As part of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women, we spoke with Professor Laurence Charton to get a better sense of how the digital technology that is now omnipresent in our lives affects this type of violence.
Laurence Charton, professor at the Urbanisation Culture Société Research Centre and Editor in Chief of the international journal Enfances Familles Générations, focuses on gender issues and social expectations surrounding the transition to parenthood.
How is digital technology transforming violence against women? What are the consequences of these new forms of violence?
Cyberviolence is defined as aggressive, intentional acts against a victim perpetrated by an individual through digital media (e.g., internet, social media, mobile devices). Online violence can take many forms, including sending inappropriate emails and text messages; making unwanted phone calls; and publicly and non-consensually posting pornographic comments or images, or intimate or falsified photos, on a person’s Facebook wall, that of their friends and family, or on online pornography sites.
In addition to the psychological consequences, online violence can force women to leave digital spaces, isolate themselves, and limit the subjects they would like to discuss publicly or in whatever way they see fit. They may also end up excluded from spaces that could potentially provide opportunities, particularly economic opportunities.
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The highly accessible and instantaneous nature of digital social media seems to be one of many factors that fuel online abuse and aggression. Social media result in an impression of physical distance between aggressors and their victims, which also encourages uninhibited behaviour such as the use of offensive language and even direct threats. Furthermore, online interactions are depersonalized in a way that creates emotional distance and facilitates cyberviolence. Digital technology such as spyware and geolocation software can also make it easier to monitor victims, particularly when aggressors have relatively easy access to their computers or cell phones due to the nature of their relationship (marital, friendly, or professional).
Cyberviolence frequently causes stress, anxiety, and panic attacks in victims. Online violence puts an additional mental burden on its victims, leading some women to experience depression, symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome, drug or alcohol dependence to alleviate their pain, and even suicide.
Digital technology provides aggressors with new areas in which to operate. Does it also offer opportunities to combat gender-based violence by creating new forms of resistance?
Digital technology, and social media in particular, also provide spaces for “digilantism” (online vigilantism), particularly feminist in nature. This gives women the chance to challenge the perpetuation of gender and power relations and the occupation of public space by dominant groups. By making these spaces their own, these women are declaring or reclaiming their agency—their ability to be active and autonomous in the face of male domination and express that they have no need of men when it comes to knowing what is good for them.
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Women use a variety of digilante practices to combat (cyber)violence. One common practice is online open letters, which might call for the creation of a specialized tribunal on sexual violence (which has happened in Quebec); denounce rape culture; raise public awareness of targeted initiatives (Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale); pass on information about available support resources (e.g., help and support hotlines, email addresses for filing complaints or receiving legal advice); directly confront elected officials about sexual violence, particularly against Indigenous women; or denounce and challenge public authorities and the general public about sexist street harassment and mansplaining (men behaving in a condescending and paternalistic way).
Another digilante practice involves public displays of the number of femicides and slogans of support for women. For example, the Collages féminicides Montréal collective has taken to tagging city walls with slogans such as “Without a yes, it’s a no;” “Love is without bruises;” “We believe you;” and “Domestic violence: the other pandemic.” These words, photographed by passersby and activists, are then shared widely on social media. Digital tools can unite virtual groups of victims and activists and help them break their isolation; share their experiences; support each other; denounce violence; and demand recognition of their status as victims, their right to be considered as such, and their right to be compensated.
Why carry out a literature review? What was the starting point?
I was invited by colleagues at the University of Strasbourg in France to take part in an interdisciplinary project on violence against women. With a student, I undertook a literature review on the role that digital technology can play in renewed dominance over women.
Today, cyberviolence can be observed in many spheres, from politics to the media, showing a worrying trend of online harassment. We saw this phenomenon in Quebec just recently with the resignations of several elected women, including Percé mayor Cathy Poirier and Gatineau mayor France Bélisle, who left office partly because of the online harassment and cyberviolence they faced.
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While some authors in the late ’90s, such as Sadie Plant, believed that digital technology (DT) would help promote equality between men and women—particularly due to factors like the physical distance between users and more democratic access to spaces to make their voices heard—our study has shown that DT use has had a mixed impact on women’s lives. With DT, aggressors have found new ways to instigate and spread violence, most particularly through cyberviolence.
The phenomenon also reveals online hostility that is often rooted in sexist attitudes that women in politics have to face. In response to this aggression, Quebec recently passed Bill 57, which aims to protect elected officials and ensure that they are unhindered in their duties. The bill, which became law in May 2024, establishes stiffer penalties for threatening or intimidating elected officials, especially online.
Both in Quebec and elsewhere, female journalists are also regularly subjected to sexist and violent comments, raising concerns about freedom of expression and the safety of women in the media. The phenomenon is particularly evident on social media, where female journalists are disproportionately targeted by insults and threats compared to their male colleagues. The Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec has sounded the alarm on the issue, calling for better regulation of online platforms to protect journalists from such attacks.
In recent years, an online community of men who identify as “involuntarily celibate” or “incel” has gained traction, often expressing virulent hatred towards women and accusing them of “depriving” them of relationships. The movement, which takes misogyny to an extreme, has sparked violent incidents in North America and fuels the culture of digital hate. In Quebec, cybersecurity experts emphasize the importance of monitoring and understanding these online subcultures, which reinforce cyberviolence and misogynistic behaviour.
To read the article by professor Laurence Charton and student Chantal Bayard : https://doi.org/10.7202/1085255ar
Professor Laurence Charton is currently conducting SSHRC-funded research on couples using a fertility app to have a child.
She recently edited a collective work on couples’ and families’ dreams and realities, which was published by the Presses de l’Université du Québec, and wrote a research report on the challenges of finding a balance between family, studies, and work for the Secrétariat à la condition féminine.
She is also co-director of the RISUQ Chaire Périnatalité et parentalité (perinatal and parenthood research chair), co-director of the CARES network’s Naître et vivre en santé (healthy birth and living) theme, and a member of research partnerships Familles en mouvance and Séparation parentale, recomposition familiale (“Families in Transition” and “Parental Separation and Step-Families,” respectively).
In 2021, she co-published a literature review with Chantal Bayard entitled “Violence against Women and Digital Technologies: Between Oppression and Agency” in the Recherches féministes journal.
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