Online Violence: Are Major Platforms Doing Enough to Protect Women?
Despite their claims in policies and community guidelines, large online platforms rarely take effective action against gender-based violence. From sharing intimate content without consent, to posting direct threats of violence and even footage of murders, women remain unprotected in the digital space. The responsibility for moderating and preventing such abuse continues to be neglected by the very platforms that enable its spread in the first place.
Photo: Zašto ne
For the purposes of this article, interviews were conducted with Hristina Cvetinčanin Knežević (Feminizam iz teretane), Nina Pavićević (Kritički) and Milica Betričević and Ana Mirkailo (BeFem).
Following her arrest during one of the major protests in Belgrade, student Nikolina Sinđelić accused Marko Kričak, commander of the Unit for the Protection of Certain Persons and Facilities, of abuse and threats of rape. According to Sinđelić, Kričak “slapped her and slammed her head against the wall,” while also threatening to “strip and rape her in front of everyone”.
After these accusations were made against a high-ranking security official in Serbia, a public campaign was launched to discredit the student. Shortly after her testimony, former State Secretary of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, Dijana Hrkalović, posted Sinđelić’s intimate photos on her account on the social network X.
At the time these photos were taken, Sinđelić was a minor. Their distribution is therefore problematic for several reasons. Not long before her photos were shared, Serbia announced plans to criminalize unauthorized distribution of intimate content through amendments to the Criminal Code; however, this offense has not yet been recognized in law.
After the photos were posted on Dijana Hrkalović’s X account, the editor of the media outlet Informer, Dragan J. Vučićević, showed and commented on them during a broadcast on Informer TV. The Regulatory Body for Electronic Media in Serbia found that, in this case, Informer had violated multiple provisions of the Rulebook on the Protection of Human Rights in the Area of Media Service Provision, as well as one article of the Law on Electronic Media.
“Sharing explicit sexual photos or videos of someone online without their consent is a serious violation of their privacy and the X Rules. Sometimes referred to as revenge porn, this content poses serious safety and security risks for people affected and can lead to physical, emotional, and financial hardship”, states X’s policy page on such cases.
The policy further states: “We will immediately and permanently suspend any account that we identify as the original poster of intimate media that was created or shared without consent”.
However, according to the same guidelines, X allows the distribution of pornography and explicit content created with consent. In individual cases, the platform “may need additional context to determine if the content was created or shared without the consent of those involved”.
Several feminist organizations and individual citizens coordinated to submit reports about Hrkalović’s post, with the intention of having it taken down. X initially dismissed the reports with automated responses stating that the post did not break its rules. It was only after dozens of reports that the post was finally taken down.
The post is no longer available, but Hrkalović’s account on the platform remains active. It is unclear whether X identified her account as the original source of “intimate media that was created or shared without consent”, or why the platform’s rule on suspending such accounts was not enforced in this case.
Gender-based violence online
This and many other similar cases clearly illustrate how violence against women spills over between online and offline spaces. Gender-based violence online is a growing problem. The United Nations refers to a specific form of this phenomenon as “technology-facilitated gender-based violence”, recognizing the significant role digital technologies play in enabling and amplifying such abuse.
According to a 2023 UN research, more than 50% of women over the age of 18 in 12 countries across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including those in the Western Balkans, have experienced some form of this violence. The UN further notes that sexual harassment and stalking are the most commonly reported types of technology-facilitated violence against women.
Other forms of this type of violence include posting of intimate photos, sharing of personal information without consent (doxing), unwanted messages, disinformation, hate speech, deepfake videos, and harassment. Sinđelić is not the only female student involved in the protests in Serbia who has experienced some form of online gender-based violence. Our interviewees explained that the personal data and photos of numerous female students were shared online without their consent. In many cases, this content was circulated within closed groups on various online platforms, after which the victims faced different forms of violence.
Creators of online content focusing on feminist topics often face harassment and abuse, most commonly through misogynistic and aggressive comments, which they are forced to moderate themselves. Hristina Cvetinčanin Knežević explains that in cases of organized attacks, the only solution is to disable comments. However, this reduces the visibility of their posts, as platform algorithms reward content that generates interaction — even when that interaction is hostile.
These examples clearly demonstrate how technology is redefining what counts as violence against women and the limitations women face in defending themselves.
Popular online platforms generally have policies and community guidelines that claim to protect certain categories of users (1, 2, 3). These policies usually also address gender-based targeting. In practice, however, their implementation is often lacking.
The experience of women’s rights organizations indicates that harmful content typically remains on the platforms. At the same time, reporting mechanisms, which are often the only available form of protection, have little effect. Even explicit threats of violence go unaddressed. In contrast, reports of copyright infringement are handled far more efficiently, resulting in the swift removal of disputed content.
The fact that platforms often fail to act promptly, either on their own initiative or in response to reports, is exemplified by the case of the murder of a woman in Gradačac, streamed live on a personal Instagram account. The video remained available on the perpetrator’s profile for nearly four hours before it was removed. During that time, it was viewed tens of thousands of times, downloaded and re-uploaded across other accounts and social media platforms.
This case clearly involved illegal content that should have been immediately taken down. Shifting of responsibilities between Meta and the police authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina aside, social media moderation should have been far more effective, as such content can have lasting effects on users who encounter it and directly violates the victim’s right to dignity.
Women protect one another because platforms and laws won’t
The rise in this kind of violence, coupled with inadequate legal safeguards for women in the Western Balkans, have made women feel increasingly unsafe online. The lack of response and protection has led to widespread distrust toward both platforms and relevant institutions. Some content is nearly impossible to remove, even when it clearly violates existing platform policies, and in some cases, reports do not even receive acknowledgement of receipt. As a result, these policies remain mere ink on paper, with little evidence of their practical implementation.
The persistent lack of response has led many women to stop even attempting to report prohibited content. As a result, they feel unsafe both online and in their everyday lives, and rely on one another for support.
“Women know that platforms are not regulated in any way. We know there is no legal or institutional support, so we have to stick together and rely on each other, protect one another”, says Nina Pavićević, creator of the Instagram page Kritički.
In addition to introducing necessary legal measures in the countries of the region, holding platforms accountable for enabling harmful practices is essential to protecting women online. This accountability primarily involves responding promptly and appropriately to reports of illegal or harmful content. It includes cooperating with and establishing functional communication channels with local authorities and trusted flaggers (organizations with special status for identifying and reporting illegal content or content that violates platform policies), as well as addressing reports of violations of their own rules submitted by users. Moreover, large platforms should be aware of the risks that their systems and practices pose in spreading content such as gender-based violence, and take measures to mitigate or eliminate these risks; for example, by investing in human resources for content moderation in local languages or by adjusting algorithmic systems that amplify such content.
Online platforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other Western Balkan countries currently have no legal obligation to implement these measures. Efforts to guide and regulate the activities of major online platforms are a key part of the European Union’s initiatives, reflected in the creation of a legislative framework that includes the Digital Services Act. Aligning with this Act and integrating its core principles into domestic legal and regulatory frameworks is essential for fostering more transparent and accountable practices by major online platforms in the region.
(Marija Ćosić and Maida Ćulahović, “Zašto ne”)