However, the nature of this violence is changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence is creating a before-and-after moment in technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). Women were targeted online long before generative AI became widely available through harassment, cyberstalking, doxing, impersonation, and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. AI has not created these forms of abuse, but it has made some of them faster, cheaper, more convincing, and easier to carry out at scale.

At the same time, the technology is being turned against the perpetrators. AI-powered tools are emerging as a new layer of protection, helping women detect abusive content, protect intimate images, access information about their rights, preserve evidence and connect with emergency services. These tools are becoming the invisible guardians of digital spaces, although they cannot replace the human institutions ultimately responsible for protecting survivors.

A 2021 report by the Centre for Human Rights (CHR) on gender-based violence in Southern Africa highlights the far-reaching consequences of online abuse. When women retreat from digital spaces to protect themselves from harassment, threats and abuse, the digital gender divide widens. This can restrict their ability to access health and financial services, apply for online jobs, participate in public discourse, and use digital platforms to access goods and services.

Women from marginalized communities, including LGBTIQ+ people, may face heightened risks because online abuse can reinforce existing inequalities and discriminatory social norms.

Use of AI to Defend, In Response to AI Attack

The same technology that can amplify abuse is increasingly being used to prevent it. Platforms such as Bumble's Private Detector use AI to identify and automatically blur potentially explicit images before they reach a user, giving women greater control over what appears in their private messages.

Similarly, StopNCII.org helps people prevent intimate images from being shared without their consent. The service creates a digital fingerprint, or hash, of an intimate image on a person's device and shares the hash with participating platforms so matching material can be detected and removed. The original image does not leave the user's device.

Web Rangers provides resources aimed at helping young people navigate online safety, while Bark uses technology to help parents identify potential risks to children in their online activity. These tools represent an important shift. Instead of relying entirely on victims to report abuse after it has happened, technology can increasingly identify and block harmful material before it reaches them or spreads further.

In South Africa, AI and digital tools are making information and support for victims of gender-based violence more accessible. Yima provides digital support and information, while the Kitso Learning Bot uses a conversational approach to provide young people with information and guidance.

The GRIT GBV platform takes this further with Zuzi, an AI chatbot designed like a supportive aunt. Zuzi is trained around South African legal systems and GBV resources and can provide information about women's rights, post-rape care and safety in accessible language. The platform also includes a secure evidence vault and an emergency panic button, combining an AI conversational companion with practical safety tools for people who may be in danger.

Other initiatives are turning digital technology into always-on support networks. Developed by the Soul City Institute, rAInbow is an AI companion accessible through digital chat. It provides confidential, judgment-free support, information about domestic abuse and women's rights, and helps connect users with physical support networks.

Multilingual WhatsApp-based tools such as SafeSigns and Chomi can help triage risks, educate users about consent, and connect people with shelters and Thuthuzela Care Centres.

The role of technology is not limited to online spaces. Kwanele is a mobile panic-button application that connects people in distress to emergency services and armed response, while Namola provides an emergency-response service that can connect users to assistance when they are in danger.

These tools show how the boundary between digital and physical safety is becoming increasingly blurred. A woman facing a threat online may need more than an explanation of her rights. She may need to preserve evidence, alert someone she trusts or reach emergency services, and digital tools can help connect those steps.

The Living Evidence Map and ChatEIDM system uses an AI engine to help policymakers and organizations track research, evidence and responses to gender-based violence. Such systems could help institutions identify gaps in services and better coordinate responses​.

What Can Civil Society Do?

For civil society organizations, the challenge is becoming more complicated. Lesego Sekhu, a research assistant at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), notes that OGBV or TFGBV can include online harassment, cyberstalking, doxing, impersonation, non-consensual sharing of intimate images and AI-generated sexual deepfakes.

The arrival of generative AI changes the equation because perpetrators no longer necessarily need sophisticated technical skills to manufacture convincing abusive material. For civil society organizations, this means digital safety must become an integral part of gender equality work. Helping women respond to online abuse is important, but prevention and systemic change are equally necessary.

