Experiences of Backlash Against Women in the Form of Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence in India

As the use of the internet and social media has surged in India, there has been a corresponding rise in the occurrence of technology-facilitated sexual violence. This briefing paper demonstrates that in India, one of the common ways in which 20 women survivors experienced technology-facilitated sexual violence was in the form of backlash. The paper identifies that survivors received backlash in the form of sexual abuse, physical violence and intimidation for expressing their opinions on social media. Two key findings that this paper demonstrates are: one, Dalit, Muslim, and lesbian and bisexual women experienced multiple layers of backlash due to their marginalised identities; second, experiences of backlash did not happen in isolation, and it was evident that it traversed into physical space.