Twitter worked very well for mitumba trader Njeri Wambugu until she posted a picture of herself that other users felt was unflattering.
The 25-year-old entrepreneur was trolled until she was bullied off the platform.
“The picture was quite decent. But people started to body-shame me. I was very confident about my body until that incident. They made me feel so bad, I went on a diet,” she told the Star on the phone.
Njeri later stopped using the platform entirely, which she relied on to market her second-hand clothes business, causing her to fall back financially.
Twitter is notorious for online bullying and harassment of users, particularly women.
In April 2020, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released a report that ranked Kenyans on Twitter as the most vicious bullies globally.
KOT, as they are popularly referred to, even bullied President Uhuru Kenyatta to the point of terminating his account.
The problem, which is not confined to Twitter, came under scrutiny last month as the world celebrated the International Day of the Girl Child under the theme ‘Digital Generation, Our Generation’.
Girls’ access to the Internet was widely championed as the pandemic showed the world that Internet access is a necessity, not a luxury, as everything slowly transitioned into the online space.
However, the United Nations found that out of the 3.9 billion people globally who have no access to the Internet, half of them are women.
In Africa, the UN says, that gender digital divide is only getting wider, even though more and more people are using the Internet today.
The need to create safer environments for users on the Internet has grown. According to the World Wide Web Foundation, online gender-based violence, particularly towards women and girls, was the shadow pandemic to Covid-19.
In an article titled ‘A different type of pandemic’, the Web Foundation found that Technology-Assisted Violence Against Women was especially prevalent among women who were public figures.
“Women and girls are disproportionately affected by online violence, especially in public domains such as the media (mainstream and social media) and politics,” read the article.
But it is not just women in the limelight who get attacked online.
A great number of them experience such harassment and much more, but they do not know what to do or who to turn to for assistance.
Nerima Wako, CEO of Siasa Place, recently said that findings on online violence among women were glaring. She spoke during a forum to discuss how to create safe spaces for women online.
“Six out of 10 among 200 East African women we surveyed reported they had experienced violence online at some point, while eight out of 10 reported that they did not have the courage to defend themselves while being harassed online,” she said.
COST OF LEAVING
With so many cases of violence, a lot of women end up self-censoring or completely going offline because they fear experiencing such harassment again.
Njeri ended up doing exactly that after she was harassed on the social media platform Twitter in 2019.
In 2014, Akello Walusala found herself in a similar predicament that almost made her stop using social media entirely.
The journalist had just lost her baby due to a miscarriage and she wanted to speak up about the importance of maternal health services in Kenya.
“I had posted on Facebook what the World Health Organisation says about safe abortions and a complete stranger inboxed me and told me to stop misleading women,” she told the Star on the phone.
Akello and the man argued and he ended up accusing her of having killed her unborn child and that she had not had a miscarriage.
She would delete the perpetrator’s comments only for him to keep coming to her inbox. She later blocked the man but the memory of his accusations remained with her.
“I didn’t know how to deal with such a thing from the onset. I suffered in silence. I even self-censored for a while and stopped writing and I began to mourn my unborn child afresh,” she said.
Akello said online violence will make fewer young people want to be active online because of the extensive mental harm it may cause.
For women who rely on social media to work, like journalists such as Akello and influencers or entrepreneurs like Njeri, self-censoring can be detrimental to their economic well-being.
Akello, who is also an Open Internet Leader, says although there is existing legislation on online violence, there is a great gap when it comes to implementing the laws.
“The Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act of 2018 provides protection for anyone against cyber harassment. However, the implementation of the Act is where the problem lies,” she said.
There are various bodies in charge of implementing the law, including the Judiciary, the police, and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Akello said they fall short when faced with these cases.
“Together with the Sexual Offences Act, the Penal Code and even the National Gender and Equality Commission Act, then it is possible to give justice to women and girls who face online violence,” she said.
VICTIMS UNAWARE OF LAWS
Catherine Muya, a former Open Internet Leader, said there is very limited public awareness when it comes to current legislation to counter online violence.
“Very few women in Kenya are familiar with legislative, institutional and administrative measures and possible courses of action that exist,” reads an article by her on the Open Internet for Democracy website.
Of the 850 women interviewed, Muya said, 95 per cent were unfamiliar with existing legislation or reporting mechanisms on online violence in Kenya.
Most social media platforms give users the opportunity to report content they feel is unsafe to the platform.
However, Muya said, not all reports are usually given the priority they deserve as some are overlooked due to the grey area existing between freedom of expression and intent to offend.
“The Cybercrimes Act should be amended with clearer terms of what constitutes online harassment because more and more ways of harassing people are emerging,” she said.
Today, there are forms like ransomware, where a hacker gets a hold of your details and they ask to be paid so they can hand your details back to you.
One's private pictures or videos can also be leaked to the Internet as a way of revenge.
It is called revenge pornography and is used mostly by hackers or jilted lovers after a bad falling out.
PROTECTING YOURSELF
Annette Omondi, a Nairobi-based psychologist, says users need to safeguard their passwords to the Internet to avoid being hacked.
“Make sure all your online accounts have a two-factor authentication so you can know when a stranger accesses your accounts,” she said.
Speaking to the Star on the phone, she further advised women and girls to go to the police if they feel their safety, that of their property or that of their families is in danger.
Omondi also said although it is a natural human instinct to defend oneself when being attacked online, it would be best not to engage with the attacker.
“By engaging with their insults or threats, you are giving them exactly what they want. Therefore, whenever possible, it's best to stay silent and not risk escalating a situation,” she said.
She, however, said that if you do choose to engage, the best weapon to use would be positivity.
Instead of being defensive with the attacker, Omondi said, try being empathetic with them.
“If they are saying, for example, that they don’t like your opinion, then tell them, ‘I'm sorry you feel that way about the issue. What is your opinion about it?’ That way, you get to diffuse the situation from a place of attack to a place where views are accepted,” she said.
With the emotional toll online harassment can bring, the psychologist advises young women not to suffer in silence.
She urged women and girls to reach out to people when they feel overwhelmed or they feel the online space is not making them feel safe anymore.
"We cannot have another girl lose her life to online violence. We also need to keep as many young girls and women on the Internet as possible because they also deserve to be there,” Omondi said.
“The Internet has endless opportunities that women and girls also need to enjoy, and pushing them off the Internet will only create more inequality than before.”
Edited by T Jalio
