online GBV

In this submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, APC and partners organizations identify the nexus between domestic violence and online gender-based violence in the context of COVID-19.

A glitch is a problem or fault that prevents something from being successful or working as well as it should. Seyi Akiwowo describes how online gender-based violence and harassment are the glitches we need to fix, so that the potential of the internet and technology to build and make connections and to solve some of humanity's problems can be fulfilled.

Here is a compilation of the submissions from different countries including Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Bosnia-Herzegovina to the Special Rapporteur for Violence Against Women on online violence against women.

Technology is not gender neutral and this article shows how social media companies and tech corporations play a role in perpetuating online gender-based violence. What we need is a critical examination of the tools available and their underlying techno-politics so we can create community alternatives for feminist communication.

Sanitary Panels is an ironic yet hard hitting series where social commentary masquerades as humour and makes us rethink many of our assumptions. This comic explores aspects of gender and technology including discrimination faced by women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education and careers. In this comic Sanitary Panels looks at how police and society react when women…

Online violence and harassment mirrors the realities of persecution in the "real world" and extends the avenues for prejudice and discrimination. In Egypt, outspoken activists and Nubian people supporting the cause of Nubians to their own land and also speaking out about race and skin colour-based prejudice face virulent online attacks and are also banned by the Egyptian government.

Twitter, in particular, can be a powerful tool for women to make connections and express themselves - from high-level female politicians to journalists, activists, writers and bloggers, to women who simply want to know what’s happening around them. It is allegedly the space where ‘every voice has the power to impact the world’. But as revealed by the report by Amnesty International, Twitter is…

Online violence, bullying, harassment, theft of identity, non-consensual circulation of intimate images - are now being recognised as offences in most countries, and acknowledged in public discourse as misogyny and attempts to silence women and gender-diverse people from participation in public life and denying them their rights to free expression and association, especially online. This…

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…

The choice between developing new laws and frameworks for cyber offences or to work with existing laws is a dilemma faced in many countries in the global South. In this article, the legal solutions to non consensual intimate images are examined from the perspective of women who have been victimised. What do we want and expect from our legal and judicial mechanisms? How can these be more…