On the evening of the 1st of June 2025, 17-year-old TikTok influencer Sana Yousaf, who had amassed more than 1.1 million followers, was shot dead inside her Islamabad home on her birthday. Police allege the gunman had persistently messaged her online and had been repeatedly rejected.
Her killing triggered national outrage, forcing Pakistan to confront an uncomfortable reality: for women, online visibility can quickly translate into real-world danger.
For many Pakistani women, Sana’s fate is not an isolated tragedy but a stark reminder of how digital spaces have evolved into arenas of hostility rather than empowerment. Social media platforms once promised to help women bypass social barriers and participate in public conversations. Instead, they have increasingly become breeding grounds for harassment, intimidation, and gendered abuse that discourage women from speaking publicly.
The scale of the problem in Pakistan is striking. Since 2016, more than 20,000 complaints of online abuse have been reported to the helpline run by the Digital Rights Foundation, with 3,171 cases recorded in 2024 alone. Gender minorities, including transgender individuals, also face severe online abuse ranging from gendered disinformation and doxxing to threats of physical violence, mirroring the discrimination they encounter offline.
Globally, the phenomenon is equally disturbing. Studies suggest that 85 percent of women have experienced or witnessed online violence, while 95 percent of AI-generated deepfakes circulating online depict women in sexualized or explicit contexts. Digital violence often spills into the physical world: roughly one in five women who experience online abuse report being attacked offline as well.
In Pakistan, the numbers tell a similar story. Estimates suggest that around 1.8 million women have faced cyber harassment or online bullying, while 2.7 million cybercrime complaints have been registered nationwide. Nearly 80 percent of these complaints involve women and children, yet the path to justice remains narrow. Of those complaints, only about 8,000 were formally registered as cases, resulting in just 225 convictions.
Behind these statistics lie deeply personal experiences.
“It started with a few hurtful comments under my videos,” recalls a young social media influencer from Karachi, who requested anonymity. “Soon strangers began sending threatening messages telling me to ‘behave properly.’ Someone even created a fake account using my photos and posted obscene captions. I was scared to leave my house and eventually deactivated my accounts just to feel safe.”
Her story is far from unique. Online harassment in Pakistan spans a wide spectrum—from cyberbullying and sexualized threats to stalking, impersonation, and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. These forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) are often deeply gendered. Women who occupy visible public roles, journalists, activists, politicians, and influencers, are particularly vulnerable to coordinated campaigns designed to discredit them, damage their reputations, and ultimately drive them out of public discourse.
Pakistan has attempted to address these threats through legislation, most notably the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, enacted in 2016. The law criminalizes a range of online offenses, including cyberstalking, unauthorized access to personal data, online blackmail, and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. Under the law, perpetrators can face fines and imprisonment, with stricter penalties when victims are women or minors.
To enforce these provisions, the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency was tasked with investigating digital offenses. Reporting portals and helplines were introduced to make it easier for victims to file complaints.
Yet despite this legal framework, justice often remains elusive.
One major obstacle is low public awareness of legal protections. Surveys by civil society organizations indicate that many Pakistani women remain unfamiliar with the provisions of PECA or the procedures required to file complaints. Some victims simply do not know where to report abuse, while others fear that approaching law enforcement could expose them to further scrutiny or reputational damage.
Even when complaints are filed, institutional capacity is stretched thin. In 2024 alone, approximately 135,000 complaints were lodged, leaving investigation officers handling close to 900 cases each. Around 65 percent of these cases produced no outcome, reflecting the immense pressure on investigators and the shortage of specialized digital forensic expertise.
Roughly one in five women who experience online abuse report being attacked offline as well, underscoring how digital violence spills into the physical world
Infrastructure challenges compound the problem. Evidence storage systems remain fragile, raising concerns about potential data leaks, especially in cases involving sensitive images. Geographic disparities also hinder enforcement. In remote areas such as parts of Balochistan, vast distances and weak institutional presence mean some cybercrime reporting centers have recorded no FIR conversions despite receiving complaints
Compounding these issues is the limited physical reach of enforcement institutions. The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency, which succeeded the cybercrime wing of the FIA, currently operates only 15 reporting stations for a population of more than 250 million. Mandatory in-person verification procedures create additional barriers for women who face social stigma, mobility restrictions, or safety concerns.
Beyond legal and institutional limitations, social pressures also discourage reporting. In conservative communities, women who experience online harassment may fear being blamed for their own victimization, particularly when abuse involves manipulated images or rumors about their personal lives. Families sometimes discourage women from pursuing legal action in order to avoid public scandal.
For many households, the easiest solution becomes restricting women’s digital presence altogether. This response, however, reinforces the same patriarchal structures that limit women’s participation in public life. Women become marginalized not only in physical spaces but also in the digital sphere, perpetuating a cycle in which harassment pushes women out of the very platforms that promised empowerment.
Consequently, many victims resort to self-protective strategies instead of seeking justice. They delete social media accounts, restrict their online interactions, or withdraw from public debates altogether. While these measures may reduce immediate exposure to abuse, they also silence women in digital spaces that increasingly shape political discourse, economic opportunities, and social influence.
The gap between legal provisions and lived reality underscores a broader challenge: laws alone cannot eliminate digital violence without effective enforcement, institutional capacity, and cultural change.
Strengthening the investigative capacity of cybercrime units is an essential first step. Digital harassment cases require specialized expertise in digital forensics, tracing anonymous accounts, and preserving online evidence. Without adequately trained investigators and modern technological tools, even well-crafted laws remain difficult to enforce.
Public awareness and digital literacy must also become central components of Pakistan’s response. Many women remain unaware of their rights under PECA or the mechanisms available for reporting abuse. Nationwide digital safety campaigns, implemented through universities, civil society organizations, and government agencies, could help educate citizens about cybersecurity practices, reporting channels, and legal protections. Integrating digital citizenship and online safety into school and university curricula would further help cultivate a generation better equipped to navigate online spaces responsibly.
Ultimately, addressing digital harassment requires confronting the social attitudes that enable it. Online abuse rarely exists in isolation; it reflects deeper societal tensions surrounding women’s visibility and autonomy. Public awareness campaigns, community engagement initiatives, and educational programs must challenge misogynistic narratives that normalize harassment. Encouraging men and boys to act as allies in promoting respectful digital behavior can also play a crucial role in shifting these norms.
The internet once promised to level the playing field, offering women unprecedented opportunities to participate in public debates, build careers, and challenge entrenched inequalities. In Pakistan, as across much of South Asia, that promise remains only partially fulfilled.
Digital platforms have amplified women’s voices, but they have also exposed them to new forms of intimidation designed to silence those very voices.
The experiences of women like Sana Yousaf illustrate that online harassment is not merely a technological problem, it is a reflection of deeper societal anxieties about women’s presence in public life. When women are pushed out of digital spaces through threats and intimidation, the consequences extend beyond individual victims. Democratic discourse itself becomes poorer.
Ensuring safer digital environments therefore requires a comprehensive response: stronger law enforcement, greater public awareness, responsible platform governance, and a cultural shift that recognizes women’s right to participate freely in public life.
Only then can Pakistan’s digital sphere become what it was once imagined to be, a space of opportunity, expression, and empowerment rather than fear.