Monitoring & analysis
How platform and policy shifts are reshaping online violence, region by region
Our research team tracks how changes in platform moderation, digital-rights policy, data privacy enforcement, and AI regulation are affecting online and technology-facilitated gender-based violence across five regions. Below is a short overview — the full sourced report is available to download.
Full regional report
The complete, fully-sourced briefing — organised by region and by theme (online gender-based violence, digital rights, data privacy, AI & algorithms, moderation).
Americas
Since Twitter/X's acquisition, the dissolution of its Trust & Safety Council and cuts to teams working on human rights and gender issues have reduced the platform's capacity to monitor gendered online abuse — a trend documented by Columbia University researchers. In parallel, high-profile political figures have publicly opposed digital-rights and AI regulation, while Meta has faced repeated litigation over data-privacy practices tracing back to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Europe
Loosened moderation policies at major platforms have coincided with a rise in sexist and discriminatory content documented by European outlets, even as EU law continues to require rapid takedown of illegal content. European regulators face public pushback from US tech and political figures framing content moderation as censorship — creating pressure to soften enforcement of the DSA, DMA and GDPR even as the Commission maintains its legislative stance.
Africa
Reduced content-moderation capacity from major platforms has had outsized effects in regions with fewer local-language moderators and reporting channels, compounding existing gaps in legal protection and platform accountability for gender-based online abuse.
Asia-Pacific
South Asia is among the regions most exposed to gendered online abuse worldwide, with heavy reliance on algorithm-driven platforms increasing exposure to harmful content. India's data-protection law marks a step forward, even as anti-regulation rhetoric from the US and drastic cuts to moderation teams continue to shape the wider regional environment.
Middle East
Local digital-rights and press-freedom organisations continue to document the compounding effects of conflict, weak platform accountability, and limited moderation resources on technology-facilitated gender-based violence in the region.
This overview is a short summary. For full sourcing, direct quotes, and case-by-case references, please download the complete PDF report above.