New technology poses greater threats to women in Pakistan
Women in Pakistan now face a new, more terrifying threat–violence and threats caused by AI content sent by malicious sexual predators and gangs. Last year, over 2500 cases of harassing and victimising female children and women were reported.
The state pays little attention to prosecuting the culprits. Only 12 FIRs have made any progress in the labyrinthine of the justice system, one reason for women to feel dread and anxiety in today’s Pakistan.
The highest number of such complaints received were from Punjab (1,724), followed by Sindh (261) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (112). In a report released recently, the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), termed the increase in numbers alarming and pointed out that the use of generative AI content for violence against women in the public sphere rose higher near the February general elections.
The violence online is linked to a spike in offline violence against women and children. The online abuse was seen targeting women journalists. The main victims of online harassment, about 58.5% of the complainants, were women while the transgender community was also subjected to an orchestrated online hate campaign.
Experts said they have witnessed an incredible rise in the number of online invasions of privacy through unregulated apps and the use of modern editing and generative AI to produce non-consensual intimate images (NCII).
According to the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) handbook: “Studies suggest that upwards of 80 per cent of NCII victims are women, underscoring the gendered nature of these violations and the disproportionate burden they place on women’s autonomy and safety.”Over 11,000 complaints were registered with the FIA Cybercrime Wing in 2023.
Out of these, close to 1,200 complaints were related to deepfakes and NCII, with women making up the stark majority of the complainants. Only 12 complainants proceeded with an FIR against their alleged abusers. Merely seven out of these 12 FIRs resulted in the convictions of the perpetrators.
What is even more worrisome is how children are being trapped online by sexual predators. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) of the US recently reported that Pakistan was one of the top three countries in the world reporting dissemination and use of sexually abusive material online that leads to child harassment.
The report pointed out that perpetrators knew their targets and employed systematic tactics to sexually engage and groom them. Exchange of explicit content, sexual talks, engagement in sexually explicit online games and live streaming are reported as some of the common tactics used by these predators.
Deep fakes are causing far more destruction in the lives of women in Pakistan than earlier. Early this year, an 18-year-old woman was shot dead by her father and uncle in an honour killing in Pakistan’s Kohistan province, after a photograph of her with a man went viral. The image was doctored.
A transgender member of Pakistan’s Karachi Municipal Council, Shahzadi Rai has been the target of abusive trolling with deepfake images and she told a newspaper that such attacks encouraged online gender-based violence.
Experts believe that growing online abuse has a direct impact on what happens in reality–the number of rapes, child sex abuses, violence and other forms of abuse against women has witnessed a rapid increase in recent years.
Lax policing and prosecution, lack of awareness among women and anonymity of the medium have made the lives of women even more difficult in urban and rural areas of Pakistan. The deep fakes and AI-induced content in recent years have become as horrid and dangerous as violence in reality.
(europeantimes.org)
