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Summary: The X account of Naija Feminists Media was locked and later had its reach reduced during an online advocacy campaign on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). The founder, Simbiat Bakare, have called on X to restore the account fully and protect feminist voices online.
The X (formerly Twitter) account of Naija Feminists Media (@naijaradfems) was locked on February 20, 2026, following a series of advocacy posts addressing sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). When a survivor, Mirabel, spoke up about being raped, Naija Feminists Media (NFM) engaged in an online campaign to call for accountability and sensitise the public.
As part of its commitment to promoting gender equality in the region, Naija Feminists Media uses press releases, storytelling, reporting, X Spaces, and partnerships with like-minded organisations to raise awareness about issues affecting women and drive change.
One of NFM’s posts during online advocacy relating to Mirabel reads: “There should be a law criminalising men who launch smear campaigns against rape survivors, as this behaviour fuels the culture of male violence against women.”
However, as NFM’s advocacy garnered widespread attention, with posts reaching over 50,000 views and amassing over 1,000 likes, the organisation received a notification from X (formerly Twitter) that its account had been locked “due to unusual activity.”
After NFM proved its authenticity, the organisation’s account ‘followings’ still dropped to zero, limiting its access to information in the region. Additionally, Twitter shadowbanned NFM’s account, affixing a label and reducing its reach.
This is not the first time NFM’s account has been restricted during online advocacy campaigns focused on women’s rights and addressing sexual and gender-based violence. Reacting to the latest restriction in a press release, NFM called on Twitter to restore the organisation’s account to full functionality promptly and described the timing of the restriction as troubling, arguing that it reflects broader systemic issues.
“Silencing feminist platforms restricts thousands of women from seeing critical advocacy, survivor support, and accountability work. It reinforces a system where women’s speech is silenced while misogyny circulates freely,” NFM said.
NFM’s founder, Simbiat Bakare, also noted that a coordinated attack through mass reporting by bad actors may have triggered the restriction and called on X to strengthen its moderation systems to prevent abuse of reporting tools.
“Sometimes people assume women are not speaking,” NFM’s founder said, “but what they do not see is that their voices may have been deliberately truncated.”
Simbiat also urged the platform to apply contextual understanding when evaluating spikes in activity tied to urgent advocacy issues and urged Twitter to strengthen its measures.
“Even if an account is massively reported, they should be able to filter when things are done for malicious reasons. Twitter must put in the right infrastructure to ensure they don’t sabotage women’s rights organisations and feminist voices,” she said.
Simbiat added that a just, peaceful, democratic and sustainable Nigeria can not be possible where half of its citizens are silenced and continually marginalised.
