Gender, law and revenge porn in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review of Malawi and Uganda

Abstract

The spread of information and communication technologies (ICT) in SubSharan Africa has provided a new arena for gender-based violence (GBV). Unfortunately, the growth of ICT has out-paced legal developments to regulate it. In this article we explore the legal responses to the phenomenon of nonconsenusal pornography-more commonly known as revenge porn-in the global south. We use case studies from Malawi and Uganda to illustrate the incidence of revenge pornography in a non-western context and to discuss the (in)adequacy of the legal regimes to deal with this new form of GBV. At the time of writing neither country has laws dealing specifically with revenge pornography, although both Malawi and Uganda have anti-pornography or anti-obscenity provisions in the law. The question that arises is whether such existing laws are adequate to combat incidences of revenge porn/nonconsensual pornography. We suggest that revenge porn, and indeed other forms of "cyber violence" against women, require specific legislation or a nuanced interpretation of existing laws to curb their incidence rates and to ensure redress for victims. This is an imperative subject and requires lawmakers to grapple with emerging issues of internet freedoms and the possible role that the law can play in regulating cyberspace in a way that protects the rights of women, freedom of expression but also the privacy rights of all. This article is published as part of a collection on gender studies.

The Nature of Technology-Facilitated Violence and Abuse among Young Adults in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…This might be a reflection of the gap in regulation of digital media in SSA and the limited action that internet users can take to seek redress when they have been violated online. An earlier study highlighted that the growth in ICT use in SSA has outpaced its regulatory framework, and this may have manifested in the strategies that respondents used to cope with abuse online (Chisala-Tempelhoff & Kirya, 2016). Similar challenges with policing IBSA have been reported in developed countries (Henry, Flynn, & Powell, 2018).…”

“…Revenge porn is "the nonconsensual distribution of private, sexual images by a malicious ex-partner" (McGlynn et al, 2017, p. 26). There have been documented incidents of sextortion and revenge porn in Malawi, Uganda, Senegal, Nigeria, and South Africa (Chisala-Tempelhoff & Kirya, 2016;Musoni, 2019;Sall, 2017). In Nigeria, a female university student was expelled after her boyfriend shared a sex video that they had both made at an earlier stage in their relationship (Vanguard News, 2019).…”

Image-Based Sexual Abuse: A Comparative Analysis of Criminal Law Approaches in Scotland and Malawi

“…It should be noted that there are other Malawian laws which may be relevant in this context which are not discussed, including obscenity provisions in the Malawi Penal Code (1930) and the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act 2006. For further information and discussion of these pieces of legislation, please refer to Chisala-Tempelhoff and Kirya (2016) and Chisala (2019b). Similarly, the authors acknowledge that civil law mechanisms are available in our respective domestic jurisdictions although an analysis of these remedies is outside the scope of this discussion.…”

Technology-facilitated sexual violence: a review of virtual violence against women

“…When it comes to the development of legislation on violence against women on the Internet, the difficulties inherent to the profound slowness of digital law are reproduced (Jesus et al,2016). The pace of technological evolution exceeds the adequacy capacity of legal development (Chisala-tempelhoff et al, 2016), a phenomenon that results in the absence of rules that actually protect citizens from inappropriate behavior in the cyber environment (Jesus et al, 2016). Skinner et al (2021) explains that gender violence is related to all forms of violence against women, so it is inferred that online violence against this group is included in the scope of gender violence.…”