Let's talk about online stalking!

Discrimination, abuse, exploitation, stalking, harassment, or cyberbullying reproduce gender-based violence and affect the offline lives of victims/survivors, evidencing the impact of virtual and technological spaces on everyday life. Online Gender-Based Violence (OGBV) is a continuation of offline violence,  and it is increasingly widespread and malicious in patriarchal societies.

A study conducted in 51 countries around the world found that 38% of women over age 18 have suffered online gender-based violence.¹ In that context, understanding the mechanisms driving such violence allows us to recognise each type of aggression. In this case, I want to emphasise stalking facilitated by technology; a form of violence that feeds on online information, which is on the rise in our hyperconnected world and continues gender-based aggression seeking to control the lives of women and LGBTIQ+ persons.

Stalking exists in the offline space as a form of intrusion and harassment. It is a person’s feeling of discomfort in relation to another person or situation, where they have the impression of being followed or controlled in their movements by someone external without their consent — for example when speaking or writing on social media or online chats or administering their bank accounts online — and in some cases it can be used to exert emotional, physical, and digital power over the victim. 

Counselors on digital gender violence² and persons working in the fields of human rights and technology have described stalking as a common form of violence that persists over time. This creates a pressing need to denounce, discuss, and characterise the phenomenon, to further its recognition and design strategies of defense and mitigation.  

Wondering and asking questions

In the first months of the year, alongside the program Take Back The Tech!, we convened various fellow feminists, professionals in the fields of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence and human rights in the digital space to share their perceptions surrounding online stalking. It was an invitation to participate in a forum which was organised into three focus groups under a methodology based on understanding their perceptions and experiences in their areas of specialisation across Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

As such, the focus groups were conducted online and we began to outline our approach to the issue and its impacts. Additionally, as part of our effort to examine perceptions, we felt it was important to conduct specific interviews in different regional contexts with people who specialised in providing support for victims of online violence 

Our aim was to start a conversation about Technology-Facilitated Violence that allows us to collectively think about its divergent mechanisms, impacts, and contexts. And most importantly, to collectively pose important questions about this kind of violence — based on the experience of those who do the important work of providing help and expertise in different regions.³ 
 

The continuum of violence

As the European Parliamentary Research Service emphasises in its study (2021), women can be potential victims of digital stalking across contexts — including public figures, people in monogamous relationships, or simple social media users.⁴ This affirmation was constantly confirmed by respondents who participated in these conversations with us. These participants do important work: from providing victim support services to reporting and investigating OGBV and digital rights. 
 

“Online stalking is the act of an individual leveraging digital tools and platforms to consistently intimidate, harass, or threaten another person. This behavior manifests in various ways and frequently involves an infringement of the victim's privacy.”

     (Participant in the open conversation on online stalking, 2024)

Participants in the conversations agreed that online stalking is a form of technology-facilitated violence that is characterised by increasing over time. It feeds on information about victims available online (such as social media platforms and online information), does not require extensive technological knowledge, and is commonly accompanied by other forms of online gender-based violence (OGBV). Such characterisation underscores how online stalking is recognised as tangible and commonplace violence. However, enunciating it does not seem sufficient to combat it.
 

“Online stalking it’s not understood regarding OGBV, it gets to be known because of cases or experience. The online concept is lacking understanding, the physical concept is more commonly understood.” 

(Participant in the open conversation on online stalking, 2024)

In groups from the different regions, online stalking was mentioned as a form of vigilance that facilitates the implementation of other forms of violence. Participants from the African and Latin American region linked femicide, a physically violent crime, to online stalking — as layers of violence are used to aid each other and that “one more form of violence that leads to (sic) other, more extreme forms”. Participants in the conversation with the Asian region connected the act of online stalking specifically to the harassment of public figures and activists.
 

“...a young woman femicide in day light after a case of stalking track down to kill her.”

(Participant in the open conversation on online stalking, 2024)

“I've heard testimonies from university girls who are now scared to join WhatsApp study groups because they get stalked.”

(Participant in the open conversation on online stalking, 2024)

From conversations with participants we found that the groups most vulnerable to stalking were women, adolescents, and LGBTIQ+ persons. Members of this group cited the vulnerability of women in public life, including human rights defenders — whose information is in public spaces due to their work and activism. Additionally, they frequently mentioned the threats faced by members of the LGBTIQ+ community in Africa. Due to discrimination and persecution in cultural and normative settings, they become targets for extremist religious groups and legislative systems —threatening their lives.

