online harassment

On 24 April, Kavita Krishnan, a leading figure in the anti-rape protests that have been rocking India since December 2012, was the target of online abuse on a public online chat on Rediff - an Indian leading media company and internet services provider. Ironically, the chat was addressing the topic of rising incidence of rape, and Kavita was invited specifically by Rediff to respond questions…

In the Indian context, the internet has played a critical role in opening up rights for women on one side of the digital divide, giving them access to vital (at times, life altering) information and an opportunity to exercise (some for the first time) their right to free speech and expression through platforms such as blogs, micro blogs and social media. However, as in their lives offline, in the…

‘She's begging to be raped.’ That's the response that many feminists in Pakistan get online from Pakistani men seeking to shut them up. This is a response from Pakistani men to women merely tweeting about issues related to sexualised violence.

This article, written by Florencia Flores Iborra for GenderIT.org, analyses some current cultural practices on some of the more popular online social networks, and the ways in which the publication policies of these platforms support or restrict the proliferation of certain behaviors relating to respect for the rights of women on the internet.

The 2012 "Take Back the Tech! campaign":https://www.takebackthetech.net/, a collaborative campaign that takes place annually during the "16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence":http://16dayscwgl.rutgers.edu/, featured 16 stories for 16 days. Each of these stories presented a different way how…

This selection of tweets circulated during the 2012 Take Back the Tech! campaign spotlights some of the key issues addressed during the 16 Days as well as relevant and provocative resources regarding violence against women and technologies.

Online harassment has become incredibly common for women around the world. Perpetrators of this violence act without fear of recourse, as anonymity protects them, and law does not limit their hate speech. Many women leave the online world out of fear that this violence will affect them in the offline world. But there are strategies that exist for women online activists to use to protect…

Nighat Dad from "Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan":http://www.digitalrightsfoundation.pk speaks to Arzu Geybullayeva, a regional analyst and a blogger from Azerbaijan. Arzu's areas of interest are regional politics, conflict resolution, and new social media. In their "feminist talk” Nighat asks Arzu about her impressions of the 7th…

Savannah Dietrich was raped. The rapists took photographs and circulated them at her school - but in a plea bargain, she was told that she was not allowed to tell people what had happened. She posted the names of her attackers on social media sites, risking a jail sentence and a fine. But is this justice?

The net is not neutral. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the experience of women bloggers. Women bloggers face an unprecedented level of harassment and abuse online - both in terms of the volume and vitriol of attacks. But now women writers everywhere are standing up and speaking out against cyberharassment.