InflueAnswers  ·  Publications

The Price of Freedom: Gendered Digital Harassment and Democracy in Lebanon

This study examines the digital harassment campaigns targeting women in Lebanon's online sphere, focusing on journalists and political figures. Drawing from nine in-depth interviews, it shows how online abuse operates as a multi-layered tool of political control, social disciplining, and gendered intimidation.

While each case unfolds in its own context, several common threads emerge. In nearly all instances, the abuse is not accidental. It is intentional, coordinated, and designed to silence. What starts as disagreement over a political statement or media appearance escalates into smear campaigns mixing fabricated narratives with sexualized insults, sectarian slurs, doctored content, and threats of physical harm. More than half of respondents reported receiving direct death threats — a staggering rate for such a small sample.

Coordination plays a central role. The campaigns are often propelled by partisan digital ecosystems, most notably networks affiliated with Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM). Attacks are frequently timed to moments of national upheaval — the 2019 uprising, or conflicts like the recent Hezbollah-Israel war. Escalation follows a familiar script, moving from insults to sexualized denigration, to doxing, and finally to explicit threats.

The harassment rarely remains confined to the digital sphere. Seven of the nine women reported spillover into real life — whether through doxing, family intimidation, blacklisting from media appearances, or offline confrontations. In one case, abuse led to the hospitalization of a respondent's family member. Attacks were political and personal: for several participants, the abuse extended to spouses, children, and close friends, with lasting psychological toll.

Beyond reputational damage, the women described severe psychological and professional harms: anxiety, insomnia, physical symptoms, self-censorship, career setbacks, and structural exclusion. One journalist lost 32 kilograms from stress-related illness; another withdrew from political life entirely. Several respondents noted that even women from within their own political or social circles joined harassment campaigns, reinforcing patriarchal norms from within.

Legal frameworks remain inadequate: Lebanon has no definition of digital harassment, and judicial bodies are ill-equipped to respond to cross-border, anonymous attacks. State institutions intervene mainly when elites seek to silence critics. Platform responses are inconsistent and slow, with coordinated mass reporting often leading to victims' accounts being suspended while perpetrators remain untouched. Civil society organizations and personal networks provided some psychological or technical support, but these were ad hoc and insufficient.

Artificial intelligence has begun to appear as a new layer in this ecosystem. Respondents reported doctored screenshots, fabricated audio, and AI-generated images used against them. The women adapted by narrowing their visibility, recalibrating their words, or seeking alternative spaces. Their refusal to disengage reflects resilience, but resilience is not protection.