Urgent action needed to prevent the rise of digital violence in Africa, say experts | global development

Activists and lawyers in Africa calls for urgent action to protect women, girls and boys as digital violence emerges across the continent.

A massive increase in internet users, along with large numbers of people under the age of 30has fueled a rise in gender-based online violence across the continent, experts say, by giving perpetrators new tools to control and silence women and girls, and influential boys.

“Unfortunately, the world offline is not safe, equal, and inclusive. But the world online increases this to such an extent that it creates a foundation for a very, very unequal future,” said Ayesha Mago, global advocacy director at the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, a global network that supports research on violence against women and children in low- and middle-income countries.

“In Africa, internet access is growing exponentially and more than 70% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is under 30. We know that young people generally experience higher rates of online violence and are very often greater users of any technology,” she said.

Digital violence against women and girls has devastating consequences such as mental health problems, withdrawal from public and economic life, physical attacks on LGBTQI+ people in countries that criminalize homosexuality, and femicide.

Although there is very little pan-African research, one study across five countries in sub-Saharan Africa has shown this 28% of women have experienced online violence. As Internet access expands, this number is expected to rise. Only 38% of people on the continent are internet usersaccording to the International Telecommunications Union – and among women the figure drops to 31%.

Studies, research and anecdotal evidence at the national level paint a horrifying picture of extreme levels of violence and a toxic online environment with dire real-world consequences.

Extensive research conducted in Ethiopia over the past four years by the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), found that gender-based abuse is so endemic online that it has become normalized. One Ethiopian woman interviewed by CIR said “no platform feels safe.” The researchers found that while men are attacked online for ideas and opinions, women receive misogynistic abuse related to their appearance and role in society. Threats and intimidation also migrate offline, putting women at risk of physical attack. At least three women have fled Ethiopia in fear of their lives after a campaign of online and offline abuse.

In Uganda, in 2021, the National Survey on Violence in Uganda revealed that half of the women (49%) reported being subjected to online harassment.

in South Africaforthcoming research by Equimundo and UN Women found that exposure to harmful content translates into men being 2.6 times more likely to commit violence and 1.8 times more likely to believe misogynistic views.

Primary targets on the continent include women in the political arena, along with human rights activists, journalists and women with a public profile. Until 2021 report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the African Parliamentary Union Looking at the experiences of 137 female parliamentarians across 50 African countries, it found that 46% had been the target of sexist attacks online and 42% said they had received threats of death, rape, beating or kidnapping, often through social media.

ON UN Women reports in Kenya found that name-calling, blackmail using negative images of women in politics, and other messages were posted online with the aim of spreading fear and undermining women’s credibility to participate in elections. In focus groups, women reported living in fear of being raped while on the campaign trail or during meetings that would run late into the night.

In Tunisia, research conducted between 2019 and 2023 revealed that more than 70% of political comments involving women contained violent or abusive language. Women were frequently dehumanized and called animals, such as cow, goat or sheep, and attacks disproportionately targeted sexuality, morality, age and physical appearance. Black women in politics were singled out, with people questioning whether they belonged to the nation.

worldwide, Almost two in five women will experience technology-facilitated violence while 85% of women who are online have witnessed or encountered online abuse. Less than 40% of countries have laws protecting women from cyber-harassment or cyber-stalkingleaving 44% of the world’s women and girls – 1.8 billion – without access to legal protection.

According to Mago, about 17 countries in Africa have introduced legislation that looks at cybercrime. She highlighted South Africa’s Domestic Violence Amendment Actwhich has been held up as a good example in the region, with specific provisions allowing courts to order digital platforms to take down offensive content. “Most (laws) do not recognize the gendered nature of abuse,” she said. Instead, the law should explicitly address online gender violence. “It is also worth noting that legislation is a tool for repression and protection. Unfortunately, we have found that sometimes laws (related to digital violence) can be used to persecute specific groups of people.”

The African Union Convention on the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls was introduced in 2024 and includes digital violence, but according to Sibongile Ndashe, executive director of the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa, it is “regressive”.

She said: “We spent a lot of time trying to push it back because we feel that the convention is not doing what it is supposed to do in terms of setting out rights, required state obligations and providing clarity (in relation to technology-facilitated gender-based violence).”

However, it is not only legislation that is needed. “People don’t understand their rights,” Mago said. “There is a general lack of awareness that there are laws or specific actions online that are not allowed and that you can get protection from.”

Digital literacy is weak, it added, as is law enforcement. People believe online violence is not real and underestimate its effects, and platforms do not pay attention to local languages, contexts and cultures.

“Performs should be liable for the damage that occurs to them,” Mago said. “And they have to put user safety before profit, and that’s certainly not happening anywhere in the world.”