A major new report examining a coordinated cyber abuse campaign targeting the all-women team at Collective Shout was launched at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday, 12 August 2026.
Compiled by the Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI), the report documents a year-long campaign of online hate, threats, misinformation and technology-facilitated abuse directed at Collective Shout following its successful campaign against violent sexualised video games.
The report calls for urgent changes to how coordinated online hate campaigns are identified, monitored, investigated and prosecuted.
From campaign success to coordinated abuse
In April 2025, Collective Shout campaigned for the removal of No Mercy, a game depicting sexual violence including rape and incest, and hundreds of similar games from major gaming platforms.
Following the campaign, the organisation faced an escalating wave of online abuse. What began as criticism of Collective Shout's campaign developed into coordinated misogynistic harassment, threats, doxxing, misinformation and digitally manipulated content.
The abuse included AI-generated fake headlines, fabricated images and sexually violent material. Personal information was also published online, including home addresses, creating significant safety risks for members of the team.
The scale of the campaign forced Collective Shout to shut down multiple website and social media channels to prevent further abuse, temporarily limiting its ability to communicate even with supporters.
AI is changing the scale of online abuse
The experience also highlights how artificial intelligence can be used to rapidly create and distribute misinformation and abusive content.
Collective Shout reported encountering AI-generated false accusations, fabricated photographs and fake news headlines designed to damage the organisation's reputation.
The ability to generate convincing content within seconds can significantly increase the scale of coordinated harassment, making it more difficult for individuals and organisations to respond.
Gaps in the reporting system
One of the key issues identified was the difficulty of reporting what was experienced as a coordinated campaign rather than a series of individual incidents.
Collective Shout reported making dozens of complaints before eventually stopping because the reporting process was time-consuming and required evidence to be submitted separately for individual posts.
The organisation also found that different agencies and authorities were dealing with different aspects of the abuse, creating a fragmented response to what was effectively a multi-platform campaign.
The report argues that current systems are not adequately equipped to identify and respond to large-scale, coordinated online hate campaigns.
A call for reform
The report makes recommendations aimed at improving how authorities, platforms and other organisations respond to technology-facilitated abuse.
Collective Shout is also calling for stronger action against technologies and platforms that facilitate image-based abuse, including applications designed to create non-consensual sexualised images, as well as websites that facilitate doxxing.
The broader message is that women should be able to participate in the digital public sphere without facing intimidation, harassment and violence.