When the Screen Becomes a Weapon for GBV

The tap of a keyboard. The seamless blend of pixels. For millions across Kenya and Africa, the internet promised a window to the world. Yet, for a rising number of women and girls, that window has been warped into a cage, and the very tools of communication have been forged into weapons of gender-based violence (GBV).

As the world marks the annual 16 Days of Activism, we must acknowledge that the frontline of the fight against GBV has moved online. This new menace is known as Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV), and it is silently eroding the safety and dignity of women across the continent.

The new arsenal of abuse

TFGBV is an umbrella for a chilling spectrum of abuse, from persistent online stalking and targeted harassment campaigns to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. The threat is rapidly evolving. We are now confronting the dark power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) being weaponised to create deepfakes and the insidious effectiveness of digital exploitation designed to silence women’s voices.

A call to action from UNESCO’s Regional Office for Eastern Africa recently highlighted this “growing threat of TFGBV,” noting that this digital violence is not contained to the screen. It often “spill(s) into the physical realm, silencing women’s voices and eroding their digital presence.”

In a society increasingly reliant on digital platforms for career and community, to be digitally exiled is to be socially and economically sidelined.

The high-profile cost of silence

The brutal efficacy of online violence is not limited to anonymous attacks; it can also affect public figures. Dagoretti North MP Beatrice Elachi has spoken out about the torrent of cyberbullying she endured. It was an experience that peaked with cruel and invasive comments following the death of her son. In an interview, she recalled her worst experience:

“My worst experience came when you talked ill of my son, whom nobody knew. Thank God, I never read social media,” she noted in a recent interview on Citizen TV Kenya.

Elachi’s ordeal underscores a toxic trend. The online sphere often grants perpetrators a veil of anonymity and a tool for mass distribution.

This allows them to target, humiliate, and terrorise with devastating speed. The motivation? to use gendered tropes and personal vulnerability to punish women for daring to take up public space.

The slow pace of the law

While Kenya has taken steps to curb digital harm, notably by strengthening its Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, the law is struggling to keep pace with innovation in abuse. Digital forensic trails are complex, jurisdiction is messy, and the tech often runs laps around the existing legal frameworks.

This leaves a devastating legal chasm. As the NGOs aim to raise awareness about key concepts related to cyber violence against women and girls (CVAWG), legal experts and civil society groups are scrambling to translate these concepts into actionable policy.

For survivors, reporting a deepfake or mass online harassment often ends in frustration. They face an overburdened police service that may lack the forensic training to track perpetrators, and a judiciary that may not yet fully grasp the severity of digital trauma.

The absence of comprehensive, continent-wide laws against non-consensual intimate image sharing, specifically, continues to fail victims whose lives are destroyed by a few clicks.

A call to digital arms

The 16 Days of Activism must also become 16 Days of Digital Solidarity. The fight against GBV can no longer focus solely on the physical; it must address the keyboard, the camera, and the algorithm.

Moving forward, governments, tech companies, and civil society organisations must:

1. Legislate against AI abuse: Develop specific legal sanctions against the creation and distribution of deepfake pornography and harassment.

2. Invest in digital forensics: Train law enforcement and prosecutors to handle and successfully prosecute complex TFGBV cases.

3. Promote digital literacy: Empower with the knowledge to protect their digital identities and provide education on digital consent and accountability.

If we fail to secure the digital space, we forfeit the future safety of ourselves as citizens. The time for treating online violence as “just words on a screen” is over. We must now dismantle the shadow network that has turned our screens into weapons.