policy

The Asia Pacific Internet Governance Forum just completed in July 2019 and it took place in Russia. There were very few sessions that dealt with either gender or human rights and none that addressed sexuality. At one session there were discussions on the ICT related-laws and particularly on the broad and unclear provisions that deal with online censorship.

Between right-wing governments and corporate capture of online spaces, there are interesting shifts in how sexuality is censored and governed online and offline. This article looks at the reach and over-reach of laws related to obscenity and censorship in South Asia and the impact that has had on free speech around sex, sex work and sexuality.

The annual Forum on Internet Freedom, Africa brings together people from across the African continent to to deliberate on gaps, concerns and opportunities for advancing privacy, access to information, free expression, non-discrimination and the free flow of information online on the continent. But what about gender perspectives? 

In Tanzania, even as access to internet has brought changes to the lives of people, there is still a lot to be done to get everyone connected and at the same time ensuring good policies to lay the ground for a safer internet. Rebecca explores legal options to the non consensual sharing of intimate images of women in the country. 

The Feminist Internet Research Network intentionally seeks to go beyond research to impact on policy and advocacy. But what should be a feminist approach to policy shifts, specifically coming from the global South?

For some of us pleasure in our work is possible, even if it is to find the breaking and bending points in the institutions of policy and law. But even though political and particularly feminist frameworks make space for pleasure, where is the space for that in legal or policy language at the international or national level?

In this third column on gender and community networks, GenderIT interviews Carlos Rey Moreno on what movement building around community networks is all about. How do we get policy makers, organisers, community based organisations and others invested and interested in community networks? And in this constellation of actors and organisations, how do we start talking about gender equality and…

n this column on community networks and gender, the writers will explore how communities can provide and run their own internet infrastructure, the existing forms of community networks, the legal and policy environment in which they have to exist and what are the gender dynamics around these networks. Here we interview Steve Song about the policy and regulatory environment for community…

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.