feminist principles of the internet

Over a decade of consistent work around visibility of online GBV has led to finally a report by the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women that specifically addresses this phenomenon. Jan Moolman sketches out a brief timeline of the milestones towards the recognition of online GBV, and this has included advocating for inclusion of sensitive language within international law and…

Women who are also from vulnerable and marginalised communities such as Dalit women in India, face additional and vicious forms of online violence and harassment. In addition their access to justice is tenuous and fraught, adding progressively to the impunity with which caste- and gender-based harassment takes place.

An understanding of online gender-based violence as part of the structure of cultural and social violence that women face is essential to finding solutions or to combat it. In this article Serene Lim delves into what could be feminist legal approaches to online GBV, the alleged opposition to free speech and the multi-generational work required to dismantle frameworks of patriarchal oppression…

The EROTICS report 2017 looks at sexuality, sexual rights and communication rights in South Asia in particular, and in this introduction to the report, hvale explores the conceptual overlaps and connecting threads in these varied contexts. South Asia's troubled colonial legacy of tackling sexuality related issues is evident in the many violations of rights of LGBTQI people, and the…

Digital technologies, with their diversity of tools and devices, their opportunities and risks, represent key spaces for feminist, queer, LGBT* and anti-racist political action. Contrary to the decentralisation and democratisation promised by the internet, it is now largely owned by large social media corporations, technology and service companies. In view of the struggles for power and narrative…

Sanitary Panels does a web comic series on gender and technology including discrimination faced by women in STEM education and careers. Here are two comics on circles of complicity around sexual harassment and STEM careers for women.

From the cataclysmic and profoundly loud speaking out that took place spontaneously across varied contexts with #metoo to understanding, owning and building feminist infrastructure, there is a lot that we can do as feminist activists. In this edition we take a peek at the Making a Feminist Internet meeting in Malaysia that took place early October, 2017.

In this interview with Maggie Mapondera, she unpacks movement-building and the role of ICTs. Movements are built around shared stories and passions, and ICTs are one aspect of how momentum is built and sustained around a cause. Here Maggie Mapondera shows how women's stories are powerful and can potentially change the world, but we must listen with care and integrity.

In July 2017, an eclectic and vibrant group got together in Harare, Zimbabwe, including feminists in journalism, visual art, internet rights activism, digital security, movement building, as well as sex and sexuality rights activism. These are their reflections on the feminist principles of the internet and their value in their own context.

Are you a feminist, women’s rights, sexual rights or internet rights activist?

Are you curious about how digital platforms and internet technologies have affected and impacted on how we organise for change? Whether this be new actors, strategies, issues, dynamics, threats, challenges or opportunities?

Join us in unboxing and re-imagining movement building in the digital…