AfricTivistes launches its platform to tackle cyberbullying
AfricTivistes, as part of the #Taxaw Temm! Aar Sunu Bopp, is making a web platform available to the general public to help combat cyberbullying. The aim of this online platform is to promote the responsible use of social media and to combat online harassment.
In August, AfricTivistes launchedthe national campaign #TaxawTemm! Aar Suñu Bopp, which is an information, awareness-raising and advocacy campaign against online violence, particularly towards girls and women in Senegal. The aim of this campaign is to combat cyberbullying and promote best practices in digital protection and safety.
The official launch of the campaign took the form of a workshop for media professionals and bloggers, with the aim of drafting a Guide to Best Practice on cyberbullying. This was followed by a session of discussion and knowledge-sharing on best practices for tackling online violence during the official ceremony, attended by various stakeholders from the media sector and the human rights community.
By launching the Taxaw Temm web platform during a Facebook Live session held on the same day, AfricTivistes aims to demonstrate its commitment to raising awareness amongst internet users about the many forms of cyberbullying, which are not without consequences, particularly for many women and girls.
“We are also running this campaign to help reduce this scourge, the repercussions of which are particularly likely to limit the full and equal participation of girls and women in the country’s development,” said AfricTivistes’ programme coordinator, Aïsha Dabo, at the launch, noting that 65 per cent of victims in Senegal are aged between 16 and 35, and 70 per cent of victims are female.”
The main aim of this platform, which is designed for a wide audience, is to raise awareness, prevent and provide support in relation to cyberbullying through modern and practical features such as the cyberbullying reporting service, a quiz to learn more about the issue in a fun way, and a chatbot that responds to users’ various questions on specific topics.
Furthermore, this platform aims to serve as a showcase for the AfricTivistes Women’s Cybersecurity project and to cover all the latest news relating to the campaign against cyberbullying, both on the ground and online. By making such multimedia content available to the African public, AfricTivistes is pursuing its objective of raising awareness and providing tools for the responsible use of the internet. In the coming months, the platform will also be available in English, thereby ensuring that the information is accessible across the entire continent.
It should be noted that the campaign is the final phase of the AfricTivistes Women’s Cybersecurity project, which provided training to female journalists and civil society actors in Senegal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on digital security and safety, combating harassment, and digital audits of organisations, from December 2022 to August 2023.
AfricTivistes was supported in this campaign by its partners Internews, the Open Society Foundation, the Commission for the Protection of Personal Data (CDP), the Association of Senegalese Women Lawyers (AJS) and the Special Cybercrime Division (DSC) of the Senegalese National Police.
