Cyberviolence against women in the EU (European Parliament)

A number of laws have been introduced by the European Union with the intention of changing this. The regulation on countering violence against women, which must be put into effect by June 2027 at the latest, improves victim protection and access to justice while establishing minimum EU criteria for criminalizing a number of serious types of cyberviolence. Cyberviolence is also being impacted by EU privacy protection regulations. For instance, large digital platforms in the EU are required under the recently passed Digital Services Act to take down offensive material from their websites. This plays a key role in eliminating modified or personal photographs that are shared online without the owner’s permission; based on available data, practically all of these images feature women. To address this issue, member states employ a variety of legal strategies, including the application of ordinary criminal law in conjunction with the criminalization of particular cyber offenses. An explicit gender dimension is also present in several Member States.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2024/767146/EPRS_BRI(2024)767146_EN.pdf