BY: Mustapha Lawal
As the world marks the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, one key point demands more attention than ever: misinformation is no longer just an online irritant; it is a driver, amplifier and enabler of gender-based violence (GBV).
From viral rumours that shame survivors, to manipulated images designed to silence women in public life, to deepfakes used as tools of extortion, false information has become a weapon. Yet this layer of harm often goes unnoticed in conversations about GBV. Online abuse is dismissed as “not real violence,” misinformation is treated as a separate problem for fact-checkers alone, and survivors are left to navigate digital danger without protection.
This article examines how misinformation feeds GBV, the evidence behind these claims, and what can be done, especially by fact-checkers, media organisations and civil society, as the 16 Days campaign begins.
Misinformation and GBV: The Overlooked Link
Across Africa, studies show that a significant number of women experience online harassment, manipulation of their images, and coordinated smear campaigns. Many suffer these attacks not because of anything they have said or done, but because digital spaces allow misinformation to spread faster than the truth.
Three types of harmful content stand out:
- Misinformation: false or misleading claims shared unintentionally.
- Disinformation: deliberately false narratives created to cause harm or influence opinion.
- Technology-Facilitated GBV (TF-GBV): violence carried out through digital tools such as doxxing, non-consensual image sharing, impersonation accounts, or synthetic (AI-generated) sexual content.
These categories overlap. But what they share is this: they can trigger violence, justify violence, or silence victims of violence.
Five Ways Misinformation Fuels GBV
- Victim-Blaming Myths Lower Reporting and Enable Abusers
Narratives such as “she is lying,” “she asked for it,” “she wants attention,” or “women make false accusations all the time” spread quickly online. Harmful myths surrounding the issue have profound real-life consequences, creating an environment where survivors are afraid to report their experiences, leading to communities either shaming or outright dismissing victims. This culture of doubt also makes law enforcement less inclined to act on reports, ultimately insulating perpetrators from accountability as they feel protected by the widespread public scepticism. In many African countries, as in many other countries worldwide, the rate of GBV is high, but reporting remains extremely low. Victim-blaming misinformation widens this gap.
- Deepfakes and Image-Based Abuse Are New Tools of Control
The rise of easy-to-use AI tools has introduced a new layer of GBV: synthetic sexual content. With just a few photos scraped from social media, perpetrators can create convincing but fake sexual images or videos of women. These are used to blackmail, humiliate, silence women in leadership and even justify offline violence. For young girls, this abuse can be devastating. Victims have reported school withdrawal, depression, and self-isolation due to rumours based on fabricated content.
- Online Harassment Leads to Offline Attacks
Coordinated harassment campaigns, often built on false allegations, can escalate into real-world danger. Women journalists, activists and public figures are frequent targets. Common tactics include: circulating fake quotes, spreading doctored screenshots, impersonation accounts, false allegations of sexual misconduct, and releasing private information (doxxing).
Many women respond by self-censoring, leaving public platforms, or withdrawing from civic participation. This is not just a personal safety issue; it is a democratic one. When half the population is silenced by falsehoods, public life suffers.
- Gendered Disinformation Is Used to Discredit Women Leaders
Across the continent, political actors have used misleading narratives to weaken women’s credibility, especially female candidates, labour leaders, human rights defenders and outspoken professionals.
Patterns include: circulating false stories about “immoral behaviour”, doctoring images to question their character, creating rumours of “sexual scandals”, or framing them as untrustworthy or “unfit for leadership”.
For instance, women’s participation in Nigerian politics is significantly low, with only 6.7% in elective and appointive positions, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. This lags far behind the Global (22.5%), Africa Regional (23.4%), and West African Sub-Regional (15%) averages. However, when a woman was on a ballot as the Labour Party’s deputy governorship candidate in the 2023 Lagos election, Princess Abiodun Oyefusi, was falsely targeted with a doctored image accusing her of smoking hookah. The goal is not just personal damage. It is to undermine the broader idea of women in leadership.
- Information Gaps Make Communities Vulnerable to Harmful Rumours
In communities with limited access to credible news, rumours flourish. These include: false allegations that spark domestic conflict, fabricated claims that lead to mob responses, religious or cultural rumours that justify control of women, or misinformation about sexual and reproductive health. Where information is scarce, misinformation becomes the default and can quickly escalate into violence.
Why This Matters for the 16 Days Campaign
The global theme of recent 16 Days campaigns has recognised the impact of digital violence. But very few initiatives address the information ecosystem that shapes gender attitudes and enables digital abuse. If we focus only on physical violence and ignore misinformation, we miss: how survivors are silenced, how perpetrators weaponise rumours, how harmful norms spread through viral lies, and even how coordinated gendered attacks shape public opinion. GBV prevention must now include digital safety, fact-checking, and narrative correction as core strategies.
If We Don’t Tackle Misinformation, We Cannot End GBV
Misinformation is not a secondary problem in the fight against GBV, it is a frontline threat. It shapes public attitudes, protects perpetrators, silences survivors and fuels the culture that enables violence.
As the 16 Days of Activism begin, African media, fact-checkers, civil society and policymakers must adopt a unified approach: treat digital misinformation as a GBV issue, not a tech issue. Only when we confront both violence and the falsehoods that sustain it can we build a society where women and girls are safe, online and offline.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first part of a four series article on 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
Habeeb Adisa
