impersonation and fake accounts Creating accounts or digital content pretending to be another person in order to damage their reputation, harass them, deceive others, or expose them to further harm. Online hate and gender-based hate speech Digital attacks targeting people because of their gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, sex characteristics, or other identities. Coordinated online attacks Multiple individuals or accounts may collectively target a person or organisation through abusive comments, threats, false allegations, mass reporting, or other forms of digital harassment. Technology-enabled control An intimate partner, family member, or other perpetrator may use passwords, devices, location services, financial applications, or social media to monitor or control another person’s movements, relationships, communication, or access to resources. ⸻ Lesson 1.3 — The Online–Offline Continuum One of the most important concepts for understanding TFGBV is the online–offline continuum of violence. Online and offline violence should not always be treated as separate experiences. An incident may begin online and create offline consequences. Likewise, violence or coercive control occurring offline may continue through digital technologies. For example, an activist may first receive gender-based threats on social media. Their personal information may then be published online. This could result in harassment of their family, threats at their workplace, restrictions on their movement, or fear of participating in public activities. Similarly, an abusive partner may combine physical intimidation with password monitoring, location tracking, repeated messaging, or threats to publish private photographs. Therefore: Online harm can create offline harm, and offline violence can be extended through technology. The impact of TFGBV can consequently extend beyond a phone or computer and affect a person’s: * physical safety; * mental and emotional well-being; * relationships and family life; * education; * employment and livelihood; * freedom of expression; * participation in public life; and * access to digital spaces and services. ⸻ Lesson 1.4 — Who May Face Heightened Risks? TFGBV can affect anyone. However, exposure, forms of violence, and consequences are not experienced equally. Women and girls may face sexualised harassment, image-based abuse, stalking, threats, and misogynistic attacks. Gender- and sexually diverse people and SOGIESC communities may additionally experience outing, identity-based hate, blackmail, impersonation, targeted harassment, and threats based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and sex characteristics. Indigenous women and girls may experience intersecting forms of gender-based and identity-based discrimination, including attacks connected to ethnicity, gender, language, location, or community identity. Young people may face particular risks because digital technologies are deeply integrated into their education, relationships, social lives, and civic participation. Women human rights defenders, journalists, activists and other civic actors may also be targeted specifically to intimidate them, damage their credibility, silence their advocacy, or force them to withdraw from public spaces. This is why an intersectional approach is important when analysing TFGBV. ⸻ Lesson 1.5 — Understanding Intersectionality People have multiple identities and social positions at the same time. Gender can intersect with: sexual orientation • gender identity and expression • sex characteristics • age • ethnicity • Indigenous identity • disability • economic status • geographic location • occupation • migration status • and other characteristics. These intersections can influence both the likelihood and consequences of TFGBV. For example, the online abuse experienced by an Indigenous woman activist may contain both misogynistic and ethnic discrimination. A gender-diverse young person in a rural area may face threats of involuntary disclosure of their identity alongside family or community violence. An intersectional approach therefore asks not only: “What happened?” but also: “Who is being targeted, why are they being targeted, what inequalities affect their situation, and what consequences might they face?” ⸻ Lesson 1.6 — Why TFGBV Matters TFGBV is not “just an online problem.” Its consequences can affect fundamental rights, including: * dignity and personal security; * privacy; * freedom of expression; * access to information; * equality and non-discrimination; * participation in public and civic life; and * the ability to use digital technologies safely. Fear of harassment or exposure can also create a silencing effect. People may delete accounts, stop expressing opinions, withdraw from activism, avoid digital services, leave online communities, or reduce their participation in public life. Preventing TFGBV therefore requires more than teaching individuals how to protect their passwords. It also requires addressing harmful gender norms, discriminatory narratives, unsafe digital environments, institutional responses, laws and policies, platform practices, and broader inequalities. This understanding will form the foundation for the next modules of Understanding and Preventing TFGBV. Key Takeaways TFGBV is gender-based violence facilitated, aggravated or amplified through technology. It can take multiple forms and frequently crosses the boundary between online and offline spaces. TFGBV does not affect everyone in the same way. Effective prevention therefore requires an intersectional, rights-based and survivor-centred understanding of technology, gender inequality, discrimination and power