by Stefano Vaccara
NEW YORK (ITALPRESS) – On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the President of the UN General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, launched a strong alarm from the podium of the United Nations: digital violence — including deepfake pornography generated by artificial intelligence — is striking millions of women and girls, with unprecedented intensity. During the press conference at the Glass Palace, Baerbock recalled that the day is dedicated to violence facilitated by technology, part of the 16-day activism against gender violence. Then he added a personal testimony: “Now, while I’m talking, dozens of women are physically attacked in the world, on a bus, at home, at school, in the office, in Parliament. It happens to some women in this room. It happened to me too, as a high profile policy: I was also confronted with a false image, with sexual content, which can still be found online.”.
Baerbock explained that this experience is in no way exceptional: “I have experienced, throughout my career, that practically every woman visible online, a policy, a journalist, a sportsman, faces this kind of aggression.” And he extended his gaze to younger generations: “This experience is not unique at all: concerns not only women in high-level positions, but also many teenagers and even girls. It is always the same mechanism: intimidate, humiliate, silence, push women out of the public sphere, especially from the places of power”. Then the most disturbing alarm: “With the rapid advances of artificial intelligence, the scale and speed of these abuses are growing beyond anything we have seen before. 96% of all online deepfake videos portray women in sexual acts. Almost every deepfake targets a woman: it is not a coincidence, it is something deeply systematic.” And again: “58% of young women suffered harassment or online abuse, including deepfake pornography. Today is not just a day of alarm: it is the beginning of the action”.
In addition to the digital violence alarm, the new UNODC-UN Women joint report today describes the global dimension of feministration. In 2024, partners or family killed 50,000 women and girls, one every ten minutes. The feminism, according to the UN report, is the intentional killing “with gender motivation”, rooted in discrimination, stereotypes and inequal power relationships. It doesn’t happen only in houses: is linked to rapes, treats, genital mutilation, “honour crimes”, hate crimes, armed conflicts and criminal networks. Africa holds the highest number of family feminists (22,600 in 2024), followed by the Americas and Oceania. But for UN Women the real figure is “probably much higher” due to the sub-demand.
– Photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
