Andrew TateAn American-British media personality who has become notorious for controversial videos. He has been charged with rape and human trafficking. has been under house arrest in RomaniaA southeastern European country with a population of 19 million. for weeks. His alleged victims now number 35 women, including one who was just 15.¹

Yet still he posts every day to his millions of followers, brags about his exploits and publicises his "university" online.

Now BBC PanoramaA British current affairs programme, first broadcast in 1953. has spoken to two women who say they were raped by Tate ten years ago, long before his rise to fame.

One alleges that Tate invited her back to his flat after a date, strangled her and then assaulted her. He is later said to have sent her voice notes and texts boasting about what he had done.²

She reported Tate to the police but no charges were brought. Figures show that only about 2.6% of rapes recorded by police in England and Wales ever result in charges.³

Panorama also spoke to women who worked for Tate's webcam business in Romania. They say they were controlled and abused by Tate.

The Panorama documentary comes just after the world was shaken by a similar story in France. Dominique Pelicot spent years drugging his wife, Gisele, and then inviting men to assault her.⁴

What unites these two cases is the men's use of the internet to come up with new kinds of abuse.

In Romania, Tate is accused of using the "loverboy" method to groom women. He would pretend to be in relationships with them, then exploit their trust to force them to perform sexual acts for online videos, making more than £1 million.⁵

Pelicot, meanwhile, is believed to have frequented online forums where men fantasise about non-consensual sexual activity and used them to find recruits to assault his wife.

These cases are shocking in their scale, but they are not outliers. The use of the internet to brutalise women is on the rise. One study found one in 12 people has suffered explicit images of them being circulated online without their consent, and 90% of the victims are women.⁶

Some also believe the internet is fuelling violence against women. Teenage boys who are exposed to explicit online content are much more likely to abuse women in their own lives. Strangling during sex has become commonplace among young people.⁷

But others say the internet is not only a source of harm for women. Online communities can give women advice and aid if they want to escape an abusive partner.

Is the internet bad for women?

Yes: The internet warps men's minds to make them more violent against women, and gives them more tools to carry out that violence. It has become an engine of mass misogynyHatred of or discrimination against women. The term comes from the Ancient Greek "miso", meaning "hate", and "gyne", "woman"..

No: Unfortunately, male violence against women is nothing new. The internet certainly did not invent it. It gives women ways of talking about their experiences, organising and fighting for justice.

Or... The internet is simply the medium through which we now live our lives. Like the rest of society, it is shot through with sexism. But like the rest of society, we can change that if we put in the work.