By Asimwe John Ishabairu|
The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) on March 15, 2024 hosted a webinar to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day theme; ‘InspireInclusion: African Women in Politics are Pushing Back Against Tech Facilitated Online Violence’, the webinar highlighted the importance of increased political inclusion of women noting that this is threatened by rising affronts to the presence and participation of women in political narratives both online and offline.“
“As women, we indeed face a lot of online abuse, and, unfortunately, whatever is happening now may hinder those who would want to be politicians, especially women. Because of online abuse, most women who want to join politics will be afraid of putting their life in the public eye,” said Hon. Susan Dossi, Member of Parliament representing Chikwawa West Constituency – Malawi. Hon. Dossi added that Malawi is working on strategies to ensure that the country has more women in Parliament.
While sharing her experience, Tanzania’s MP representing Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Hon. Neema Lugangira acknowledged that she had on several occasions been a victim of online abuse.
“When we are talking about online abuse, it’s not just on the social media platforms where you don’t know the people who are doing these abuses…its from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all the way to WhatsApp groups where you actually know the people…at least you know their contact numbers because you are in the same group. It is not an easy situation to be in,” said Lugangira.
She added that abusers oftentimes tend to hide under the blanket of “using their freedom of expression” to critique work of female politicians, but in actual fact, they are using their freedom of expression to limit us from using our own freedom of expression.” Lugangira noted.
Asked how this situation affects their online conversations, Lugangira responded saying that a lot of women parliamentarians choose not to be online and instead opt to self-censor due to the incredible amount of abuse that is subjected to them even when they are exercising their practice as politicians and simply dispensing information.
She opined that the issue of online abuse of women in politics is diminishing democracy and taking African countries back on efforts of democracy while decreasing the number of women and girls who might want to get into politics.
The webinar went on to also cast a spotlight on how women in active politics in various African countries are working towards protecting the rights of women online, including through different legal frameworks and platforms that have to play in addressing TFGBV associated with political spaces and discourse.
As a possible solution to this, Hon. Modestus Amutse, the Deputy Minister of ICT in Namibia said that more African countries needed to develop policies that have specific content to protect women against gender-based violence, especially online.
He noted that countries have policies that are directing the use of the internet in terms of governance, data protection or cyber security but these are not gender specific in many cases.
“They are just there to protect, perhaps the security of everyone on an equal basis. I would have loved to see policies that have provisions targeting the protection of women so that they are free when they use the internet because it is supposed to be open and accessible to all the people in respect to gender,” he noted.
Hon. Modestus emphasized a need for African countries to identify gaps that need to be filled so that they come up with provisions in ICT policies or online policies that give confidence to women to use the internet without fear.
Meanwhile, he said that Namibia encourages women participation in politics and that it is one of the countries where they have a 50, 50 gender balance when it comes to selecting members to go to parliament.
For Nigeria, Ms. Adedolapo Adegoro, noted that the country has one of the lowest representations in Africa with respect to women in parliament or holding political positions.
She also questioned the failure in the implementation of different laws that seek to protect women from online bullying.
“The Nigerian Cyber Crimes Act has the highest provisions that sort of protect women from online bullying…these provisions have been there for quite a while however, the first time it really received definition of interpretation from the courts was about four or five years ago,” Adedolapo noted.
She cited a need to adopt a multi-stakeholder approach where all actors are involved in putting together policies and procedures geared towards protection of women online.
Meta’s Sylvia Musalagani said that their organization believes that women have a right to participate in the online environment and have a right to find economic opportunities.
“We do recognize the place that our platforms play in women’s participation online and we are committed to continue having direct conversations with parliamentary initiatives and share ideas on how to improve,” she said.
The panelists appealed to social media platform operators to improve their content moderation practices regarding TFGBV. They observed a need for Meta to engage Members of Parliament through the African Parliamentary Network on Internet Governance so as to strengthen online space and ensure that more women get into politics.
“For more women to retain political seats, we need to be visible…if we are not online, it limits our visibility,” Tanzania’s Neema Lugangira said.
According to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on Gender Equality, digital technologies have the potential to increase women’s inclusion, participation, and engagement in politics, providing them with a platform to have their voices heard.
Over the years, women in politics have increasingly relied on various digital tools, especially social media platforms, to connect with their constituencies. However, they have also become the targets of online threats and abuse. It was observed that this techy-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) not only impedes women’s equitable and meaningful participation in public offices but also their long-term willingness to engage in public life.