As more women take on public leadership and regulatory roles, Australia's first eSafety commissioner warns they could require security protections similar to elected parliamentarians due to plausible online threats made against them.
Julie Inman Grant made history when she was appointed to lead Australia's eSafety Commission in 2017, a world-first government regulatory body dedicated to keeping citizens safer online.
She has driven significant regulatory reform, including developing industry standards to address illegal content, age-restricted material and emerging AI harms online.
But it is in leading the implementation of Australia' landmark social media ban, which delays children's access until they are 16, that Ms Inman Grant herself has endured the most significant online threats.
Following the ban announcement, billionaire Elon Musk, who owns social media platform X, made a public post calling Ms Inman Grant a "censorship commissar".
Within 24 hours, 75,000 posts had been directed at her, 80 per cent of which were toxic, harmful and plausible death threats.
Speaking to Australia's first female prime minister Julia Gillard during Women Deliver, Ms Inman Grant said she had been doxxed and had deepfakes and death threats made against her.
The pair's conversation was part of a live recording for Ms Gillard's podcast, A Podcast of One's Own.
"It is gendered and it is designed to wear you down, just like any other form of sexualised, violent online abuse that plays upon gendered standards," she said.
"My issue is when they dox my children and my family members ... it makes you sit back and go, am I putting my family and my kids in danger, and how do I protect them?"
Doxxing is a form of online harassment where an individual's private information such as their home address, phone number or photos are published without their consent.
Ms Inman Grant noted there were security protections for elected officials, who can face similar threats due to their work, but not the same for regulators.
"There are protections - and I support them - provided to elected members of parliament, but there aren't the same protections provided to regulators like myself," she said.
"I'm kind of a new case, because I guess there aren't that many regulators around the world that have been issued a dog whistle from Elon Musk.
"It comes with a cost, but what (perpetrators) don't realise is: the more they target me, the more I dig in."
