Report: Uyghur women human rights defenders and journalists face unprecedented repression by China

The Citizen Lab, a civil rights and human rights organization at the University of Toronto in Canada, has produced a new 79-page report. “Women human rights defenders and journalists living in exile face the same threat of transnational digital repression from authoritarian regimes as male human rights defenders and journalists, but they also face threats and harassment in the form of sexual harassment, abuse, and intimidation,” the report said. “Uyghur women human rights defenders and journalists face an unprecedented level of digital repression by China,” the report said. “No Escape: Using Gender as a Tool of Transnational Digital Repression,” a report by the Munk School of Global Affairs and the Citizen Public Policy Lab at the University of Toronto, an interdisciplinary research center. Researchers who wrote the report say more than 80 women, from over 20 countries, interviewed human rights defenders and journalists. The report said: Uyghur women activists and journalists were the primary group interviewed, and 10 Uyghur activists and journalists participated in the research project. The report shows how authoritarian regimes like China have used online harassment, defamation, and more From digital threats (AI and advanced surveillance technologies) to silencing women who speak out for human rights in their countries.
“Digital technology (AI and advanced surveillance technologies) targeting women human rights defenders and journalists living in exile not only faces the same digital threats as male human rights defenders, but also threats, attacks, and intimidation in the form of sexual harassment, abuse, and violations.” These threats have caused significant harm, ranging from professional setbacks, discrimination, and social isolation to the breakdown of intimate relationships (family and friendship), profound emotional distress, and psychological trauma. Transnational gender-based digital oppression is often deeply rooted around notions of women’s bodies, sexuality, behavior, and family dignity. It also includes the extension and abuse of male-dominated patriarchal norms. “This has led to further violence and discrimination.”
Marcus Michaelsen, a senior research fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, who led the research project, provided a detailed explanation of the nature, content, and key ideas of the report in an interview with our radio station.
He said: Dictatorships, like authoritarian regimes, use different forms of transnational repression. That is, the digital silencing of activists living beyond their borders—that is, repression using artificial intelligence and surveillance technology—is at the heart of transnational repression. In this report, we specifically looked at the repression of women in exile, specifically women human rights defenders and journalists. We found that these regimes use what we call “gendered cyberattacks.” Dictatorships silence and discredit women through threats, intimidation, insults, online harassment, name-calling, slander, sexual threats, and rape. In doing so, they harm women’s identities. We prepared this report based on interviews with more than 80 victims of transnational repression from different countries. “We have shown that these regimes use this kind of misogyny as a political tool to silence criticism.”
So why are Uyghur women human rights defenders and journalists targeted by China’s transnational digital crackdown? Who is behind this transnational gender-based digital repression? How and by what means do they do it?
Muattar Ilqut, a researcher at the Victims of Communism Memorial Fund in Washington, D.C., who co-authored the report, responded to our question: “Uyghur women human rights defenders, journalists, camp witnesses, and some researchers have played an important role in exposing the Uyghur genocide, so they have been targeted by China’s transnational digital crackdown. This repression and threats mainly come from the Chinese government. China’s goal is to use various means to prevent Uyghur women human rights defenders and journalists from their human rights activities.
Muattar Ilqut also accused the Chinese government, Chinese spies, some Chinese living abroad, and some Uyghurs in the diaspora of personal hostility, as well as of coercion by China, against Uyghur women human rights defenders and journalists, through intimidation, humiliation, online harassment, insults, and slander. She stated that they use methods such as sexual harassment and defamation.
Researcher Markus Michaelsen also pointed out that China is carrying out the most severe transnational repression against women human rights defenders. And Uyghur journalists.
He said, "China is definitely one of the countries that is practicing the most serious forms of transnational repression. China is conducting a global campaign to monitor the Uyghur diaspora and attack the diaspora for speaking out against the Chinese government.
As for the Uyghurs, their situation is worse than that of the victims of transnational repression from other countries. The activities of the Uyghurs abroad have faced very serious consequences. Because there are camps in East Turkistan to repress people. If the Uyghurs are doing activities abroad, their parents or family members may have disappeared for years. Most of the Uyghur activists we spoke to have not been in contact with their families for several years. All of the Uyghur activists who are actively campaigning against the Chinese government said that they will not be able to return to their homeland for the rest of their lives. This is very difficult. Activists from other countries are also worried about their parents and family members. They also need to pay attention to the protection of their families.