We are undoubtedly in the middle of an unprecedented technological revolution. Vibrant and transformative as it may be with undeniable extraordinary benefits, it is equally harmful.
As the curtain falls on August as Women’s Month, we should continue to pray for the safety of women beyond this period, because theirs is a daily struggle against tech-facilitated gender-based harms/abuse where AI technology, in the form of deepfakes, financial sextortion, romance scams, misogyny or doxing is being used to harm them.
We are witnessing an unprecedented growth of cyber misogynist communities on online manosphere platforms such as 4chan, Male Tea App copycat, nudify and other private messaging apps which deliberately intended to oscillate around women sexualisation.
As Australia’s eSafety commissioner Julie Inman-Grant correctly observed, “the cumulative intent is painfully clear: to intimidate women back into the shadows, off the front lines and out of public life”. Noting the severity of online harm or abuse, it is clear, as the minister for justice of Malta Hon. Dr Jonathan Attard once said, that we are no longer dealing with a matter of equality, but survival.
In the financial sector, scams and financial sextortion are the biggest existential risks affecting women, causing immeasurable economical and psychosocial harm. According to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) and Feedzai 2024 Global State of Scams report, almost half of the world encounters a scam at least once a week; scammers have siphoned away more than $1.03-trillion (about R18-trillion) globally in 2023 – a figure that rivals the GDP of some nations; and the financial toll of scams is staggering, with the US, Denmark and Switzerland reporting the highest losses per victim, with Americans averaging a $3,520 loss. Developing countries like Kenya and SA also reported heavy GDP impacts at 3.6% and 3.4%, respectively.
While scams and other tech-facilitated harms affect all the consumers alike, research has demonstrated that in six out of the seven tests, the most likely demographic to fail are women. Women are "victims in 63% of romance scams". Women are often targeted by financial scams due to a variety of factors, including emotional vulnerabilities, social engineering tactics and being online more than their male counterparts – 24.8 hours per month compared to 22.9 hours for men.
Quite often when discussing scams and fraud, we often focus on the technologies and hardware. In respect of the vulnerable groups, we focus on illiterate women. Ghana’s Emmanuel Adinkra’s ongoing work into Inside the cybercrime alliance of Yahoo Boys and Sakawa Boys of Africa: Fraud & Rituals and the High Cost of Financial Sextortion in Ghana, has shown that we are dealing with a complex issue which can be executed through technology from anywhere on the globe.
As research has also confirmed, the victims of financial sextortion and romance scams in the South African financial sector are not illiterate women, but predominantly affluent and professionals in public-facing roles who as the South African Banking Risk Information Centre’s study on romance scams has revealed, these women are also middle aged or elderly widow or divorcee who may seem to have access to large amounts of cash, and identified mostly through social media platforms through data they usually share very freely unprotected and dating platforms in the hope of finding a romantic partner.
As G20 Leaders’ Summit gets closer, we want to send a strong message to the summit leaders that equality, sustainability and financial inclusion cannot be realised unless we protect those vulnerable among us who are not only the biggest participants, but furthermore, the engine of the economy – the women. In the absence of a robust trust and safety foundation and enforcement which protect the vulnerable groups such as women when transacting online, the objective building an inclusive digital economy will not be realised.
Emerging technologies reinforce harmful gender norms. There is urgent need to prioritise primary prevention to stop such harms from happening in the first place. Recent cases have shown that tech facilitated gender-based harms and abuses have entered schools where young boys are using technology to harm girls.
With the presence of gender-based violence and femicide law and Gender Based Violence & Femicide Response Fund, Information Regulator, Consumer Commission, Film & Publication Board, we do not need new laws or institutions, but a collaborative and co-ordinated approach.
Dr Boloka is the CEO of OS Lab, a South African start-up which exists to promote online trust and safety in Africa
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