Digital Violence Forces Ethiopian Women Activists into Exile
Women's rights activists in Ethiopia are being systematically driven from public online spaces by a rising tide of digital violence, with many forced to flee the country for their safety. Experts warn that technology-facilitated gender-based violence has become normalized and pervasive, creating an environment where feminists are dehumanized and threatened with extermination.
Targeted Campaigns and Escalating Threats
Yordanos Bezabih, an Ethiopian women's rights activist, endured years of online threats including warnings of acid attacks, gang-rape, and death. The situation escalated dramatically in 2025 when an anonymous Telegram group with 6,000 subscribers organized efforts to track her location. They circulated deepfakes—manipulated nude images and videos—while strangers began filming her in public streets, calling her by her social media handle.
The campaign intensified when thieves broke into her home to steal her laptop, followed by the hacking of her Telegram account. Her private photos and messages were disseminated across social media platforms, and perpetrators eventually circulated her home address with demands for her execution. In August, Bezabih left Ethiopia on a fellowship for human rights defenders and has not returned, stating she has been forced to remain abroad to protect her safety and continue her work.
Normalization of Extreme Abuse
Bezabih represents a growing number of feminists and women's rights defenders who have left Ethiopia over the past two years as online violence has become uncontrolled. Three years after Facebook faced accusations of allowing hate speech to spread unchecked during Ethiopia's civil war—claims rejected by Meta—social media inciters have found new targets in women activists.
"If you self-describe as a feminist, then you become a target, as that word is associated nowadays with anti-Ethiopian values and traditions, against the core family unit," says Maya Misikir, sister of activist Lella Misikir who fled the country in 2024.
An anonymous Ethiopian women's rights activist explains that feminists are "dehumanised. Their lives are unvalued" by a loose ecosystem of conservative influencers and a growing manosphere. To these groups, women who speak out about gender-based violence are "against Ethiopian identity, and hence they must be exterminated."
Research Reveals Systemic Problem
The Centre for Information Resilience's 2024 report, "Silence, Shamed and Threatened," found that technology-facilitated gender-based violence has become "normalised to the point of invisibility" in Ethiopia. The daily occurrence of such abuse leads to severe offline impacts including psychological harm, physical assault, and arrests.
In-depth interviews with 14 Ethiopian women active online revealed how being humiliated, shamed, and sexualized made them feel silenced or forced to withdraw from social media entirely. No platform felt safe, according to the women interviewed.
Another 2024 study by CIR analyzed gendered hate speech in four languages—Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrinya, and English—to address the lack of data that hampers efforts to combat the problem. The research aims to raise awareness within government institutions that activists say are failing to protect women and girls from online assaults or hold perpetrators accountable.
Government and Platform Inaction
"I don't think the government is much concerned about online harassment. It is barely a government agenda," says Befekadu Hailu, an Ethiopian civil society leader and former director of Ethiopia's Centre for the Advancement of Rights and Democracy. "I have never come across any government action following any [tech-facilitated gender-based violence]."
Bezabih adds that online platforms enabling the violence do little to address it: "Even though they claim to have all these community guidelines, tech platforms never respond to reports, claims or even appeals."
Campaigns That Trigger Backlash
The situation illustrates how advocacy work can trigger dangerous backlash. In 2023, Lella Misikir and feminist collective Setaset Power launched "My Whistle, My Voice," encouraging women to stand against street harassment by carrying red whistles to blow when catcalled. A TikTok video from the campaign gained nearly 400,000 views, but soon attracted online hate including comments posting skulls, calling participants "donkeys," and labeling Misikir with homophobic slurs.
The harassment escalated when a prominent TikTok influencer began making videos claiming Misikir was gay—particularly dangerous in Ethiopia where homosexuality is illegal and LGBTQ+ individuals face public attacks, beatings, and killings. The online mob searched for her home address, forcing her to stop leaving her house. When she did venture out, people recognized her in cafes and traffic. In November 2024, she left Ethiopia and has been abroad ever since.
Broader Impact on Public Participation
Maya Misikir notes that waves of online campaigns targeting feminists began in 2023, followed by targeted harassment against individual activists that pushed numerous people to leave the country. The anonymous activist recalls at least three major campaigns against feminists in recent years, some so threatening that targets had to flee "immediately, in less than a week, less than two days."
The director of an organization focused on Ethiopian youth observes that instead of accountability for perpetrators, women are frequently told to withdraw from online spaces, effectively silencing them and pushing them away from public participation. She notes that in the aftermath of genocidal war, society fails to take online abuse seriously: "People don't think it is a problem. They consider it as a luxury thing. They don't think people are actually getting assaulted, or socially traumatised, or psychosocially affected by the issue."
The anonymous activist herself left Ethiopia temporarily to study, citing burnout from constant exposure to hate speech and targeted violence: "I felt very burnt-out and wanted to leave the country for a while, having spent a lot of time online, with so much hate speech, so much violence, targeted violence, against you and people very close to you."
