‘Yes, GBV manifests through online platforms too’

With South Africa’s 16 Days of Activism for no Violence Against Women and Children campaign in full swing, a compelling research study pioneered by University of Cape Town (UCT) PhD candidate Aphiwe Mhlangulana foregrounds a lesser-known, yet equally important form of gender-based violence (GBV), which brings to light how perpetrators leverage technology to perpetuate abuse.

Mhlangulana is currently in the first year of her PhD and is completing her studies in The Hub for Decolonial Feminist Psychologies in Africa – a transdisciplinary space that enables research and activism, as well as conversations and dialogues as researchers interrogate research problems in four interest areas: intersectional identities and oppressions; social movements, leadership and activism; institutional cultures and spatial justice; transgenerational trauma; and reparations and reconciliation. The hub is based in UCT’s Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Humanities.

Using a decolonial feminist lens, Mhlangulana’s research specifically focuses on black African women journalists and bloggers and how they experience technology-facilitated GBV (TFGBV). This work, she added, is unique because their experiences of violence on the internet have largely been “left out” in local and global research studies.

“Yes, GBV manifests through online platforms too.”

Her PhD is funded by the Association for Progressive Communications – an international network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and supporting people working for peace, human rights and protection of the environment through the strategic use of information and communication technologies.

But before we get into the nuts and bolts of her work, what is TFGBV? Mhlangulana said it refers to acts of GBV committed “in full or part” using information and communication technologies, including social media platforms like Facebook and X, as well as blogs.

“Yes, GBV manifests through online platforms too,” she said.

The manifestation

Because their careers expose them to daily online scrutiny, Mhlangulana said TFGBV disproportionately affects black African women and members of the LGBTQI+ communities, especially those who work in journalism and blogging. And it manifests in different ways. The illicit sharing of private content (photographs, videos) without consent, threatening sexual and other forms of harassment like bullying and stalking, as well as physical and sexual abuse, are just some of the many examples of TFGBV that women journalists and bloggers are forced to endure online.

According to Mhlangulana, perpetrators prey on women’s identity markers like their age, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religion. And for black women in particular, abusers almost always target race. But other than black women, she said, women who identify as feminist are also excessively abused and trolled online for speaking up against issues such as GBV and discrimination in the workplace. Similarly, women writers who publish work on these subjects are also regularly targeted.

“Similar to GBV, TFGBV is underpinned by discriminatory social norms and unequal power relations. It is rooted in systems of oppression, patriarchy and gender inequalities,” she said. “So, it is important to understand these experiences holistically, why this abuse manifests and how it affects the crucial work that these women do.”

Uncomfortable truths

To draw the necessary conclusions, Mhlangulana’s research participants comprise black African women who live and work in Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, each participant, she said, either identifies as a journalist or a blogger and has published work on feminist issues.

While still in the data-collection phase of her research, Mhlangulana said alarmingly, what’s come to light over recent months is that violence online is considered somewhat “normal” for black African women who work in the online space and share their work through various platforms. Further, she said, participants have also indicated that feminist issues are being largely undermined and by reporting on them, women are often considered as “dramatic and unnecessary”.

“This study directly contributes to the dearth of literature that includes black women’s voices in conversations around their experiences of TFGBV. Right now, it seems that they are silenced or deliberately left out of these discourses. It also aims to contribute to the growing production of knowledge of gendered violence experiences studied through a decolonial feminist lens,” she said.

A collaboration

Once she concludes her PhD, and to raise awareness on TFGBV, Mhlangulana said she plans to leverage participants to document and share their experiences of violence online and publish these stories on public platforms, including the APC website.

“My hope is that this work will be used to contribute to the various discourses currently on the go of how technology can be used as a space for activism and support.”

The idea, she added, is to influence and inform policy at platform level in various countries in the SADC region, to better support women journalists and bloggers as they report on critical issues that affect women and girls on the continent.

“This research is not only my contribution towards knowledge production in the academic space, but also towards understanding the intersecting violence black African women experience in the different spaces they occupy,” she said. “My hope is that this work will be used to contribute to the various discourses currently on the go of how technology can be used as a space for activism and support and not as a space that brutalises women and incites violence because they speak up.”