12 Dec European Café: Women in the Online Space

Event Summary

Female political participation at risk with the spread of online harassment

2024’s last European Cafe focused on a gender issue in politics, going beyond CEID’s usual foreign policy agenda. Organised in cooperation with the European Parliament’s Liaison Office in Budapest, the discussion explored how online violence hinders women’s participation in political life, both at home and abroad. According to a UN survey, 38% of women have experienced online harassment, and women in public life are particularly at risk. 73% of female journalists and 58% of female parliamentarians have experienced online harassment, but women working for human rights and women’s rights organisations are also often targeted. The result is often that many think twice about continuing their political and public engagement.

We discussed recent online developments and their potential impact on women’s participation in politics and public life with our guests, Ms Márta Pardavi, co-chair of the human rights watchdog Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Ms Réka Sáfrány, chair of the Hungarian Women’s Lobby, and Mr Zoltán Vasali, lecturer at Milton Friedman University. The event, which was open to the public and the media, was well covered by several online and offline publications.

Ms Pardavi recalled that, especially during the 2015 refugee crisis, she had received a large number of hate emails and online messages that were clearly intended to intimidate her and convince her to withdraw from public life – which she did not do. A particularly frightening development is that recently even some politicians are encouraging their supporters to join in hate campaigns or online harassment of women, instead of clearly showing where the red lines are.

Ms Sáfrány underlined that during the 2022 election campaign, female candidates were regularly attacked and criticised for their physical appearance and their intelligence was often questioned, unlike male candidates for whom physical appearance never really plays a role. As a new phenomenon, manipulated photos of a Socialist MP wearing a hijab (accused of allegedly supporting refugees) were also circulated in online media. Mr Vasali added that in the age of AI, deep fakes and manipulated images are expected to become even more prevalent and dangerous, challenging voters and average citizens to decide what to believe and what not to believe from online information. On the positive side, there is also hope that AI could be used to screen and moderate hate speech and harassment online, although this would require more effort and commitment from tech companies to work for the benefit of society and not just for their individual gain. The discussion on gender equality and women’s political participation is expected to continue as a joint project of the European Parliament’s Hungarian Liaison Office and CEID, in 2025.