Social media, AI, and the fight for equality
Social media and artificial intelligence are changing how we talk about human rights. They’ve opened new doors for activism and connection but also brought old inequalities roaring into the digital age. For women, girls, and gender‑diverse people with disabilities, this technology boom is both empowering and exhausting, fuel for visibility on one hand, and a weapon of exclusion on the other.
Digital empowerment and new frontiers
There’s no denying the upside. Social media has given disabled women and gender‑diverse people much‑needed spaces to connect, advocate, and be seen. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have helped people tell their own stories without waiting for permission from traditional, often ableist, media. Online movements have turned hashtags into communities. Places where people can challenge stereotypes, share their everyday realities, and push for inclusion in schools, workplaces, and governments.
For many, the internet has become a place of possibility, a space to be visible, vocal, and heard.
Harassment, misrepresentation, and cyberviolence
But there’s a darker side. Social media can be violent. Disabled women, especially those with visible differences, face disproportionate harassment, sexualised abuse, and hate speech. UN reports show that this abuse is not the exception. It’s widespread. Many describe the internet not as a space of expression but one of constant fear.
The hostility mirrors what’s happening offline. As women’s and disability rights face rollback in some countries, those same regressive patterns rear their heads online, amplified by algorithms designed for virality, not safety.
Misinformation and the rollback of human rights
It’s not just individual abuse either. Disinformation itself is now an epidemic. Think about the harmful myths around autism or anti‑vaccine conspiracies that specifically target disability and women’s health. With platforms rolling back content moderation, bad actors have free rein to spread lies that undermine public health and human rights.
The lack of accountability from big tech has consequences that go far beyond the screen. These digital trends are fuelling the political regression of equality movements worldwide.
Artificial Intelligence: Promise and peril
Then there is AI. A new technology that could genuinely change lives for the better. It has certainly been a game changing tool for me. Voice assistants, captioning tools, and adaptive text programs have made technology more accessible for many people with disabilities. But we can’t forget that AI systems only reflect the values of the people who train them, and that means bias seeps in easily. Far too easily.
From facial recognition that can’t identify disabled people to job algorithms that quietly penalise anyone who discloses a disability, these tools can reinforce discrimination rather than dismantle it. Add in their growing use for surveillance, propaganda, and border control, and you start to see how AI can deepen inequality under the guise of progress.
The global context: Intersectional regression
Across the world, we’re watching women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights come under renewed attack, and digital tools, once celebrated for empowering activists, are being turned against them. Anti‑rights groups have learned how to weaponise AI to silence people.
Think deepfake videos, coordinated harassment, and algorithmic suppression all used to discredit and intimidate activists into silence without leaving a trace of physical violence. In some parts of the world, delivering such videos into the hands of community leaders can be a death sentence, it’s cheaper than a bullet and far more effective.
Governments, too, are joining in, using AI‑driven surveillance to monitor human rights defenders and censor dissent. For disabled women, girls and gender‑diverse people, who already navigate multiple forms of discrimination, this digital weaponisation strips away safety, credibility, and representation both online and off.
Reclaiming technology for equality
So where do we go from here? The solution lies in reclaiming technology for justice. That means governments, tech companies, and civil society all have to show up differently. They must centre disabled women and gender‑diverse voices in every conversation about AI ethics, online safety, and digital inclusion. And in more robust ways than tick a box tokenism.
Accessibility and safety can’t be optional extras tacked on after the fact. They must be basic building blocks of design and policy. As the UN’s independent experts have said, technology will either strengthen equality or weaponise exclusion. It’s our collective responsibility to make sure it does the former.
If the digital future is to mean freedom, then innovation has to serve liberation, not regression, for women, girls, and gender‑diverse people with disabilities everywhere.
