This year marks the 25th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which first formally recognised women’s indispensable role in peace and security. Since the resolution’s passing, the threats that women face have evolved. Exclusion now has a digital frontline, where online abuse and tech-facilitated gender-based violence silence women’s voices and curb their civic, political and social participation.
The rise of tech-facilitated gender-based violence across Southeast Asia highlights a systemic failure as legislation is unable to address online abuse, and platforms profit from it. To address this, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations must move beyond rhetorical digital strategies and adopt binding safeguards that hold platforms accountable, empower civil society to monitor harm, and align legal reforms with UN human rights standards.
It has been more than a year since 30-year-old Malaysian social media influencer Rajeswary Appahu, known online as ‘Esha’, committed suicide following online harassment. Five days before her death, Esha lodged a police report over online threats she had received, including during live sessions on TikTok. The case ended with two offenders pleading guilty, with one offender receiving a token fine of 100 ringgit (about A$35). Public pressure led Malaysia to pass new cyberbullying laws, introducing penalties of up to 10 years in jail.
In Myanmar, women face escalating online harassment as intimate images are sold and circulated on messaging app Telegram. This helps facilitate blackmail and threats, often causing victims to withdraw from public life. This hidden market—fuelled by vengeful ex-partners, spy cameras and hacked data—profits by exposing women while protecting perpetrators, with celebrities and influencers regularly targeted. Telegram, which remains unrestricted in the country, has also been weaponised by the junta and its supporters. These actors use the platform for doxxing, threats and intimidation, especially towards women.
Facebook, already condemned for enabling violence against the Rohingya population in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, has allowed threats, misogynist rhetoric and incitement to spread on its platform. Survivors report that these attacks erode personal safety and mental health while silencing women’s political participation, demonstrating how the platform amplifies and normalises gendered abuse.
These cases are not isolated. They are symptoms of a systemic failure to address online harms. As Julie Inman Grant has written, ‘The next 25 years must not simply be about building on the legacy of Security Council Resolution 1325; they must be about scaling it for a digital age to bolster, rather than hinder, humanitarian and peace-building efforts.’ Some progress is underway across Southeast Asia, but efforts remain uneven, with policy responses varying widely in scope, enforcement and political will.
In its first move against a global platform, Malaysian authorities in June secured a court order against Telegram to halt the spread of harmful content. Singapore is also advancing its online safety agenda: its 2023 Code of Practice for Online Safety imposes obligations on designated social media services and requires annual reporting. The forthcoming Online Safety Commission, to be launched in 2026, is intended to allow victims to request platform takedowns and obtain perpetrators’ information under new legislation.
ASEAN must now translate national progress into binding regional standards. The ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025 gestures toward inclusion but offers little beyond rhetoric. While the Regional Plan of Action on the Elimination of Violence Against Women recognises technology-enabled abuse, it lacks concrete measures or accountability mechanisms. In 2024, ASEAN held a UN-supported consultation in Bangkok, with the aim of designing a regional campaign against online gender-based violence. This consultation was a start, but outcomes have yet to follow.
To tackle tech-facilitated gender-based violence across Southeast Asia, governments should use UN human rights mechanisms to adapt legal frameworks for stronger protections. Local civil society organisations should document abuse and raise public awareness, while tech companies should proactively safeguard users by prioritising online safety and preventing the monetisation of abuse. Media outlets should avoid amplifying misogynistic narratives, instead highlighting women’s voices and initiatives that challenge patriarchal norms.
This will involve dedicating more resources to monitoring content in Southeast Asian languages, in close consultation with women’s rights organisations and survivors who understand evolving forms of abuse in their local contexts. It would also require platforms to make disaggregated data accessible to affected communities across the region, enabling them to track patterns of tech-facilitated gender-based violence and assess the effectiveness of platform countermeasures in collaboration with civil society. Meaningful progress is possible, even in constrained environments, if ASEAN states and partners commit to coordinated action.