UN Definitions of Online Misogyny

UN work on online violence has its roots in human rights & women's rights work, and as a result heavily draws on language around violence against women (VAW). There is recognition that the same rights apply online, and that the same and similar forms of violence against women take place online and/or are exacerbated by technological means. Nevertheless, there is no single UN definition or unified terminology and online VAW is used alongside ICT-facilitated violence, online violence and other terms.

UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women

Source:
2018 Report UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women

The 2018 Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences on online violence against women and girls from a human rights perspective reiterates UN definitions of VAW and extends them to online VAW:

Article 22:
"Violence against women is a form of discrimination against women and a human rights violation falling under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination and other international and regional instruments, according to which violence against women includes gender-based violence against women, that is, violence directed against a woman because she is a woman and/or that affects women disproportionately.14 Article 1 of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women further specifies that violence against women is any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life."

Article 23:
"The definition of online violence against women therefore extends to any act of gender-based violence against women that is committed, assisted or aggravated in part or fully by the use of ICT, such as mobile phones and smartphones, the Internet, social media platforms or email, against a woman because she is a woman, or affects women disproportionately."

UN Broadband Commission

Source:
UN Broadband Commission (2015), Combatting Online Violence Against Women & Girls: A Worldwide Wake-Up Call
Publication website
Full report

In 2015, the UN Broadband Commission’s Working Group on Gender launched a report titled 'Combatting Online Violence Against Women & Girls: A Worldwide Wake-Up Call'. The report defines Cyber VAW by reiterating the UN definition of VAW and extending it to cyber VAW:

"The United Nations defines violence against women as: 'Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.' It includes forced intimate partner violence and sexual assault, marriage, dowry-related violence, marital rape, sexual harassment, intimidation at work and in educational institutions, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization, trafficking and forced prostitution and gender-related killings.

The term ‘cyber’ is used to capture the different ways that the Internet exacerbates, magnifies or broadcasts the abuse. The full spectrum of behaviour ranges from online harassment to the desire to inflict physical harm including sexual assaults, murders and suicides."

The report goes on to define six broad categories of Cyber VAW:

1. Hacking: the use of technology to gain illegal or unauthorized access to systems or resources for the purpose of acquiring personal information, altering or modifying information, or slandering and denigrating the victim and/or VAWG organizations. e.g., violation of passwords and controlling computer functions, such as freezing the computer or logging off the user
2. Impersonation: the use of technology to assume the identity of the victim or someone else in order to access private information, embarrass or shame the victim, contact the victim, or create fraudulent identity documents; e.g., sending offensive emails from victim’s email account; calling victim from unknown number to avoid call being blocked 

3. Surveillance/Tracking: the use of technology to stalk and monitor a victim’s activities and behaviours either in real-time or historically; eg. GPS tracking via mobile phone; tracking keystrokes to recreate victim/survivor’s activities on computer 

4. Harassment/Spamming: the use of technology to continuously contact, annoy, threaten, and/or scare the victim. This is ongoing behaviour and not one isolated incident; e.g., persistent mobile calls/ texts; filling up voicemail with messages so no one else can leave a message 

5. Recruitment: use of technology to lure potential victims into violent situations; e.g., fraudulent postings and advertisements (dating sites; employment opportunities); traffickers using chat rooms, message boards, and websites to communicate/advertise
6. Malicious Distribution: use of technology to manipulate and distribute defamatory and illegal materials related to the victim and/or VAWG organizations; e.g., threatening to or leaking intimate photos/video; using technology as a propaganda tool to promote violence against women.

UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

Sources:
European Parliament, 2018. Study for the FEMM committee: Cyber violence and hate speech online against women
CEDAW General Recommendation No. 19
CEDAW General Recommendation No. 35

Two CEDAW General Recommendations serve to define online GBV: No. 19 defines gender-based violence, and No. 35, which expands upon No. 19, explicitly extends the definition to violence that takes place in "technology-mediated settings".

CEDAW General Recommendation No. 19 defines "gender-based violence" as

"violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately. It includes acts that inflict physical, mental or sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion and other deprivations of liberty"

CEDAW General recommendation No. 35 (updating general recommendation No. 19) adds that

"Gender-based violence against women (...) manifests in a continuum of multiple, interrelated and recurring forms, in a range of settings, from private to public, including technology- mediated settings."

And that

"gender-based violence against women occurs in all spaces and spheres of human interaction, whether public or private (...) and their redefinition through technology-mediated environments, such as contemporary forms of violence occurring in the Internet and digital spaces."