Von der Leyen’s Digital Europe: Prioritizing Online Equality?

“A Europe fit for the digital age” is one of the six policy priorities of the von der Leyen Commission. However, digitalisation and digital policy are not gender-neutral. The use of social media, websites and other online platforms to discuss, debate and participate has resulted in significant upsurges in the abuse that women receive online. These – online – forms of violence against women manifest themselves increasingly as forms of sexist hate speech, online harassment, threats and online text-based abuses. Online violence against women operates – in an increasingly digital society – as an obstacle to “A Union of Equality.” The 2020–2025 European Commission Gender Equality Strategy sets – in principle – a benchmark for the initiatives and policy changes across Europe to achieve gender equality. Despite a growing recognition at the European supranational level that violence against women is increasingly happening online, fragmented approaches across European institutions and EU member states continue to exist. Drawing on the European Commission’s work about regulating online spaces, this paper critically scrutinizes the shortcomings of the von der Leyen Commission’s approaches to law and policy on digital equality and violence against women.