Leticia Sabbatini, a researcher at the School of Communication, Media and Information at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV ECMI) and a doctorate student in Communication, participated as a speaker in the investigation committee targeting cyber violence against women at the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj) this Thursday, September 21.

The committee investigated the causes of cyber violence against women in the state of Rio de Janeiro, as well as ways to prevent and combat it, taking into account how these forms of violence are structured. The committee included the deputies Luiz Paulo (PSD), Índia Armelau (PL), and Marta Rocha (PDT), the president of the group. Another participant was Rafael Wanderley, lawyer and developer of the ‘Maria da Penha virtual’ application, a program consolidated by the State Court of Justice (TJ-RJ) to expand access to the protection network for women who became victims of violence in Rio de Janeiro.

Letícia Sabbatini is the author of the “Map of Political Gender Violence on Digital Platforms” and presented data on gender-based violence committed on major social media platforms. She emphasized the importance of addressing the topic to tackle the issue effectively: “The understanding is that the violence on digital platforms becomes more ‘slippery’, more difficult to map and become material, in order to combat it.”

The debate focused on issues related to demonstrations of online violence and its gaps in understanding that are most harmful to democracy, and on how social media platforms are passive spaces for the dissemination of this type of content among more users.