Ghana needs an anti-harassment policy to protect women online [Article]

“Men were sending me photos of their private parts with inappropriate messages. Some would call you at odd hours of the day and all these made me very uncomfortable so I was forced to close my Facebook account,” says 30-year-old banker Ama Asante.

As far as she remembers, she only actively made posts about trending national conversations and barely shared photos of herself.

“Women go through a lot on social media but we gloss over them because most people don’t see it as a problem,” she adds.

Trolling, body-shaming, stalking and harassment are but a few unpleasant experiences women in Ghana face while accessing social media platforms.

Across different platforms – Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram among others, users can make text and multimedia posts and engage with their online connections freely, however, some are restrained from fully engaging on the platform, leading to inequality.

At the heart of accessing digital platforms is safety and affordability and in Ghana, the circumstances go against women.

The lack of protection of women against the excesses of digital media is widening the gender digital divide.

Having access to the internet enables individuals to actively participate in development processes and allows them to benefit from various socio-economic opportunities advertised online such as job opportunities, educational scholarships,  and the vast online community market to sell products and services.

Safety blues

“You see comments like ‘nice a*s’, ‘see how skinny you are’, ‘don’t you eat’ and the likes. All that was on my Twitter account,” says Cynthia Twum, a level 300 student at the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

She created the X (Twitter) account in 2021 as part of her course assignments and was overwhelmed by the negative comments she had any time she uploaded photos, but her worst experience was when she received a message from a random follower making explicit advances towards her.

“I can’t wait to get off social media right after this semester but I understand that because of my profession [a journalist] I’ll need to be on social media. Somehow I will have to muster the courage to stay on later,” she said.

A 2020 survey by the humanitarian organization Plan Ghana revealed that 85% of girls face sexual harassment online in Ghana,57% of girls also face threats of sexual violence and 64% encounter insulting language.

The survey also showed that these incidents largely occurred on Facebook, WhatsApp, X (Twitter), and Instagram.

“It is worrying, and more awareness creation will help protect women online because this threat cannot be gotten rid of.

There is the Criminal Code 1960 (Act 29) that partially provides for such internet threats but it is not enough. Stricter policies would help,” says Gabriel Ofori Appiah, Director of Advocacy and Outreach at the Ghana Internet Safety Foundation.

“Women should begin to start reporting these threats officially too. We create awareness on this subject and it is important that individuals find a way to ward this off since there isn’t active governmental protection,” he added.

An Accra-based female journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity said she has had experiences of being stalked on social media and eventually offline. She has since then limited the frequency of sharing information online and the kind of details she shares.

Like many other African countries, Ghana is facing a widespread challenge due to the absence of online abuse and harassment policies. Although the Criminal Code of 1960 (ACT 29) makes provisions relating to threats, it is unable to deal with the complex nature of online abuses such as stalking and harassment.

An official of Ghana’s National Cyber Security Authority who pleaded anonymity said the current laws offer more specific protection for children than women or men. She, however, said the provisions are sufficient to deal with existing threats online for women, although there will be the need for additional clauses to deal with emerging trends.

“There is nothing specific to protect women online. Sections 62-66 of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038) provide for the Protection of Children online, and sections 67 and 68 provide for Other Online Sexual Offences,” says Ofori Appiah.

“The advocacies can continue and hopefully, more specific provisions will be made for women who are quite vulnerable in this area,” he adds.

He hopes that specific laws will soon be formulated to better protect women online.

“Specific policies are needed. With that, they will cover other areas that the CybersecurityAct does not cover,” he said.

Cost dilemma

Besides harassment that threatens women’s participation online, the cost of the internet in Ghana presents another challenge.

The Ghana Statistical Service’s 2022 Income Expenditure Survey, reveals that women in the country are paid 34.2% less than men which suggests they have lower purchasing power than men.

This already means that men will easily be able to buy internet data to access social and digital platforms than women and the 2022 and 2023 data on social media usage in Ghana confirm that men dominate the space across all platforms including LinkedIn.

“I am fortunate that I get some allowances from my organization to cover data costs for our advocacy work, but I still spend more than GH¢250 (US$20.9) on data monthly. That’s about 10% of my salary,” says Samantha Odoi, a program officer at Youth Focus, a local NGO.

“For my advocacies, we do photographs and videos, but the high cost of data means that I have to post less media content, especially videos,” adds Odoi.

According to Statista’s report on the cost of mobile internet in Africa 2022, the average cost of one gigabyte of data in  Ghana is GH¢10 (US$0.86), far cheaper than other African countries, however, it remains an impediment to easily accessing social media platform.

The affordability of the data will enable more women to participate in the digital ecosystem, as the gender digital gap has predominately hindered women and excluded them from the digital revolution that is essential for progress.

These do not only obstruct women’s complete ownership of their digital spaces but, also act as deterrents to leveraging these platforms for social, political, and economic empowerment.

The result of these challenges goes beyond technology, contributing to a broader lack of women’s representation and voice in major national discussions. The severity of the situation therefore demands urgent attention including implementing protective legislation towards fostering a safer, more equitable digital environment for all.

This work was produced as a result of a grant provided by the Africa-China Reporting Project based at the Wits Centre for Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The opinions held are of the author(s).

 

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