Abir Al-Sahlani on the Industrialization of Digital Violence

Since 2019, Al-Sahlani has pushed for legal protections against gender-based violence, shifting her focus toward the emerging dangers of artificial intelligence. She argues that digital exploitation has moved from individual harassment to an industrial scale. The MEP points to incidents like the Grok chatbot generating millions of non-consensual "nudified" images of women and children as clear evidence that technology companies are failing to prioritize safety. This dehumanization, she contends, creates a chilling effect that discourages women from entering public life, effectively breaking the democratic supply chain.

Al-Sahlani is particularly critical of tech giants, dismissing the notion that platforms like those owned by Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg should operate without strict accountability. She advocates for the mandatory implementation of safety by design, suggesting that if companies cannot prevent the misuse of their tools, those functionalities must be outlawed. Her stance aligns with recent votes in the European Parliament's LIBE committee, which seeks to ban technologies capable of non-consensual image manipulation. Despite the mounting personal cost—including constant threats and sexualized harassment—she insists that gender equality remains an essential pillar of the European project rather than a secondary policy concern.