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Supporting Safer Digital Participation at DataFest Africa 2025: Our Clinic and Masterclass in Action

In October 2025, our team had the honor of participating in DataFest Africa 2025, organised by Pollicy, one of the continent’s leading convenings on data, technology, and innovation. As part of this vibrant gathering of technologists, researchers, civil society actors, policymakers, and creatives, we hosted a Digital Security Clinic, offering on-site support, guidance, and practical tools to participants navigating today’s fast-evolving digital landscape.

Why the Clinic Mattered

As digital spaces continue to expand across Africa, so do the risks that come with them including data misuse, online harassment, cyberstalking, image-based abuse, misinformation, account takeovers, and digital surveillance. For many activists, journalists, developers, and young innovators attending DataFest, these threats are not abstract; they are lived realities that affect their work, mental well-being, and personal safety.

Our clinic was designed as a safe, confidential, and responsive support space where participants could:

  • Seek one-on-one guidance on digital security and privacy
  • Report or discuss technology-facilitated gender-based violence
  • Get support on securing devices, accounts, and data
  • Receive mental health referrals and psychosocial first support after online abuse
  • Learn practical safety strategies for their work and activism

What We Offered on the Ground

Throughout the festival, our team provided:

  • Personalized digital risk assessments
  • Guidance on strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and safe browsing
  • Support on responding to online harassment, doxxing, and impersonation
  • Advice on safe content creation and data protection
  • Offered updated and genuine software like antivirus, MS Office, MS Word
  • Referral to trusted psychosocial and legal response partners where needed

Participants included women in tech, youth innovators, journalists, human rights defenders, researchers, and community organizers, many of whom were encountering structured digital safety support for the first time.

Key Reflections from the Clinic

Several key themes emerged from our engagement:

  • Online harm is deeply connected to offline safety, livelihoods, and mental health.
  • Many participants had experienced harassment, impersonation, or extortion but had never received professional support.
  • There is a strong demand for localized, continuous digital safety clinics, not just one-off trainings.
  • Women and young people remain disproportionately impacted by online violence and data misuse.

Building Resilient Digital Communities

Our presence at DataFest Africa 2025 reaffirmed the urgent need to move beyond awareness-raising alone. Safety must be practical, accessible, survivor-centered, and embedded into innovation spaces. Digital rights, data protection, and online wellbeing are not optional add-ons; they are essential foundations for meaningful participation in the digital economy.

By hosting this clinic, we demonstrated that large tech and data convenings can and should integrate real-time protection and support mechanisms alongside conversations on innovation, AI, governance, and development.

Masterclass: Shaping Youth Futures Through Digital Ownership

In addition to the digital safety clinic, we hosted a featured masterclass titled “Shaping Youth Futures Through Digital Ownership” at the National ICT Innovation Hub, Nakawa. The session brought together young people, innovators, and ecosystem actors to explore how digital ownership can unlock opportunity, protection, and economic independence for African youth. Participants engaged deeply with what digital ownership truly means in today’s platform-dominated economy, emphasizing the importance of owning data, digital skills, content, and platforms as a foundation for sustainable digital participation.

The masterclass examined how young people can transition from being passive digital consumers to empowered digital creators and owners, while critically reflecting on the risks of digital exploitation, platform dependence, and unsafe monetization. It further highlighted the role of policy, infrastructure, and community networks in protecting young digital entrepreneurs. The session was co-led by Noelyn Nassuuna, Raymond Amumpaire, and Owilla Abiro Mercy, who collectively challenged participants to think beyond access toward control, agency, safety, and sustainability in the digital economy.

Looking Ahead

Following DataFest Africa 2025, we are strengthening our:

  • Mobile digital safety clinics
  • Survivor-centered referral pathways
  • Youth and women-focused digital resilience programming
  • Partnerships with tech platforms, mental health professionals, and legal responders

We remain committed to ensuring that no one has to choose between visibility and safety, innovation and wellbeing, or participation and protection in digital spaces.

