Our History

A Black woman in a yellow shirt and a white woman with a floral blouse sitting at a while circle table covered with cups and papers.

Glitch was founded in 2017 by Seyi Akiwowo, after she faced horrendous online abuse when a video of her speech at the European Parliament went viral. In the aftermath, Seyi both experienced and witnessed the lack of support women – and particularly Black women – receive when reporting online abuse, as she came up against numerous structural and cultural hurdles in addressing the harm she experienced. Recognising the growing urgency to develop robust solutions to end online abuse, she founded Glitch in order to hold tech companies and governments accountable for ending online abuse, and to awaken and empower a generation of digital citizens.

The name of our charity emerged from Seyi’s initial campaign, “Fix the Glitch”, and reflects her long-held belief that we have a responsibility to fix what we break, as well as our hope that online abuse can be a temporary phenomenon. Online abuse is a glitch that prevents our collective flourishing and Glitch interrupts “business as usual” processes which enable discrimination, exclusion and abuse online. We thank Seyi for her vision and fortitude in creating Glitch out of her experiences.