Uganda: LGBTQ+ Community Endures ‘Drastic’ Increase in Online Attacks

A new report has revealed that LGBTQ+ people in Uganda are experiencing widespread online attacks, including blackmail, outing, and threats of physical violence.

The Amnesty International report – Everybody Here Is Having Two Lives and Phones: The Devastating Impact of Criminalisation on Digital Spaces for LGBTQ People in Uganda – is based on research across six Ugandan cities and neighbouring areas, including 64 interviews with LGBTQ people and organisations.

The research documents cases of doxing, outing, threats of violence, blackmail, impersonation, hacking, and disinformation – further marginalising LGBTQ people, especially those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

It further highlights not only the failure of state authorities to prevent or address these abuses, but also their active role in encouraging and condoning them, exposing LGBTQ people to grave human rights abuses.

The Impact of Anti-Homosexuality Act

While online attacks against LGBTQ individuals were common in Uganda before, the Amnesty says that the severity and prevalence have surged since the passage of the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act, which has intensified homophobic and transphobic public discourse.

All interviewees told Amnesty that they would not report technology-facilitated gender-based violence to the police due to fears of being outed, blackmailed, or arrested.

Amnesty documented numerous instances where police seized devices or data of LGBTQ people by threatening them with arrest and found cases where both police and members of the general public have used social media platforms to connect with LGBTQ people before targeting them with physical violence and blackmail.

Blackmail was the most prevalent form of technology-facilitated gender-based violence noted across all locations.

“Technology-facilitated gender-based violence has devastating consequences for LGBTQ people, as online targeting can result in offline consequences, including arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, forced evictions, dismissal from work, exposure to offline violence, as well as stress, anxiety and depression,” says Shreshtha Das, Amnesty International’s Gender Researcher.

An Online ‘Witch Hunt’

Amnesty found that the prevalence of technology-facilitated attacks has severely limited the possibilities for LGBTQ people to access, communicate and come together in digital spaces, while also hindering the outreach efforts of many organisations.

Those providing health services to marginalised groups, for example, have been forced to avoid advertising their services online, fearing that the authorities could arbitrarily suspend their registration based on spurious accusations of “promoting homosexuality”.

“The Ugandan authorities have clamped down on human rights defenders and organisations, placing discriminatory restrictions on their work,” says Marco Perolini, Amnesty International’s Civic Space Policy Advisor.

“Their acts amount to a witch-hunt against those perceived as ‘promoting homosexuality’, creating a chilling effect on the rights to freedom of expression and association.”

Amnesty has called on the Ugandan Parliament to immediately repeal the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 and other laws that criminalise acts and behaviours that disproportionately impact LGBTQ people.

The Anti-Homosexuality Act imposes life imprisonment for engaging in homosexual acts and the death penalty for “aggravated” homosexuality. It also outlaws the “promotion of homosexuality,” putting human rights defenders advocating for LGBTQ+ rights at risk of imprisonment for up to 20 years.