The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has issued a strong call for urgent intervention to address online violence against women.
Speaking at a public forum in Accra on the theme “Countering Online Gender-Based Violence in Ghana: From Evidence to Action,” the MFWA emphasized the need for collective action from government, media, civil society, and other stakeholders to combat the issue.
Dora Boamah Mawutor, the Programme Director for Freedom of Expression at MFWA, highlighted the significant challenges women face in the online space, particularly female politicians.
She shared findings from a study conducted between August 2024 and March 2025, which examined online gender-based violence across five major platforms: Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Ghana Web, TikTok, and Instagram.
The study found that Twitter recorded the highest levels of online violence against women, followed by Facebook and Ghana Web.
Mrs. Mawutor explained that the most common form of online gender-based violence was insulting and offensive comments, with many targeting women’s integrity.
In response, MFWA is calling for concerted efforts from stakeholders to raise awareness and educate the public on the harmful impacts of online gender-based violence.
“So, we undertook this study from August 2024 to March 2025, looking at the issue of online gender-based violence, particularly against female politicians. We found that of the five platforms we monitored—Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Ghana Web, TikTok, and Instagram—Twitter was the platform that recorded the most online gender-based violence incidents we captured, followed by Ghana Web and Facebook. We also found that the category of online gender-based violence most often used against women were insulting and offensive comments.”
“Some of them were very derogatory, some attacked the person’s integrity, and quite a number referred to female politicians as prostitutes and the like. We also found that many of the accounts that perpetrated this kind of violence used pseudonyms, so it’s difficult to tell exactly who is behind the accounts, making it hard to take any concrete steps.”
She added, “We are calling on all stakeholders, especially the media, content creators, and civil society, to help create sensitization programs and educate the citizenry on the harmful impacts of online gender-based violence. We are also calling on the government to expand the Cybersecurity Act to capture all forms of online gender-based violence so that they can be properly addressed.”
Dr. Henrietta Asante-Sarpong, Director for Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation at the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), echoed the need for sensitization.
She stressed that the online space has become a breeding ground for gender-based violence, affecting not only female politicians but also children and young people.
She said, “I think this forum is an eye-opening one. We have all alluded to the fact that, even from the monitoring work done by the Media Foundation for West Africa, we see that the online space has become an easier means for people to perpetrate gender-based violence. And I see that it is not a space that is hostile only to female politicians.
As the discussions went on, we realized that even for children and younger persons, the online space is being used negatively to perpetrate different atrocities across different divides. And we need to consider the very best ways of sensitizing Ghanaians and creating the required awareness for people to know how best to use this space in a safe and appropriate manner.”
Source: Ghana/StarrFM 103.5FM/Hamdiya Mohammed
