Q&A: How the digital divide and cyber violence impact women

While 58% of women in low- and middle-income countries now use mobile internet, there are still 234 million fewer women than men accessing it, according to the latest GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report 2021. For the women and girls who can count on an internet connection it’s both a blessing and a curse. It provides them with new platforms to express their opinions and engage in political discussions, it helps them access important information about sexual and reproductive health, and can be an important resource for education and training.

Yet, it’s also another place where women are exposed to abuse and violence — worldwide, they are 27 times more likely to be harassed online than men. Women in countries with long-standing or institutionalized gender inequality tend to experience online violence at higher rates.

At the Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona, Devex spoke to Anita Bhatia, assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and deputy executive director of UN Women, about the need to get more women and girls connected, cyber violence against women, and how fake news and misinformation impacts the life of women around the globe.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

You’re here at MWC to speak about what it will take to get everyone connected. What must be done to ensure more women and girls can reap the benefits of digital technologies and close the gender digital divide?

I think a lot of policy needs to be driven by recognition of just how big the gender gap is. People know it, but I don't think they know exactly how large it is — some of the data I shared this morning was that there are 234 million less women with digital access than men. So among the things that need to happen is that governments — and the private sector — need to start thinking of universal access to the internet in the same way that we think about primary education. We never think that kids shouldn't be educated, right? We expect every single child to go through primary education. We should [also] expect every single woman and girl to have access to the internet.

During the pandemic we’ve seen just how important digital technologies are for accessing health services, education, and much more. In what ways can digital platforms help improve the health and well-being of girls and women?

The pandemic has really shown us that the world is divided into the digital haves and the digital have nots — and women and girls are a large part of the have nots group. When you layer that with poverty, poor women and poor girls are a very big part of that group who don't have access to the internet. That means they don't have access to educational opportunities, to telehealth, to telemedicine, to financial services.

The pandemic moved so many industries and services online, meaning in some ways it made the digital gap worse, because at least prior to the pandemic much of this was physically available. If you give women the opportunity to have digital access, you are then opening up opportunities, in education, in health, in financial inclusion.

Online abuse is often seen as a less severe form of abuse, yet it can lead to real-life consequences such as suicide. Why is changing this perception critical?

There are a lot of problems in the world that simply aren't acknowledged to the degree that they should be, and then it takes a major global crisis — like the pandemic — to make people sit up and take notice of something. Violence against women is a good example. All of us who work on women's rights knew that this was a huge problem even before the pandemic, but it took the pandemic for everyone to wake up and say: “Oh my God, this is a real problem.”

Cyberviolence is the same thing, it is actually a much larger problem than we want to acknowledge. But it's an area where it's really hard to collect data because people don't typically report this. The signs are not physical, the impact is mental more than physical. And so because of underreporting, and because of lack of knowledge, it isn't sufficiently understood or dealt with.

What's the role of big tech platforms like Facebook, TikTok, or Twitter when it comes to ensuring and providing a safe online space for women online?

Oh, don't even get me started on the role of big tech on this. I think they have a huge role to play and I think it is very important for them, as they venture into the world of virtual reality and as Facebook seeks to reinvent itself as Meta, that it sets up some very clear rules of engagement on digital platforms and abides by them — and really makes an effort to ensure that there isn't cyberviolence.

[Every woman] that I have talked to who has tried the virtual reality space speaks about having been trolled online, or having been attacked virtually. There's a really big issue out there, but it's not something we're talking enough about yet.

How is fake news and misinformation affecting women and girls, especially when it comes to their sexual and reproductive health and rights?

A lot of fake information and disinformation is peddled by leaders in countries that happened to have a positive correlation with autocracy. The world today is seeing a major pushback against democracy. There is the rise of democratically elected dictators who have very strong authoritarian tendencies and will not hesitate to use fake news and social media to put out disinformation that serves their political needs.

Typically, this kind of toxic male leadership is associated with a real backlash against women's rights. So fake news and disinformation actually contributes to reducing women's rights, women's autonomy. And when it comes to sexual and reproductive rights, it can fuel popular rage and populist views on things such as a woman's right to have control over her own body. There is so much wrong information out there about abortion.

Just yesterday, I was reading that 70% of women in a certain income group who didn't have access to an abortion ended up falling into poverty because they were forced to bear a child when they were not prepared to. This had economic consequences for their ability to enter the workforce. And this is not something that has a consequence for six months or a year — this has lifetime consequences on the woman's choice to do what she wants with her life and her body. Unfortunately, social media isn't spending enough time and there isn't enough focus on this.

Some social media platforms implemented a feature during the pandemic to help tackle misinformation and ensure users had access to accurate information around COVID-19 from trusted sources. Why is that not happening with other issues like SRHR?

I think it's because this hasn't risen to the issue of being considered a global health crisis in the same way. I often say about violence against women that it is time for the world to say, this is not a public-private matter. It is not just a matter of governments having some good laws on the books, it's time to say violence against women is a public health crisis. And so if we can get that level of awareness and political will behind declaring it a public health crisis, then I think the needle will begin to shift. The same thing applies to what's happening with the pushback on women's rights, which needs to be declared [as] a crisis of democracy — which is what it is.

Visit the Generation Why series for more coverage on how we can ensure the digital space advances the rights of all young people and leaves no one behind. You can join the conversation using the hashtags #DevexSeries on #DigitalRights.