“What starts online doesn’t stay online. Digital abuse spills over into real life, spreading fear, silencing voices and, in the worst cases, leading to physical violence and femicide.”
– Sima Bahous, Executive Director, UN Women
As entrepreneurial ventures in India become increasingly digitalized, this is not just a warning but the lived reality for thousands of women and queer business owners operating online. Most home-based small businesses today rely on visibility through Instagram Reels, handmade product videos, thrift drops, skincare tutorials, and constant contact. The scope of this online visibility is distorted in an AI-driven digital economy. Recommendation systems decide who gets seen. The aesthetics, tone and identity of emerging brands are tirelessly filtered by algorithms. Generative tools can turn a single photo into a single photo Deepfake in minutes. The same digital resources that empower marginalized entrepreneurs can also become media of exploitation and exclusion. This article explores the blurring line between visibility and vulnerability that business owners overcome every day.
Background: The rise of homegrown digital companies
The defining battle for generations of women and queer business owners has been accessibility. With the increasing trend of home-based digital ventures, they can now sell their products and services within the walls of bedrooms, kitchens and small studio spaces. These creatives, from thrift sellers and home bakers to artisans, trainers and stylists, largely belong to groups that have historically been excluded from traditional markets. For them, the Internet became a rare entry point into economic life. In their groundbreaking report IT for Change, Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami argue that digital platforms offer women “visibility without mobility” and enable them to participate in global markets.
FII
This change was accelerated by India’s rapid digitalization after 2015 IWWAGEs According to the findings, the number of internet users in India surpassed 500 million in 2019, but only one in three women had ever used the internet, and women in rural India were 72% less likely to own a smartphone. However, these restrictions have not stopped many women and queer users from seeking livelihood opportunities online. They tactfully used platforms like Instagram for marketing, WhatsApp for communication and Meesho for distribution. While we welcome this digital empowerment and its possibilities, the contradictions are also unmistakable. The same AI-driven platforms that help women get discovered also determine who stays invisible, who grows, and who fails. In this unequal digital economy, visibility becomes both an opportunity and a risk.
The double dilemma of digital visibility
The act of online visibility is not a matter of choice for most women and queer digital entrepreneurs; it is a necessity. Visibility helps them build communities and carve out their niche in markets that have structurally excluded them. But the women interviewed in the interview Internet Democracy Project Studies suggest that equal visibility brings a flood of gender-based hostility. One respondent recalled receiving rape threats simply for expressing her political views; Another describes how strangers took photos of her, defaced them, and shared them publicly just because she dared to speak her mind.
The scope of online visibility is distorted in an AI-driven digital economy. Recommendation systems decide who gets seen. The aesthetics, tone and identity of emerging brands are tirelessly filtered by algorithms.
Digital entrepreneurs experience this harassment particularly acutely because the larger they grow, the more intense the surveillance they are subjected to becomes. As UN Women highlights in its FAQ 2025 on AI-powered online abuse, algorithms can enable harassment by amplifying abusive content, automatically generating misogynistic images and producing deepfakes on a large scale. A selfie or product photo can now be turned into synthetic pornography in minutes. Despite numerous disadvantages, opting out is not an option for all marginalized online creators and entrepreneurs.
Emotional and aesthetic work in entrepreneurial economics
The social media profiles of women and queer homeowners showcasing their posts, reels, and stories represent an aesthetic that, while appealing, fails to capture the unrecognized work that goes into them. Nobody expects the constant scrutiny that they are subjected to because of their external characteristics. There is a compulsion to sell not only the products and services but also a sophisticated lifestyle and a public image. The Fairwork Gender Report (2023) notes that this type of invisible, feminized work has always existed, but digital platforms have magnified it, rewarding those who are constantly present and endlessly adaptable.
In a world driven by AI, physical appearance is no longer under the control of the individual. Filters can dramatically smooth and brighten skin, editing apps reshape bodies by default, and analytics determine what kind of femininity is acceptable to viewers. While these tools promise convenience, they also force digital entrepreneurs to follow a set pattern of “what sells.” In many cases, individual narratives must be compromised to be recognized by algorithms that glorify uniformity. The costs of maintenance are rarely considered and are largely gender-specific. There is constant pressure to be performative just to remain acceptable to online audiences.
Who can be seen? Who gets paid: Brand collaborations and platform commissions
Brand collaborations are the main source of income for many digital entrepreneurs and creatives. However, in an AI-based digital economy, the possibilities for brand collaboration are becoming increasingly distorted. Platforms use AI-driven metrics for “predictive engagement,” “brand safety scores,” and “audience quality” to determine which entrepreneurs show up in searches or recommendation lists. This means that the system tacitly rewards creators who conform to algorithm-friendly norms and stereotypes. Fairwork India’s 2023 findings show how opaque algorithms and uneven platform management create structural disadvantages for marginalized workers, with pay and opportunities varying based on factors beyond their control.
Women and queer entrepreneurs report facing these inherent biases. Dark-skinned amateur bakers have spoken in product videos on Instagram about how AI automatically adjusts their skin tone. Queer entrepreneurs say brand dashboards categorize their content as “sensitive,” reducing their reach. As AI shapes visibility, brands often end up collaborating with people that the algorithm brings to light, creating a loop of privileging the privileged. While marginalized business owners and founders remain invisible, they reproduce the injustices of the real world.
Deepfakes and new forms of AI-controlled digital violence
Every post and reel on social media contributes to the public image of a digital entrepreneur. With the advent of AI, online posting has now become a major source of risk and violence. As recently published in the Guardian, Indian creators like 23-year-old law graduate Gaatha Sarvaiya are included “Hesitant to post something” because a photo could become something offensive. The Rati Foundation and Tattle report shows that around 10% of helpline cases now involve AI-manipulated images, including “nude” photos used for blackmail.
All of these cases highlight the increasing threat of AI deepfakes that marginalized creatives and entrepreneurs face on a daily basis. The public visibility of their face, voice and other personal characteristics can easily be manipulated and used against them. Despite the unimaginable risks posed by deepfakes, legal remedies and policy action remain lacking. Although online platforms often remove content that violates their community guidelines, by this point many posts and videos have already gone viral and the damage is done. Thus, women and queer entrepreneurs are constantly exposed to the possibilities of AI-powered digital violence.
It highlights how AI and various digital resources have enabled small business owners from marginalized backgrounds to make a living from their homes and accessible spaces. While the possibilities are endless in an increasingly digital society, the disadvantages and obstacles must also be taken into account. The way forward is not for creators to shrink, but for platforms, policymakers and tech companies to become stronger. Digital empowerment must evolve into digital equity so that the entrepreneurs shaping India’s online economy can thrive without fear.
Sources: