South Africans are turning their social-media avatars purple to support a campaign against gender-based violence and femicide ahead of the G20 Summit. The initiative hopes to spark both a national shutdown and digital show of solidarity.

Activists are demanding that the government declare gender-based violence a national disaster, stand up specialised police and prosecution units, expand survivor services, fully fund the national strategy and launch broad public-education efforts to ensure the online signal leads to tangible change.