COVID-19 and Violence against Women: The Evidence behind the Talk

"The risk of violence against women and girls (VAWG) increases during crises...and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception."

Women and girls, particularly those in vulnerable groups, are believed to be experiencing higher exposure to violence since the onset of COVID-19, but little data have been available to demonstrate this due to social distancing measures and the methodological, ethical, and safety challenges presented by remote (non-face-to-face) surveys. Thus, UN Women partnered with Quilt.AI and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to conduct analysis of big data in eight Asian countries on the frequency of social media posts and online searches about violence against women and girls (VAWG) and VAWG-related help-seeking compared to pre-COVID-19 times. In addition, with the goal of creating actionable recommendations, they sought to understand whether response organisations are more proactively promoting content about VAWG and related response services, and whether they are doing so in different languages to ensure access by migrant women.

The reference period for social media posts from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore ranged from September 2019 to November 2020; the reference period for search data ranged from October 2019 to September 2020, except for Singapore, where the period considered was December 2019 to September 2020. The analysis covered approximately: 2,000 posts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and ShareChat; the Facebook pages and social media posts of 32 service organisations; 20.5 million unique searches; and 3,500 keywords on VAWG.

While also outlining key differences between countries, such as the types of support victims seek/need, the report identifies the following patterns across all countries considered:

• General frustration towards lack of government action.
• Low trust in national security and justice institutions.
• Victim shaming.
• Rise in domestic violence during COVID-19.
• Largely missing conversation about marginalised groups.
• Rise in online support.

Specifically, the analysis found:

• A literature review indicates that domestic violence cases rose in India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia; this evidence is strongly manifested online. Internet searches related to VAWG help-seeking rose significantly during COVID-19 lockdowns in all eight countries, buttressing evidence of the particular dangers faced by women confined to homes or restricted in their movements. Searches related to physical violence increased significantly between October 2019 and September 2020; searches using help-seeking keywords increased in almost all countries; and online misogyny rose, including trolling, sexual harassment, and victim-blaming.
  • The report breaks down the increase in VAWG-related searches, with the data indicating that abuse from husbands/partners is an increasing concern, and sexual abuse may be rising. Despite the rising searches around abuse and help, only Bangladesh and Nepal have "Law" as an emerging topic cluster. This suggests that in most countries, turning to the law for help is not seen as a viable option for women.
• Violence against vulnerable groups drew attention, but - per this analysis - not enough. For example, attention to vulnerable groups, such as migrants and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) individuals, remains low in the online discourse. However, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are used as tools to demand justice, mobilise protests, start petitions, and fundraise for VAWG survivors. For example, young, urban populations in India used on Instagram (which combine several images or videos to tell a story) to shed light on the issues faced by women who are vulnerable to caste-based violence, such as Dalit women.
• Online support for survivors through Facebook groups, carousel posts, and campaigns by service providers also increased. For example, in Singapore, since the onset of COVID-19, more people expressed their disgust about VAWG across social media platforms, raising awareness on its impact and raising funds for shelters. The analysis classified service providers into high- and low-engaging providers based on user engagement in response to their posts:
  • High-engaging service providers are organisations that posted regular content that their audience interacted with. More likely to be affiliated with the government or organisations focused on violence against their own female citizens, these providers were more likely to use text over images to share impactful messages, statistics, and calls to action; the images are positive and convey a sense of community and affiliation.
  • Low-engaging service providers are more likely to showcase their work behind the scenes (e.g., events, trainings) rather than their public-facing services. They use images that convey more of a sense of solitude and fear. They are more likely than their high-engaging counterparts to address their services to migrant populations. Low-engaging service providers typically fail to make resources and information readily accessible on their websites and social media, an added barrier for survivors/victims.

In view of the findings, a few recommendations emerge - e.g., around how all support agencies can improve the ways they reach out to different groups of women:

1. Continue leveraging big data and online technologies to gather additional details on internet behaviour, smartphone usage, and online help-seeking behaviour among vulnerable groups.
2. Provide digital literacy skills to disadvantaged populations, and support women and girls impacted by the digital divide as countries build back better in a post-pandemic world.
3. Increase service providers' online engagement across social media platforms, especially in times of crisis, which could entail offering resources up front on their websites and social media channels, in various languages, with the ability to filter by location and other domains, as well as targeting online posts to changing needs and prevalent online discourse.
4. Ensure that migrant-oriented service organisations plan and target their advocacy strategies by understanding internet and smartphone usage among these populations.
5. Implement specific steps online to increase the reach of service providers among survivors/victims, such as by adding contact numbers to profile information and increasing search engine optimisation to ensure that local, relevant information is displayed on the first page of search results.
6. Engage in work on the part of governments and internet providers towards redirecting search engine results to legitimate information on safe service provision for top searches related to VAWG (as is seen in Singapore, when typing "domestic violence" into Google).

Further analysis of the data shared in this report, to be published in a follow-up brief, will examine potential differences based on geographical location of internet users within countries and will determine whether select population groups are underserved in terms of availability of services compared with increases in demand.