When Priya’s boyfriend posted a nude photo of her online, he told her it would give her a confidence boost by making her an object of desire for other men.
Instead she felt powerless knowing that someone she loved had shared an intimate photo without her consent.
“He said all these people dream of having you but only I get to have you,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Mumbai, not wanting to reveal her real name.
Priya’s story is all too common.
There has been a global rise in online harassment of women and girls in the past year, usually by abusive partners or ex-partners who are stuck at home in front of a screen due to coronavirus lockdowns, according to U.N. Women.
For Priya, it was the start of a series of privacy breaches as her boyfriend began to control her online presence.
“I was constantly walking on eggshells. It may not be physical violence but it would mean either I’m slut-shamed (for talking to people online) or I worried how my…