In the context of the conversation with participants in the group from Asía, in particular Pakistan and India, a widespread problem appeared to involve shared access to devices or accounts. It was common to find that victims had shared access to mobile telephones and personal information in their homes, and were facilitated access to these devices by male family members in particular. The participants even mentioned the possibility of stalkerware being installed to obtain account data that would allow stalkers to track locations, messages, bank transactions, and access to passwords.
 

Perceptions and experiences

Stalking is one of the forms of structural gender-based violence that has been normalised in different cultures and is based on maintaining continuous control and surveillance of victims. In a male-dominated system, this means that anyone who does not present as male can be stalked. “Online stalking is usually accompanied by other forms of violence” was an affirmation repeated constantly in the conversations. The urgent need to problematise it to develop and implement strategies tailored to diverse contexts was a unanimous conclusion among participants in the focus groups and interviews.

Words for stalking in other languages: tiktik (slang word for surveillance), chedkhaani (more harassment than stalking in Hindi), Pinnale pouva, pinthudarunnu (malayalam), peecha karna (Hindi), Kaboo me rakhna, Chhupkese Peecha Karna (Terms in Hindi), mentioned by participants.  

In the same vein, a report by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (2023)⁵ affirmed that " the current digital landscape is one where the cruelest voices often dominate and discriminatory hierarchies are reinforced through negative engagement in digital spaces, preventing women and LGBTQ+ people from participating freely, safely and authentically in them." Such violence, known as online stalking, was not investigated in depth, leaving room for its greater problematisation in the three regions, and left open the need for greater research to ensure the continuance of this conversation with increased emphasis in the future.
 

“It is crucial to acknowledge that online stalking is a grave concern that can inflict substantial distress and fear on the victim. It is a form of online violence and is considered illegal in numerous jurisdictions.”

(Participant in the open conversation on online stalking, 2024)

According to participants from Pakistan, the Philippines, and India, women are most often assaulted by family members. In the African region, religious extremists are cited as the most common aggressors against women and LGBTIQ+ communities. In the group for the Latin American region, the usual aggressors are domestic partners and former partners, but also right-wing extremists, especially against the LGBTIQ+ community or activists. Additionally, participants in the focus groups and interviews in Latin America mentioned the possibility of using parental control apps to surveil third parties (such as former domestic partners). Participants in the African region also mentioned  the use of such apps to track down victims in real time in the African region.

“as it is common for the online activities of women and girls to be surveilled by male family members” 

(Participant in the open conversation on online stalking, 2024)
 

“Organizers of the #EndfemicideKE have been cyberstalked since the march and most of them have had to make their accounts private, lock their accounts, the organizers are public. Pictures of them, defamation, shut down employees, even family members putting on twitter, social media.” 

(Participant in the open conversation on online stalking, 2024)

After analysing the conversations, the most common mechanisms through which online stalking functioned were: Constant monitoring of information available online through social media or app permissions, and the use of stalkerware. 

Group participants from the Latin American region discussed the possibility of using parental control apps to maintain control over third parties, such as former domestic partners, evidencing the documented use of apps created for other purposes to commit such violence. In the case of group participants from the African region and in the interview[s], participants mentioned the purchasing of apps to monitor victims in real time. Prominent mechanisms identified via participants in the Asia group were: Access to physical devices, sharing telephones, and sharing passwords with third parties.

Participants from all the regions stressed the existence of a digital gender gap between victims/survivors and aggressors on a political and cultural basis. They also underscored the lack of digital literacy and experience in the use of technology, especially for women and the LGBTIQ+ community in all the regions. These remain priority issues, open for discussion and review.
 

The double-edged sword of the legal system

The demand for a legal system that includes recognition of gender-based violence and human rights has been a constant fight for civil society in different regions, where the core aim is to legally recognise these social demands. However, participants across regions repeatedly stressed the importance of understanding the complexities created by  legal interventions: its voids, and its lack of applicability in the lives of victims/survivors.
 

“I am unsure about the extent of reporting and the kind of infrastructure that is put in place to support victims of cyberstalking.”

(Participant in the open conversation on online stalking, 2024)
 

The conversation in the participating group from Asia featured remarks noting the existence of specific local legislation in India and the Philippines on cyberstalking. However, they were taken for granted and assumed as natural. 
 

“It’s a very difficult form of violence to prove before the authorities and the legal system; cases are difficult to report and seeking justice under the law is complicated.”

