Activists and lawyers in Africa are calling for urgent action to protect women, girls and boys as digital violence surges across the continent. A massive rise in internet users, coupled with huge numbers of people aged under 30, has fuelled an increase in gendered online violence across the continent, according to experts, by giving perpetrators new tools to control and silence women and girls, and influence boys. “Unfortunately the world offline is not safe, equal and inclusive. But the world online is proliferating that to such an extent that it’s creating 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 face higher rates of online violence and very often are bigger users of any tech,” she said.

Digital violence against women and girls has devastating effects such as mental health problems, withdrawal from public and economic life, physical attacks on LGBTQI+ people in countries that criminalise homosexuality, and femicide. While there is very little pan-African research, one study across five countries in sub-Saharan Africa showed that 28% of women had experienced online violence. As internet access expands, this number is expected to rise. Only 38% of people on the continent are internet users, according to the International Telecommunication Union – and among women the figure falls to 31%. Studies, research and anecdotal evidence at a national level paint a horrifying picture of extreme levels of violence and a toxic online environment with dire real-life consequences. Extensive research conducted in Ethiopia over the past four years by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) found that gendered abuse is so endemic online it has become normalized... In Uganda, in 2021, the National Survey on Violence in Uganda revealed that half of the women (49%) reported having been subjected to online harassment. In South Africa, upcoming research by Equimundo and UN Women found that exposure to harmful content translated into men being 2.6 times more likely to perpetrate violence and 1.8 times more likely to believe misogynistic views… A UN Women report 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 more than 70% of political commentary involving women contained violent or abusive language. Women were frequently dehumanised 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. Globally, nearly two in every five women will experience tech-facilitated violence while 85% of women who are online have witnessed or encountered online abuse…