Seyi Akiwowo

Why organisations work with Seyi Akiwowo

• She built Glitch from a personal campaign in 2017 into a working UK charity on online gender-based violence, which gives her a different register from consultants who study the issue from outside.
• Her Penguin Life book How to Stay Safe Online is one of the few mainstream titles that treats online harm as a serious workplace and leadership concern, not a parenting issue, and gives executive audiences a reference text.
• She served as an elected councillor in Newham at 23 and addressed the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council, which means she is comfortable in regulated, scrutinised, formal rooms, not just activist spaces.
• She has held trust and safety advisory roles with major platforms including TikTok, which gives her direct read on how the largest platforms handle abuse, moderation, and policy.
• She declined an MBE publicly in 2022. That decision and the way she framed it gives her unusual credibility with audiences who are sceptical of inclusion as institutional theatre.

Biography highlights

• Founder of Glitch, the UK charity addressing online abuse and online gender-based violence, established out of the 2017 #FixTheGlitch campaign.
• Author, How to Stay Safe Online, Penguin Life, 2022.
• Elected councillor for Newham, East London, at the age of 23, the youngest Black woman councillor in the UK at the time.
• Speaker at the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council on online gender-based violence; Amnesty International Human Rights Defender (2018).
• Digital Leader of the Year (2019); Marie Claire Future Shaper (2019); WIRED Changemaker cover (2021); TEDxLondon speaker (2019).
• Trust and safety advisory roles with platforms including TikTok; bachelor’s degree in social policy, London School of Economics.

Biography

In 2017, a recording of a speech delivered at the European Parliament went viral. The reaction was a flood of racist and misogynistic abuse, more than seventy reports filed with the platforms, and almost no response from them. The campaign that emerged from that experience, #FixTheGlitch, became the charity Glitch.

Glitch is now a recognised voice on online abuse and online gender-based violence in the UK. It works with women, marginalised communities, parliamentarians, and platforms, and its evidence has been part of the policy conversation around the UK Online Safety Act. The work is operational, not theoretical: training, casework, lobbying, partnerships with platforms including TikTok where Akiwowo has held trust and safety advisory roles.

Her credibility predates Glitch. At 23 she was elected a Labour councillor for Newham, the youngest Black woman councillor in the UK. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social policy from the London School of Economics. She has addressed the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council on online gender-based violence and was named an Amnesty International Human Rights Defender in 2018.

Penguin Life published How to Stay Safe Online in 2022. It is the rare mainstream book that treats online harm as a serious leadership and workplace concern. In the same year she was offered an MBE and chose not to accept it, a decision she explained publicly. For corporate audiences thinking about inclusion, employee safety, and values-based leadership, that combination, an elected politician’s record, an operating charity, a Penguin book, and a refused honour, is the substance she brings into the room.

Key speaking topics

• Online safety as a workplace duty of care
• Online gender-based violence and digital harm
• Values-based and inclusive leadership
• Digital self-care and resilience for senior leaders
• Platform accountability and trust and safety
• Inclusion in a contested political climate

Ideal for

• CHROs, Chief People Officers and Heads of DEI rebuilding the inclusion case for sceptical executive audiences
• Heads of internal communications, employee experience, and risk responsible for staff wellbeing in public-facing roles
• Trust and safety, policy, and product leaders inside platforms and regulated technology businesses
• Senior women’s networks, employee resource groups, and leadership development programmes

Audience outcomes

• A working definition of online harm as a workplace and leadership issue, not a personal coping problem
• A direct read on how platforms actually respond to abuse, drawn from advisory work with companies including TikTok
• Practical content from the Penguin Life book How to Stay Safe Online that audiences can use the next day
• A confident position on inclusion and values-based leadership that holds up in the current political climate
• A senior voice that has chosen difficult institutional decisions, including declining an MBE, and can speak credibly about leadership under public scrutiny