16 days of activism 2026_DPI

Standing Up to Online Gender-Based Violence: Building Safer Digital Spaces for Women and Girls

During the 16 Days of Activism, we are starkly reminded that violence against women does not begin or end offline. It follows them into their phones, their social media accounts, and every digital space where they speak, work, lead, or express themselves. In Uganda, women journalists, politicians, activists, and even students are facing a rising wave of online attacks that are not simply rude comments but deliberate efforts to silence, intimidate, and erase them from public life.

These attacks take an emotional, psychological, and professional toll. They push many into self-censorship, and some into withdrawal entirely, a process that weakens civic participation and harms democracy for everyone.

The New Digital Battlefield: Understanding Online GBV

Today, online gender-based violence (OGBV) has taken new forms that are faster, more invasive, and often anonymous. The attacks are rarely random; they are tools used to control women’s participation in leadership, public discourse, and community organizing. When a woman is silenced online, her influence in other spaces also shrinks, which affects the entire civic space.

Types of Attacks Women Commonly Face:

  • Harassment, insults, threats, and humiliating messages.
  • Doxxing, where private information is leaked to intimidate.
  • Non-consensual intimate imagery and sexualized abuse.
  • Impersonation on social media to spread misinformation or damage reputations.
  • AI-generated deepfakes targeting women in politics or media.
  • Manipulated photos and voice notes meant to scandalize or shame.
  • Targeted phishing attacks disguised as personal or work-related messages.
  • Cyberstalking and obsessive monitoring of online activity.
  • Lastly, Trolling and Coordinated Swarming: Where large groups are mobilized to overwhelm a woman’s account with abusive content, making platforms unusable.

Empowerment in Action: DPI’s Practical Safety Toolkit

Defenders Protection Initiative continues to meet women who feel overwhelmed by online harassment but are unsure where to begin or how to protect themselves. Strengthening digital safety is not just a technical process; it is an act of empowerment and resilience-building. Practical tools and safer habits can drastically reduce exposure to attacks and increase women’s confidence as they navigate digital spaces.

Useful Tools and Practices Women Can Adopt:

CategoryTool/PracticeBenefit
Secure CommunicationSignal, Proton MailSafer, encrypted communication and private email.
Password & AccessBitwarden, Two-factor authentication (Aegis, Authy, Google Authenticator)Managing strong, unique passwords and preventing unauthorized account access.
Privacy & AnonymityBrave Browser, Tor BrowserImproved anti-tracking protection and anonymity for high-risk users.
Verification & ReportingInVID, Deepstar and Reality DefenderTools for verifying deepfakes or manipulated images before spreading them.
Platform SettingsRegularly updating social media privacy settings, restricting who can tag or message you, and turning off real-time location sharing on all platforms.Taking ownership of your digital boundaries.
DocumentationTime-Stamped Evidence: Document harmful posts using screenshots and URLs, ensuring dates and times are clearly captured for legal reporting.Crucial for Legal Action: Provides the verifiable, immutable evidence needed for platform reporting, legal proceedings, and engaging with law enforcement or human rights bodies.

Responding to online abuse requires preparation and community. Beyond the tools, women should be empowered to report using platform tools, block accounts that escalate harassment, and seek support from trusted networks or institutions.

A Shared Responsibility for a Safer Digital World

Online violence thrives in silence, which is why the 16 Days of Activism is a powerful reminder that protecting women’s voices is a shared responsibility.

At DPI, we continue to provide digital security training, digital forensics, account-recovery assistance, and psychosocial referrals so that no woman has to face OGBV alone.

But the fight is bigger than us:

  • Organizations must invest in digital safety policies and provide robust HR support for targeted staff.
  • Men must actively challenge harmful online behavior and report abuse when they see it.
  • Platforms must strengthen their moderation systems and hold abusers accountable.
  • And as a community, we must make the internet a place where women feel safe enough to lead, express themselves, and participate fully.

A safer digital world is possible, but only if we work together to create it.

We urge you to share this post and commit today to challenging digital violence.
#EndDigitalGBV #16DaysOfActivism