Islamabad, May 19 (IANS) Vulnerable groups – women, religious and gender minorities face digital intimidation in Pakistan, a new report by Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) has revealed. The report has identified sextortion, hacking and deepfake imagery as emergent dangers.
“Online-brokered identity-centric harm is further magnified via algorithms and other social media undercurrents. Between May 2024 and December 2025, the DRF’s helpline tackled 5,041 new cases. Its survey showed that 64pc received a swift response, 93pc were advised digital safety and 92pc reported lower risk after support,” an editorial in Pakistan’s daily Dawn mentioned.
“The impact of online abuse is as multilayered as is its tangible version. So are its consequences. Switched-off devices are no solution. The state must clean up the internet environment, especially for marginalised sections, with targeted campaigns to spread awareness about digital safety,” it added.
The DRF has called for using digital tools to fix compromised accounts, hacking, blackmail, fraud and image-based violations, according to an editorial in Dawn. Harassment in Pakistan’s digital space occurs through coded language, slang, political and faith-based insinuations, and “context-specific hate campaigns”, according to DRF’s security helpline.
Earlier in April, the latest annual report by the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) revealed that online abuse in Pakistan is evolving faster than the systems designed to contain it.
“The main factor is Artificial Intelligence, which is transforming harassment into something more scalable, more anonymous and far harder to trace. The most disturbing consequence: children, some as young as six, are now being pulled into an ecosystem of harm that the state is woefully unprepared to confront. The numbers alone are alarming, but they do not capture the full extent of the crisis. Even as 79 per cent of cyber harassment cases are referred to the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), access to justice remains uneven and, in many cases, out of reach,” stated an editorial in Pakistan’s daily The News International.
For survivors who live outside major cities, the process is often prohibitive as they must travel, use resources and have resilience that many people simply do not have. Younger children may account for smaller proportion of complaints, however, the severity of risks they face, like grooming, sexual exploitation and AI-enabled abuse is profound. Meanwhile, women continue to face heaviest burden of digital violence, according to an editorial in The News International.
“In a society where their presence is already policed in physical spaces, the online world has become an extension of the same scrutiny and control. Non-consensual image sharing, blackmail and sextortion are part of a continuum of gendered harassment designed to silence, shame and intimidate. Women journalists, in particular, are frequent targets, their professional work met with orchestrated abuse meant to push them out of public discourse,” the editorial detailed.
–IANS
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