CSOs can provide digital safety training, survivor support, and legal referrals while advocating for stronger platform accountability and policies that recognize online violence as part of the broader continuum of gender-based violence. There are already examples of civil society organizations moving in this direction.

Research ICT Africa, a South African research and policy organization, has developed an AI, Safety and Equality programme examining AI governance and OGBV/TFGBV. Its work reflects an important shift from treating digital abuse simply as an individual safety problem towards examining how AI systems, regulation and governance can contribute to or prevent harm.

Internationally, WITNESS has worked with activists and human rights defenders on the safe use of technology and documentation of abuse. Its work on deepfakes highlights the need for civil society to develop technical knowledge alongside traditional advocacy and survivor-support skills.

Another practical example is StopNCII.org, operated by the not-for-profit organisation SWGfL and the Revenge Porn Helpline. Its approach demonstrates how technology can be designed to protect survivors' privacy while helping participating platforms identify and remove intimate images shared without consent​​.

StopNCII.org protects survivors' privacy by generating a unique digital fingerprint (hash) of an intimate image directly on the user's device, ensuring the actual photo or video never leaves their possession or gets uploaded to a server.

These initiatives point to a broader role for CSOs. They can build partnerships with technology companies, establish referral networks between digital-safety experts and GBV services, document emerging forms of AI abuse and help governments develop laws that address synthetic and manipulated sexual content.

The challenge for civil society organizations is therefore not simply to raise awareness about AI's role in OGBV and TGBV, but to strengthen practical protection. CSOs should campaign for governments to create stronger laws and, crucially, enforce them. They should also push technology companies to improve reporting systems and remove abusive content quickly.

Legislation for Safer Digital Spaces For Women

UN Women has warned that technology-facilitated violence is escalating while remaining underreported and poorly addressed. The forms of abuse range from cyber harassment and stalking to doxing, deepfakes and gendered disinformation. AI makes the challenge more urgent because the technology is evolving faster than many legal and institutional responses.

Technology has transformed how South Africans communicate, build relationships and participate in communities. Smartphones, social media, messaging services and online gaming have made connection easier than ever. But these platforms have also created new avenues for technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

South Africa has laws that can provide remedies for different forms of digital abuse, including the Cybercrimes Act, Protection from Harassment Act, Film and Publications Act and Domestic Violence Amendment Act. However, legislation alone cannot prevent abuse​. These acts make bad online behavior a crime with fines or jail time making it easier to facilitate AI systems to combat AI-generated cyberbullying.

Conclusion

Civil society organizations should promote digital literacy and online safety in schools and communities while engaging men and boys on ethical technology use and challenging misogynistic attitudes and victim-blaming. Survivors should be encouraged to report threats, blackmail and harassment while preserving evidence such as screenshots, messages, URLs and emails where it is safe to do so.

But responsibility cannot rest with survivors alone. Technology companies, governments and civil society must build systems in which women can participate online without having to constantly calculate the risks of harassment, humiliation or violence. Most importantly, women should not have to choose between participating in digital life and protecting themselves from violence.

Digital spaces should expand women's opportunities rather than become another arena for their exclusion. AI presents a serious new threat, but it also offers tools that can help turn the digital environment into a safer space.

The question is whether societies will allow new technologies to reproduce old inequalities or whether they will use them to build digital spaces, where women can participate freely, safely and equally.

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Disclaimers

This piece of resource has been created as part of the AI for Social Change project within TechSoup's Digital Activism Program, with support from Google.org.

AI tools are evolving rapidly, and while we do our best to ensure the validity of the content we provide, sometimes some elements may no longer be up to date. If you notice that a piece of information is outdated, please let us know at content@techsoup.org.

The content was created, reviewed, and edited by Nkateko Joseph Mabasa with AI assistance.

About the Author

Nkateko Joseph Mabasa is a seasoned journalist and policy analyst with over seven years of experience in delivering impactful storytelling, comprehensive political analysis, and climate advocacy. His work has been featured in prominent platforms such as Al Jazeera English, Dialogue Earth, China Global South Project, Daily Maverick and Mail & Guardian, showcasing an ability to inform, engage and inspire constructive conversations. Recipient of the Report for the World Investigative Journalism grant 2025.