Global public health officials have warned of what digital news outlet Streamline Feed has labeled an AI-driven "silent pandemic" affecting women, journalists, and people engaged in advocacy work.
What's happening?
In late 2025, the World Health Organization's Information Network for Epidemics (EPI-WIN) team hosted a webinar about the growing problem of digital violence.
International human rights advocacy group Amnesty International published a resource on digital violence, also called "online violence," warning that actions such as cyberbullying and online harassment have led to real-world harm.
As Streamline Feed noted, United Nations data showed that the share of adolescents engaging in problematic social media use (PSMU) jumped from 7% in 2018 to 11% in 2024, a figure that is likely far higher today.
PSMU is defined as an excessive reliance on social media, one that adversely impacts an individual's real-world life. While no official clinical diagnosis of PSMU yet exists, it is documented across studies as an escalating health risk.
Much of the research into digital violence was published before artificial intelligence was commonplace, and UN researchers identified AI as a major contributor to it today.
According to the UN, "technology-facilitated violence against women and girls" is rising sharply, while AI "is creating new forms of abuse and amplifying existing ones at alarming rates."
"Women leaders, journalists, activists, and public figures face relentless gendered disinformation, deepfake attacks, and coordinated harassment campaigns designed to silence, shame, and push them out of public life," the UN explained.
Why is digital violence concerning?
"We are seeing brains rewired by trauma," a lead researcher said, according to Streamline Feed.
On Dec. 9, the Associated Press reported that a staggering two-thirds of "women journalists, rights defenders, and activists" experienced digital violence. More than 40% said they "faced real-world attacks" as a result.
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$200 or more 💰 As Streamline Feed observed, the risk to journalists was particularly concerning, posing a threat to democracy due to the "chilling effect" of sustained online threats and abuse.
Generative AI is still fairly new, so there's a paucity of quantitative information about how pervasive the problem is and the long-term, real-world effects of AI-facilitated abuse.
A December 2025 UN Women report on digital violence surveyed 640 women from 119 countries, and its findings were alarming. AI hasn't been around long, yet 24% of respondents had already "experienced AI-assisted online violence."
Moreover, nearly half (44%) of human rights advocates who responded reported real-world violence stemming from digital abuse, such as doxxing, swatting, and stalking.
What's being done about it?
In their report, UN Women cited an "urgent … need to develop tools to better identify, monitor, report, and repel AI-assisted online violence."
The assessment also called on policymakers to institute legal and regulatory pathways to hold perpetrators and tech platforms accountable.
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