Online misogyny is a global challenge with far-reaching consequences for equality, safety and public health. It directly fuels gender-based violence (GBV) and technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) against women, girls and LGBTQ+ communities. While women and girls remain the primary targets, boys and young men are also affected both as potential participants in misogynistic environments, and victims of the same systems and norms that drive them. Misogynistic content and behaviours online reinforce patriarchal gender expectations or male dominance and control, normalising attitudes that condone such behaviour. At the same time, boys and young men are exposed to digital environments that endorse hypermasculinity, encouraging risky behaviours around fitness, appearance and financial success, and promoting coercion and sexual entitlement while discouraging help-seeking or emotional openness. These dynamics silence boys’ own experience of harm and reinforce patterns of guilt, shame or self-blame. This exposure also impacts boys’ and men’s wellbeing, identities and relationships in ways that reinforce cycles of grievance, polarisation and, in some cases, extremist mobilisation.
Across social media platforms, gaming services, pornographic sites and encrypted channels, algorithmic design and engagement-driven business models amplify both misogynistic content and behaviour, creating feedback loops that normalise misogyny and limit empathy, resilience and equality. This is compounded by the underrepresentation of women at all levels in the design, development, management and use of digital technologies, including at senior roles in major tech firms, AI research and regulatory bodies, which narrows the perspectives informing product design and policy decisions.
In parallel, hostile foreign state and non-state actors, from organised anti-feminist networks and extremist movements to state-linked information operations, strategically weaponise gendered disinformation to silence women, undermine trust in gender equality institutions, roll back hard-won progress on equality, and shape perceptions toward gender and the role of women’s rights. Such campaigns frequently target women in public life, journalists and human rights activists, shaping public perception of gender roles and reinforcing patriarchal narratives.
Transforming the masculinities that underpin these harms is therefore critical to achieving gender equality and preventing violence in all its forms. Engagement with men and boys must extend beyond allyship to challenge the systems and power structures that sustain discrimination and to address the harmful activities associated with online misogyny which include harassment, cyberbullying, coercion, abuse and incitement to violence. Online environments are now central arenas where these norms are reproduced, contested and potentially transformed.
This brief outlines the drivers and impacts of online misogyny, from platform design choices and monetised influencer economies to geo-political trends shaping online content and the broader educational, community and social settings in which young people form their identities. It reviews current interventions, which span regulation, Safety by Design, education and civil society initiatives, and highlights both their promise and their limitations. This analysis is informed by a landscape review of current pro-social interventions to engage men and boys and to address online misogyny, including online, offline and hybrid strategies. Additionally, this brief drew on discussions held during the multi-stakeholder working group facilitated by ISD’s Digital Policy Lab (DPL) in September 2025.
The cross-cutting policy implications drawn from this analysis underscore the need for sustained, systemic action that bridges online and offline contexts. Interventions must be gender-transformative, rights-based, survivor-informed, and adapted to local realities while anchored in international cooperation. Addressing online misogyny is not only about mitigating immediate harms: it is also about investing in healthier, more equitable societies, and shifting the social norms that sustain inequality and violence. Bridging online and offline contexts through coordinated, multi-stakeholder action offers a path toward safer, more equitable digital and social environments.