(Participant in the open conversation on online stalking, 2024)

In this sense, the legal demand for recognition arose as a possible solution within the discussions of group participants from the African region. They agreed unanimously that enacting specific legislation on online stalking can help to recognise, confront, and mitigate it.

Group participants from the Latin American region recognised legal interventions, but did not demand it as a sole solution. It focused on problematising the prevailing lack of justice issues of gender-based violence offline, which is not understood by legal systems when translated online, and even less when technology is involved in the reproduction of this kind of violence.

Combining various forms of action in the fight to eliminate gender-based violence and ensuring emphasis on varied strategies was part of the reflection that took place when we discussed strategies against such violence within the different participating groups. Legal interventions may offer a pathway, but it cannot be the only means of building awareness and defense strategies against online stalking. 
 

“[Online stalking] is commonly minimized by authorities and victims. When victims report it there are no measures to support them; they tell them to get off the internet, which makes them even less able to discover who is behind it. There is a lack of tools to aid detection and law enforcement.”

(Participant in the open conversation on online stalking, 2024)

Questions and challenges

In general, we find that participants in the conversations across regions acknowledge the existence and impacts of online stalking as a form of latent technology-facilitated violence — difficult to prove in the legal system and on reporting platforms — which reproduces the methods of physical stalking, harassment, surveillance, and control in the online space. These remain forms of violence that are male dominated and manifest in the daily life of women and queer persons in various ways.

Some of the issues that surfaced surrounding the debate regarding online stalking were: parental control and surveillance. Around the issue of parental control, there were regional differences between the perspectives of participants. For example,in the Africa group, participants believe there is a need to maintain parental control and there have been no cases that might exemplify misuse of this type of technology. On the other hand, in the Asia group there were varied opinions questioning the rationale for such applications, pointing to a need for an in-depth debate centering the rights of children and adolescents, as well as trust and consent.
 

“There is a differentiation to be made between stalking and surveillance. For instance, in India, there is a lot of surveillance of content on social media, however, it may not always lead to stalking. Similarly, culturally, a lot of parents might be tracking their children’s online/digital activities - which again wouldn’t perhaps be considered stalking.”

(Participant in the open conversation on online stalking, 2024)

The misuse of parental control apps was repeatedly mentioned and acknowledged by participants from the Latin American region, who emphasised the interconnections between  violence against children and the perpetration of gender-based violence within nuclear families.   

Social media platforms’ lack of response to reports is also part of the problem. As participants said in the focus groups and interviews, reporting “can become the worst option for victims,” raising false hopes and allowing fear to spread, impacting our understanding of how different forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence affect its targets.

The normalisation of such violence linked to a male-dominated social structure made researching online stalking fundamental to fully understand and counter the different types of violence embedded in it, as well as their mechanisms and impacts. The difference between surveillance and stalking that was debated in groups across regions underscored the importance of taking into account social, political, and historic contexts around the perception of violence across territories, cultures and other variants. These differences must be central to the challenge of differentiating between forms of violence, even as we seek to understand and contribute to consensus around it. 

On opening these conversations collectively, the focus groups reaffirmed the need to extend them to other persons and territories with greater time and persistence. The opportunity to think collectively about the challenges that compel us to take creative action against such violence was one of the central conclusions of this conversation.

Participants in the focus groups across regions had diverse strategies and varied responses to online stalking: ranging from feminist counseling and attention to litigation, and research. Focus group participants mentioned that “there is no single formula to address this kind of violence.” At the same time, they placed special emphasis on supporting victims of online gender-based violence as a mechanism to mitigate technology-facilitated gender-based violence.  

Finally, we understand that this conversation is just beginning and it is important to note that participants from organisations and collectives combating technology-facilitated gender-based violence or promoting digital protection insist that every form of violence or case of violence is different and there is no single way to resolve online stalking. Instead, they emphasised the need to interrogate gender-based violence, understand it, and organise against its mechanisms, aggressors, and impacts in the virtual as well as physical space. 
 

Note: 

This conversation was the product of an invitation focused on the perceptions of groups of persons who support victims or work on human rights related to technology in the different regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, which in no way reflect the criteria of those regions in their entirety. It is an attempt to define an approach to the issues and make notes on it. 

We want to thank everyone who participated with their comments, perceptions, and time in this joint conversation on online stalking.  

This article is based on the systematized responses from focus groups and interviews conducted between February and April 2024.  
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