So To Speak: AI, Misogyny, and the New Machinery of Smear

So To Speak | By Sonia P. Soto

Artificial Intelligence was supposed to make the world smarter.

Instead, in the hands of misogyny, it has simply made character assassination faster.

A study cited by UN Women and reported by Rappler found that nearly one in four women in public life has experienced AI-assisted online violence—deepfakes, manipulated images, and gendered disinformation.

Let’s call it what it is.

Not criticism.
Not debate.

Violence.

Because when someone fabricates sexual images, manipulates photos, or creates fake videos to destroy a woman’s reputation, the goal is not discussion.

The goal is silencing.

And notice who the targets are.

Women journalists.
Women activists.
Women politicians.
Women who refuse to stay quiet.

If they cannot defeat a woman in an argument, they attack her dignity.

That tactic is not new.

For centuries, the quickest way to silence a woman in public life has been to smear her character.

Call her immoral.
Call her unstable.
Invent a scandal.

The formula is ancient.

What is new is the machinery.

Yesterday, it was gossip.
Today, it is deepfake.

Yesterday, rumors spread in whispers.
Today, algorithms amplify the lie.

Same misogyny.
Just upgraded technology.

With a few clicks, anyone can now manufacture a fake video. A manipulated photograph. A fabricated “scandal.” Within minutes it travels across social media faster than the truth can even stand up.

Fake—yet viral.

And once it spreads, the damage is done.

Because in public life, credibility is everything.

Destroy the credibility of a woman journalist and you weaken the press.
Destroy the credibility of a woman politician and you distort democracy.
Destroy the credibility of a woman activist and you intimidate dissent.

In short: silence her.

Drive her out of the conversation.
Make public life so toxic that fewer women will dare to enter it.

But here is what the bullies of the digital age fail to understand.

Women did not struggle for generations to claim a voice in public life only to surrender it to trolls with AI apps.

If anything, the rise of these attacks proves something else entirely:

Women’s voices have become too powerful to ignore.

Technology will continue to evolve. AI will grow more sophisticated. Platforms will become even faster.

But our response must evolve faster.

Because if digital violence against women becomes normal, then democracy itself becomes distorted.

And when women are pushed out of public conversation, the truth is pushed out with them.

So let us be clear.

AI may be the newest tool in the arsenal of misogyny.

But the answer remains the same as it has always been.

Women will not be silenced.

So to speak.