However, a bad idea by a 40-year-old man pretending to be a wealthy South African left a 21-year-old girl debating whether to have sex with the man she detests or watch her nudity shared online. “I considered suicide when the man I had known via Facebook threatened to leak my nude photos if I refused to sleep with him. We used to share romantic conversation and images on trust, but I didn’t know I was playing into his hands,” she told a court in Blantyre.
The love at a click bore confusion on December 4 2017, when the self-styled George Gaunt forced her to take a bus from Lilongwe to Blantyre to meet him. “We agreed to meet at Wenela Bus Depot and proceed to his preferred lodge, but the arrangement confused me. I reported him to the police next door, who arrested him on arrival at Wenela,” she narrated.
Third grade magistrate Catherine Magwira slapped Alex Kachimanga, 40, with one month’s imprisonment, but suspended the sentence after ordering him to delete the photos and show good conduct for a year. That was in 2017, a year before Malawian lawmakers enacted the Cyber Security Act to end online crime. The court convicted Kachimanga of “conduct likely to cause breach of peace”.
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The digital space has become a minefield for gender-based violence (GBV), notwithstanding its benefits. The narrow escape amplifies calls for efforts to help women and girls understand how to identify, prevent and report rights violations that flourish online. Uniting to end digital-driven abuse is the crux of this year’s 16 Days of Activism against GBV.
This comes when the digital space is awash with nudes, fake stories and obscenities that dehumanise, silence and vilify women and girls. Gender activist Maggie Kathewera Banda says three in four women in Malawi experience cyberbullying. “This points to growing hostility toward women and girls as digital platforms are being used to intimidate, harass and silence them,” she said at the launch of the 16 Days of Activism in Balaka. Kathewera Banda asked authorities to make laws work.
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