During South Africa’s Covid-19 lockdown, national news stations broadcast live prime-time pandemic updates daily. To highlight the shocking (yet unpublicised) increase in gender-based violence under lockdown, POWA (People Opposing Women Abuse) disrupted broadcasts by creating The Abused News: the world’s first augmented reality news takeover using AR face tracking to map bruises onto a presenter’s face as she read the Covid news, live. The broadcast started out normally, but slowly, bruises and signs of abuse appeared, applied to the live broadcast feed as an augmented reality filter developed for this one-of-a-kind stunt. Meanwhile, the presenter continued reading the Covid news, without mentioning a word, mirroring the silent pandemic of abuse in the country. Titles revealed the shocking stats: ‘Since lockdown, calls to gender-based violence helplines have tripled,’ followed by a call-to-action prompting South Africans to pledge their support on the campaign’s website and unite in breaking the silence around abuse.