The Algorithm of Fear: Influencers, Impunity, and the Silencing of Syrian Women, by Zaina Erhaim – 17 July 2026

From Arab Reform Initiative

Before writing this piece, I posed a simple question on my public Facebook profile: Since the fall of the Syrian regime, which women have been targeted by online hate campaigns? The responses were immediate and telling. Eight women commented, “Me”. Another wrote, “All of us”. A third offered a stark correction: “You should flip the question. Who hasn’t been attacked?”

In the wake of the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024, digital spaces – particularly Facebook and Telegram – have become deeply polarized, volatile, and profoundly unsafe, especially for those who defy simplistic, binary social, sectarian, and political narratives. For decades, the paralyzing fear of the Mukhabarat, Syria’s security intelligence, which once jailed citizens for a single Facebook “like”, kept Syrians in check. Now that this fear has vanished, many have rushed into social media to speak freely. But they are navigating this newfound liberty without guardrails, oversight, or protection.

Many online spaces continue to reproduce the dynamics that pioneering activists claim to oppose, including silencing, dehumanization, sectarianism, misogyny, and the policing of acceptable opinions.¹

Since the fall of the regime, I have tracked coordinated online smear campaigns targeting 20 Syrian women across various professional fields, each attacked under different pretexts. These assaults deploy the well-documented playbook of digital character assassination: highly sexualized language, explicit threats of rape, the distribution of non-consensual images, and coordinated mobs flooding their profiles with hate speech and sexist slurs. Increasingly, these tactics are augmented by AI-generated, gendered disinformation campaigns meticulously designed to destroy their reputations. In addition, engagement-driven algorithms on social media platforms let extreme actors – from all sides – weaponize platforms to incite violence.

To further understand this trend in Syria, I interviewed (either in person or online) 13 women from different backgrounds, 11 of whom are based inside Syria and two abroad. Some resisted the campaigns and decided to stay online, while others had to leave. Ten of them I interviewed, also as part of my work with the Women Journalists Alliance (WJA). Their stories reflect a broader reality, that of Syrian online spaces that have become even more misogynistic and hostile.²

Regardless of their background and “revolutionary legacy”, Syrian women have been the main target of the hate campaigns led and initiated by the rising social media influencers, especially the campaigns where gender intersects with sect. Women’s fear that this online violence would turn into real offline attacks has handicapped them and forced them to impose harsh self-censorship or completely disengage from Syrian public affairs.

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Zaina Erhaim is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience in journalism, media, and strategic communications. She currently works as a communications, media, and gender consultant with several international organizations operating across the Middle East and North Africa.

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