In early May 2021, a hashtag began to trend on Twitter, now X. #FixTheCountry was not launched by a party or a pressure group.
It came from young Ghanaians tired of unemployment, bad roads and the rising cost of living. When police obtained a court order to stop a planned street protest, the organisers simply moved the protest online. By the time they marched through Accra on 4 August 2021, the hashtag had become one of the most used in Ghana’s history.
That campaign tells us something important about how young Ghanaians now take part in public life. It also raises a hard question. Does being online mean being heard? And does being heard lead to change?
Ghana is a young country. According to the 2021 population and housing census, nearly three out of every four Ghanaians is aged 35 years or below. The country is also increasingly connected. By the end of 2025, about three in every four Ghanaians were reported by DataReportal, to be internet users. Any serious conversation about citizenship in Ghana is now a conversation about young people with phones in their hands.
The traditional routes into civic life attract few people. Afrobarometer's 2024 survey found that only about 15 percent of Ghanaian adults have ever joined others in their community to ask for action. About 16 percent have ever contacted their Member of Parliament. Only about 6 percent have ever joined a protest. With figures this low, it is no surprise that young people have looked elsewhere. They have built their own civic spaces on X, TikTok and WhatsApp.
Scholars of youth politics describe a shift from the dutiful citizen to the networked citizen. The dutiful citizen votes, joins a party and follows the evening news. The networked citizen joins causes, creates content and acts on personal values. Young people have not stopped caring about politics. They simply practise it differently and the results can be striking.
#FixTheCountry turned daily hardship into a national conversation that radio and television had to cover. In September 2023, #OccupyJulorbiHouse carried anger over the economy from phones to the streets. In September 2024, the #StopGalamsey protests against illegal mining led to more than 50 arrests. Within hours, #FreeTheYouth was trending as Ghanaians rallied behind the detainees.
Government is beginning to accept that online is where young people are. When the Constitution Review Committee invited proposals in 2025, by the Committee’s own account, 735 of the 785 written submissions it received came in through a website or by email. One live session on X is reported to have reached about 21,000 young people. Yet the Committee, like most bodies that consult, kept the final decisions to itself. That is normal for a review committee. Still, it shows where the gap lies.
The United Nations measures e-participation at three levels. At the first, government shares information online. At the second, citizens are asked for their views. At the third and highest level, citizens help shape the decision. Ghana ranks 82nd out of 193 countries on the E-Participation Index in the UN’s 2024 E-Government Survey. We do the first two reasonably well. We rarely reach the third.
We also lack simple tools that other democracies take for granted. There is no formal way for Ghanaians to petition Parliament online, where enough signatures would oblige a response or a debate. In the United Kingdom, a petition with 10,000 signatures gets a government response. One with 100,000 is considered for debate in Parliament.
There is a darker side too. During the 2024 general election, the Ghana Fact-checking Coalition found that more than 80 percent of the false claims it tracked, spread on social media. It also found a network of accounts pushing hashtags against a particular candidate. Worse still, three fake audio clips of presidential candidates, made with artificial intelligence, went round before the vote. Some young people may have shared it without meaning any harm. It is possible a few could have been paid to spread it.
The state's answer is a proposed Misinformation, Disinformation, Hate Speech and Publication of Other Information Bill. It would impose prison terms for publishing false information. It would also require media houses and content creators to be licensed. Press freedom groups warn that its broad definitions could criminalise legitimate criticism. Licensing may also clash with Article 162 of the Constitution, which bars any law requiring a licence to run a newspaper or other mass media. There is no doubt that disinformation threatens democratic participation but so can a badly designed law against it.
So, what would it take to turn young people's online voice into real influence? We suggest five simple tests for any digital channel that claims to include young people. Who can take part and who is still offline? Is any institution obliged to respond? Did the input actually change a decision? Is the information in that space true? And can young people speak without fear of arrest or harassment?
Three practical steps would help. First, Parliament could create a formal e-petition system with a clear duty to respond. Second, ministries, agencies and district assemblies could go online on purpose to seek ideas and feedback, especially from young people.
This should not happen only during a crisis or a consultation. It should be part of how institutions work, on the platforms young people already use. Third and most important, institutions could study what they receive and tell the public how it has shaped their policies or work. A regular note that says, “You told us this and here is what we changed,” would do more for trust than any publicity campaign. It would also show young people that speaking up online is worth the effort.
None of this requires new technology. But all of it requires a willingness to listen and to share decisions. Young Ghanaians are online and they are loud. The work ahead belongs to our institutions. They must make sure that being heard leads to being counted.
The authors, Nana Kwame Asiamah, Emmanuella Nkrumah-Mensah, Caroline Amasah, Franklin Asare, Simon-Peter Kafui Aheto and Ama Boafo-Arthur are members of the PhD Youth Leadership and Development programme at the University of Ghana.
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