ISLAMABAD

Cybercrime complaints in Pakistan rose sharply in 2025, with women, transgender persons, journalists and rights activists facing an escalating wave of online harassment, hacking, deepfakes and blackmail, according to a new report released by the Digital Rights Foundation.

The report, titled “Digital Threats Against At-Risk Communities in Pakistan”, documented 5,041 new cases reported to the organization’s Digital Security Helpline between May 2024 and December 2025, including 3,012 complaints in 2025 alone — a significant increase from 2,029 cases recorded in 2024.

The women-led rights organization warned that Pakistan’s digital landscape is becoming increasingly hostile for vulnerable communities, particularly women and transgender individuals, who are disproportionately facing image-based abuse, account hacking, blackmail and coordinated online intimidation campaigns.

According to the findings, women and transgender women reported 531 hacking incidents and 514 cases involving deepfakes, edited images and non-consensual use of images (NCUI). Another 500 blackmail complaints and 491 threat-related cases were documented during the reporting period.

The report said many attacks were designed to damage reputations and silence victims through fear and social pressure, often forcing survivors to delete social media content, reduce online activity or withdraw from public discourse entirely.

“Digital threats in Pakistan reflect broader social and power structures,” the report stated, noting that women journalists, activists and minority-rights defenders increasingly face sexualized harassment, coordinated trolling and self-censorship.

Men, meanwhile, were more likely to report financial fraud and technical scams, with 732 fraud-related complaints and 453 hacking cases recorded.

Researchers said the growing use of deepfake technology and online impersonation has intensified reputational harm, particularly for women in public-facing professions. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp and X were identified as the primary channels where harassment campaigns spread rapidly.

The report also highlighted the psychological toll of cyber abuse, linking persistent online attacks to anxiety, hypervigilance, fear and professional withdrawal among victims. Journalists and civil society workers interviewed for the study said online threats increasingly spill into offline safety concerns.

Digital Rights Foundation warned that expensive cybersecurity tools are contributing to what it described as a “two-tier digital safety system” in Pakistan, where safer technologies such as VPNs and password managers remain inaccessible for many users due to cost and connectivity barriers.

“People facing the highest levels of harassment often have the least access to reliable digital protection,” the report noted.

The organization further criticized slow reporting and moderation systems on major social media platforms, saying delayed responses allow harmful content to spread widely before action is taken. Victims frequently experience “reporting fatigue” after repeated complaints yield little or inconsistent results.

The report called on social media companies to introduce faster emergency response mechanisms for impersonation, hacking and non-consensual intimate imagery, while urging Pakistani law enforcement agencies to adopt survivor-centered and gender-sensitive cybercrime response procedures.

It also recommended specialized training for investigators on digital evidence preservation and stronger safeguards against data leaks and retaliatory surveillance.

Founded in 2013, Digital Rights Foundation has operated Pakistan’s digital safety and cyber harassment helpline since 2016, providing support to women, journalists, human rights defenders and marginalized communities facing online abuse.