Seyi Akiwowo is the Founder and CEO of Glitch, an award-winning charity working to prevent online abuse, gender-based violence and hate speech. Seyi is also the author of How to Stay Safe Online (Penguin, 2022), a comprehensive guide to spotting red flags, responding to, and proactively defending yourself in online spaces, and how to use the internet as a force for good.
Seyi’s journey to making the world a safer place began with her election as a Councillor in East London at 23, where she became the youngest black woman to ever hold the position. Galvanised by her own experiences with online abuse, Seyi established and grew Glitch into Europe’s leading not-for-profit tackling the issue of online safety for marginalised people.
Throughout the journey of growing Glitch from a social enterprise to a medium-sized charity, Seyi has been recognised for her trail-blazing leadership, values driven change-making and passion for the future of inclusive leadership.
Alongside being appointed to TikTok and Twitter’s European Trust and Safety Council, Seyi was voted Digital Leader of The Year in 2019, has featured as one of WIRED’s Global Changemakers and sits on the Board of Multitudes Foundation to support changemakers across Europe to reimagine who holds political power.
In Spring 2022 Seyi was offered an MBE as recognition of her work but made the decision not to accept.