ABUJA, Nigeria — Artificial intelligence, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and other forms of online abuse are increasingly being used against women and girls, digital-rights advocates have warned, as a monitoring system recorded about 24,000 verified cases across five social media platforms.
The figures were disclosed at a two-day training in Abuja organised by the Centre for Redefining Alternative Civic Engagement for Africa, or RACE Centre, which brought together members of the Feminist Digital Watch Collective to discuss responses to online gender-based violence.
The programme, themed “Digital Defenders: OGBV Response,” was intended to equip survivors, advocates, researchers, and other specialists with tools to identify technology-facilitated gender-based violence and press for stronger protections.
On Friday, September 25, 2026, participants warned that advances in artificial intelligence were expanding the methods available to perpetrators, including the creation of deepfakes, impersonation, and other forms of digital harassment.
Tracker Records About 24,000 Cases
Evelyn Ugbe, the executive director of RAISE Centre, said an AI-enabled tracker launched about two months earlier had identified roughly 24,000 cases of online gender-based violence across five social media platforms.
Ugbe said the incidents had been reviewed by people rather than being classified solely by artificial intelligence, with human verification used to determine whether they represented genuine cases of online gender-based violence.
She identified AI-generated deepfakes, misogynistic abuse, insults, cyberbullying, and harassment among the forms of abuse confronting women and girls online.
“We understand that there are lots of opportunities that abound, and already less than 34 per cent of Nigerian women have access to online spaces,” Ugbe said.
“So, if they are consistently attacked, bullied online, it means their digital footprint, their work online and those opportunities that are missed as a result of being online are completely eroded.”
Ugbe called on technology companies to build safety protections into their platforms instead of treating them as measures to be introduced after abuse occurs.
She also urged government agencies, schools, families, religious institutions, and civil society organisations to work together on digital safety.
Schools, she said, should incorporate online safety into their policies and curricula, while religious leaders could play a role in challenging harmful gender norms and encouraging positive masculinity.
Advocates Cite Blackmail and Digital Harassment
Ugbe cited incidents in Kebbi and Sokoto states to illustrate how online abuse could spill into severe psychological harm and physical violence.
In one case, she said, classmates allegedly obtained nude photographs of a young girl in Kebbi State and threatened to make them public.
Ugbe said the girl later died by suicide following continued blackmail.
She also described a case involving a female student at a higher institution in Sokoto State in which a disagreement that began on WhatsApp reportedly developed into physical violence.
Ugbe said female public figures were also exposed to sustained digital harassment, citing Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan as an example.
Existing Laws Could Be Used, Lawyer Says
Chinenye Joy Mgbeokwere, chairperson of the Gwagwalada branch of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, or FIDA, and a lecturer in Public and International Law at Nile University, said gender-based violence was increasingly extending from physical settings into digital spaces.
Mgbeokwere identified cyberstalking, cyberbullying, identity theft, impersonation, and deepfake technology among the forms of technology-assisted abuse confronting victims.
She said FIDA had handled cases in which intimate partners allegedly threatened to publish private or nude photographs online.
In one case cited by Mgbeokwere, a woman became depressed and contemplated suicide after her husband allegedly posted photographs of her on Facebook, where members of her family saw them.
Mgbeokwere said Nigeria already had laws that could be applied to some forms of digital abuse, including the Cybercrimes Act 2015, as amended in 2024, the Nigeria Data Protection Act, and the Evidence Act.
“The court has been doing wonderfully well. But most of these cases are at the Federal High Court level. Most of them are unreported,” she said.
She urged victims to report incidents to government agencies and civil society organisations and said FIDA was working towards establishing a virtual law clinic where people facing online abuse could seek legal assistance.
The proposed service would also help victims explore available remedies, including protection orders under the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act.
Calls for Greater Platform Accountability
Emitomo Oluwatobiloba, a communication strategist, writer, and researcher who attended the training, said men and boys could also experience gender-based violence but sometimes remained silent because of expectations surrounding masculinity.
Oluwatobiloba described online gender-based violence as an extension of abuse in the physical world, saying digital platforms could allow perpetrators to conceal their identities and repeatedly target victims.
She called on the government to hold major technology companies accountable for abuses carried out through their platforms.
Technology companies should also educate users about responsible behaviour and impose appropriate sanctions on people who use their services for harassment or violence, she said.
The advocates said reducing technology-facilitated gender-based violence would require action across institutions, including stronger public awareness, greater accountability by digital platforms, effective enforcement of existing laws, and improved access to assistance for victims.
