Nneoma F. Kenure
April 30th, 2026
AI and the politics of digital misogyny
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While some countries introduce laws and policies to protect women, a lack of political will across Africa and particularly in Nigeria, leaves women vulnerable to online abuse and sexual harassment, writes Nneoma F. Kenure
A video by Asherkine, social media philanthropist, and a young woman in Nigeria went viral after she claimed to be single and then was treated to a shopping spree by the influencer. The young lady soon faced intense backlash when a man claiming to be her boyfriend posted photos and WhatsApp chats between them, leading to widespread online harassment. The lady denied the claims and clarified that these images were fabricated. She did not have a boyfriend. Someone had digitally inserted a boyfriend into her publicly available social media photos. Her denial of a boyfriend for material gain was framed as a moral failing, and men decided she had to be punished. What is novel is the speed and glee with which the lies were circulated and weaponised.
Digitally manipulating pictures of women, exists solely for the delight and control of the audience, who are overwhelmingly male. Women’s agency, the power to choose how to express themselves, is the issue for many men. The discomfort for many is not with the image itself, but with the fact that it is self-authored
Many countries have begun requiring varying levels of identification on social media platforms (mainly to protect children), with Chinaoperating the strictest form of control. In Nigeria, identification is not required for social media accounts specifically, but they are tied to Subscriber Identity Modules, so are technically identifiable. Still, there is a level of social media anonymity, unless wielded against the powerful. The facelessness of these platforms exacerbates a culture of consequence-free violence, where harassment, fabrication, and abuse can be carried out without accountability.
This has been the case for several years. But the growth of non-consensual AI-generated pornography makes this issue even more urgent. The digital manipulation that creates a fictional boyfriend, complete with conversations and emotional history, is only a step below more invasive violations. The automation of misogyny by artificial intelligence is a windfall for those already inclined toward the policing and punishment of women. What once required technical skill can now be done instantly, at scale, and traverses the globe in seconds, causing irreparable harm.
In February 2026, a nineteen-year-old man in Australia was charged with using deepfakes to exploit women, the first of its kind in the country. The UK, US, China and the EU lead globally in establishing policy frameworks against deepfakes with a handful of prosecutorial precedents, South Korea has meted out the most sever criminal convictions. As it stands, Nigeria lags far behind with perpetrators emboldened by the absence of consequence and fuelled by hate, leaving victims with little recourse.
Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency NITDA claims that victims of AI-facilitated digital harm can pursue legal action and hold platforms accountable using the Nigeria Data Protection Act. It, however, ignores gendered abuse, failing to acknowledge or make provisions for them. The Nigeria Data Protection Commission is asignatory to the Global Privacy Assembly’s International Enforcement Cooperation Working Group statement on AI as a tool of abuse, but has so far not introduced any laws or policies to protect against those harms.
The legal and policy gaps in Nigeria concerning gendered abuse are, perhaps no surprise in a country where political leaders are known to assault others with little consequence. In 2023, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of making unwanted sexual advances toward her. Her petition was summarily dismissed by the Senate, and then a cybercrime suit was brought against her. The suit claimed that multiple interviews she granted ‘via computer systems or networks’ defamed and maligned the Senate President.
With little to no representation of women in the upper echelons of power, there is limited political will to address gendered harm, let alone anticipate its AI evolution. The Nigerian government concerns itself instead with the use of AI to target public officials. What digital laws are available, such as the Cyber Crime Act cover general online harassment and are currently only deployed in the defence of the powerful. Expanding digital laws in Nigeria to make provision for women in particular and then inform the public of their digital rights and limitations remains a policy gap.
As more and more women strive to close economic and political gaps, the backlash and coordinated attempt to keep them in ‘their place’ has been widespread. As Louis Theroux’s documentary, ‘Inside The Manosphere,’ attests, such outrage drives engagement, engagement drives visibility, and visibility drives revenue. The harassment of women, the circulation of manipulated images, the viral spread of false narratives are not anomalies but features of an attention economy that rewards provocation over truth.
When AI assistant Grok was introduced to X, it did not take long for the technology to be used for the creation of abusive and sexualised content featuring women. This is not incidental. Where for many, misogyny is about putting women in their supposed places, and many indulge because they can get away with it, there is now the added incentive of capital gain through creating content that goes viral. Technology is incentivising the dissemination of abusive materials, in Africa, with laws too slow to catch up, there are no deterrents for perpetuators.
The AI question To take the risks to women posed by artificial intelligence seriously, we must move beyond the fear that it will replace writers, artists, or thinkers. The more urgent question is how it will be used to reproduce and intensify existing inequalities. The pattern is already clear: women’s bodies, reputations, and identities remain sites upon which power is contested and abused. Even as women face the regression of bodily autonomy and sexual reproduction rights from Afghanistan to theUS, for Africans, it is imperative that we—women and men—continue to advocate for policy and legal changes, while supporting cultural and private sector projects that protect women in real life and digitally.
Photo credit: Pexels
