Digital threats to democracy have a unique effect on women and girls, who report social and psychological impacts ranging from trauma, paranoia, and anxiety to self-censorship. This may cause them to become more cautious and isolated and to limit their online communications. Digital threats to democracy may cause women and girls who have access to digital technology to withdraw from the internet and political participation altogether. This could expand the gender digital divide and lead to greater inequality.

The United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally states a commitment to “strengthen U.S. government efforts to advance digital rights and democracy-affirming technology to include an intersectional gender lens, accounting for the misuse and abuse of technology by individuals, state, and non-state actors.” In line with this approach, the USAID Conflict, Peacebuilding and Governance (CPG) Division in the Africa Bureau commissioned this report to highlight how digital threats to democracy have a disproportionate impact on women and girls in SSA and to demonstrate how USAID can help mitigate the gendered risks of digital threats to democracy in its programming. To illustrate how digital threats to democracy have affected the lives of individual women from SSA, this report also provides real-world case studies of censorship, digitally-enabled targeted persecution, social manipulation and disinformation, surveillance, and internet shutdowns.