With Targeted Rights Initiative, we found that online abuse against women often comes from people they know, on apps they trust, and almost none of it gets reported.
Today we’re publishing Behind the Screens: Addressing Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in African Digital Spaces, produced in partnership with Targeted Rights Initiative (TRI). The research grew out of TRI’s Speak Up, Speak Out campaign. It draws on testimonies from 46 participants in Accra, Kumasi, Somanya, Tamale and Winneba, with additional voices from Uganda, The Gambia, Namibia and the African diaspora.
The most common forms of abuse participants described were online sexual harassment, cyberstalking and online threats, which together made up about two-thirds of reported incidents. Digital surveillance, including unauthorised access to phones, messages and location data, accounted for another 11%. We also documented deepfake manipulation and non-consensual intimate image sharing. These forms of abuse are already here, and awareness of them is lagging behind.
Facebook was the platform most often linked to abuse (37% of incidents), followed by WhatsApp (20%). WhatsApp points to what we call the “trusted platform paradox.” Because accounts are tied to phone numbers, the abuser is often an ex-partner, a colleague, a friend or someone from the community. Blocking them can mean leaving family groups and shared social circles, so escaping the abuse carries a real social cost.
Only 4 of the 38 participants who experienced abuse reported it to police, platforms or support services. People told us they had been laughed at, disbelieved or blamed, or that they had no idea where to go. “I didn’t know where and how to report,” one participant said. Another told us: “They just made fun of the situation.”
The harm doesn’t stay online. Half of survivors reported a moderate or significant impact on their mental health, with anxiety and fears for their physical safety mentioned most often. Some pulled back from public life entirely. “I try not to step out so as not to hurt,” said one woman from Akwatia.
Most participants rated their own digital safety skills at just 1 to 3 out of 10. That leaves them vulnerable to repeat abuse and unable to gather the evidence a complaint would need.
The report sets out five priorities:
- Community-based digital safety training covering privacy settings, evidence collection and threat detection.
- Anonymous reporting channels so survivors can come forward without facing police or community backlash straight away.
- Trauma-informed counselling, with referral pathways between digital rights groups and mental health services.
- Plain-language legal guides to laws such as Ghana’s Cybersecurity Act 2020, and legal reform to cover deepfakes, image-based abuse and spyware.
- Platform accountability, particularly from Meta, whose 2025 moderation rollbacks have made its platforms less safe for women and marginalised users.
Read the full report below, and share it with anyone working on digital rights, gender justice or platform policy.