"Several projects, publications and initiatives within German development cooperation already focus on bridging the digital gender divide, for instance by promoting gender-equitable internet access, digital literacy and employment opportunities in the tech sector. This paper aims to build on existing work in the field of gender-based online violence (GBOV) and its influence on political and societal participation. A special focus is put on how GBOV can affect the political and societal participation of women and girls in all their diversity as well as other genders, and how this might be remedied. The objective is to provide German development cooperation with some background information on GBOV to raise awareness of the issue, including a taxonomy of the different forms of GBOV, as well as a first overview of implementation approaches to prevent and address the consequences of GBOV." (Introduction)

"Gender-based violence (GBV) refers to acts that intend to cause physical or psychological harm targeting people based on their gender. This includes violence against women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) persons, who are disproportionately affected. GBV is recognised as a human rights violation. It has short-term and often also long-term psychological and physical health effects on GBV survivors. They often suffer from the social and economic consequences of the violence. In addition, GBV has a negative impact on gender and other societal relations, which represents a major constraint to countries’ development. The increasing spread and use of digital tools and technologies has enabled new forms of GBV to emerge, which add a new quality and dimension to violence.
Characteristics of GBOV include that: barriers of space and time become secondary; anonymity and transnationality hinder the prosecution of perpetrators; data is not easily removable from the internet; and information can be spread rapidly. Online violence refers to the use of digital tools and technologies to engage in activities that result in physical, psychological or emotional harm to another person, including self-harm. One example is hate which can be transmitted to millions of people in the digital world in a matter of seconds. Abuse thus does not only take place online, but can be complemented by offline harassment, threats and violence such as vandalism and physical attacks. In this case, online and offline violence mutually reinforce each other." (Page 6)