Pakistan’s marginalized communities—women, transgender individuals, and religious minorities—face a hostile online environment where cyber harassment is systematically weaponized to silence them. A recent research study on tackling marginalization in online spaces found that digital violence in Pakistan extends offline power structures. Online abuse, from doxxing and deepfake technology to disinformation campaigns and targeted hate speech, is orchestrated to reinforce societal hierarchies. Each group experiences distinct patterns of cyber harassment, exposing the state’s failure to protect its most vulnerable citizens.

Women’s rights activists face hypersexualized abuse, moral policing, and character assassination, especially for feminist advocacy. Deepfake technology and doxxing increasingly discredit them, spreading misinformation through manipulated images and videos. Transgender individuals endure aggressive digital harassment, with religious narratives and conspiracy theories falsely linking gender identity rights to moral corruption, fueling smear campaigns that escalate into real-world violence and exclusion. Religious minorities, particularly Ahmadis, face state-backed surveillance, hate speech, and blasphemy accusations, leading to legal persecution and social ostracization. Hindus are vilified as “Indian agents,” Christians as Western conspirators, and Sikhs as anti-state actors, reinforcing sectarian........

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