Online Gender Violence

At the end of 2021, the Argentinian Ministry of Women, Gender, and Diversity (MMGyD) announced the launch of a participatory and federal process to reform Law No. 26,485 on comprehensive protection to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women in the environments in which they develop their interpersonal relationships. As a result, a new bill is expected to be drafted in November 2022. This situation offers an unparalleled opportunity to debate extensively on the digital dimension of gender-based violence and its possible inclusion in the regulatory update.

Thus, ADC here presents a series of thoughts and recommendations on the question to contribute to the public debate on the strategies for coping with it, building around four major challenges:obtaining engagement from government in the formulation of responses that prevent and fight online gender-based violence; maintaining the balance between different rights in each of these responses; assessing the role of Internet intermediaries; and establishing a definition of the problem and its scope. 

In certain cases, we draw upon legal antecedents, congressional proposals, public policies, and court cases to illustrate our concepts, with no intention, however, to be understood as their thorough and systematic review. The report closes with a recap of all that is set forth throughout the text.