Gendered disinformation is being used across Africa as a tactic to silence critics and exclude women from online civic discourses, new research shows.
A new book ‘Digital Disinformation in Africa: Hashtag Politics, Power and Propaganda’ explores this further. It is written by Nkem Agunwa, a digital campaigner focusing on human rights activism based in Nigeria and member of the African Digital Rights Network (ADRN), hosted by IDS.
In an unprecedented year for elections in Africa – with 17 countries heading to the polls, the fear is that digital disinformation poses a rising threat to women’s political participation.
The book references the 2016 study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union of female lawmakers globally which revealed that 41.8 per cent of participants said they have been subjected to degrading or sexual images of themselves being circulate on social media. While gendered disinformation is not new, digital technology allows for collective and coordinated anonymous targeting of people with disinformation. As a result, digital spaces across Africa are increasingly being used to manipulate the public and spread disinformation, or to harass and intimidate individuals, creating an atmosphere of fear and distrust.
Not only does gendered disinformation keep women from participating in democratic processes, but as the book details, it directly threatens the fight for gender equality and inclusivity across Africa.
Disinformation and women’s political participation
In her chapter ‘Digital gendered disinformation and women’s civic participation in Africa’, Agunwa writes about how this weaponisation of disinformation against women, affects their leadership and political participation opportunities.
The chapter reveals how gendered disinformation is being used to create examples of female politicians and women who speak up about politics online. This deliberate targeting is causing a reverberating effect on other women who fear they might be targeted next if they dare to challenge the status quo.
For example, Kenyan vice-presidential candidate Martha Karua was the target of online attacks based on being a single woman and not a wife. Despite two-decades of experience and a career in politics the disinformation targeting her perpetrated the that “marital status is relevant to political competence and that acting politically is unwomanly, un-African, or immodest”, writes Agunwa.
In a similar disinformation campaign, former Nigerian First Lady Patience Jonathan was falsely accused of not being the biological mother of her children with President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sexuality and digital disinformation
In many African countries, same-sex relations are considered to be taboo and offensive to local cultural values and moral codes. Since 2020, thirty-one African nations have made same-sex relationships illegal and some countries have even imposed the death penalty for same-sex relations. This makes any form of gendered disinformation that alleges that a person is gay highly dangerous.
Thus, in this context, gendered disinformation can intersect with identity-based disinformation as part of a broader strategy to silence critics and consolidate power.
Winnie Odinga, one of the daughters of Kenyan Presidential candidate, Raila Odinga, has repeated been targeted and harassed online, being accused of being gay because she is an unmarried woman. Another example of such targeting is presidential aspirant Atiku Abubakar who has constantly faced accusations of being gay.
Moving towards gender inclusivity
In a continent where many still perceive leadership as a masculine attribute, there has been significant progress politically in terms of gender inclusivity. The percentage of women in politics in Africa has steadily increased over time. In the last three decades, Africa has had ten substantive and acting female presidents. Another significant development is the rise of women parliamentarians across the continent.
Rwanda has the highest number of women parliamentarians, with 61 per cent, which the 2003 Constitution paved the way for this by setting a quota of 30 per cent women parliament members. South Africa, Namibia, Senegal, Mozambique and Ethiopia have more than 40 per cent women representation in parliament. In addition, 65 per cent of the countries in Africa rank above 20 per cent of women’s representation in parliament.
Comparatively, statistics from July 2022 show women held 32.7 per cent of all seats in national parliaments across the EU. Meanwhile, the world average was 26.4 per cent.
Moving forward, protection from weaponised gendered disinformation becomes essential in any discourse about increasing women’s political and civic participation.