In depth

Protecting the right to freedom of expression: Strategies of survivors of tech-related violence against women

Posted Mon 8 Dec 2014 - 15:06 | 36,794 views
Tech-related violence against women hinders freedom of expression (FOE) as it creates an environment of fear, intimidation, violence, social isolation and impunity. This article written for GenderIT.org by Bianca Baldo explores the effects of tech-related VAW on women's rights to FOE, providing insight on human rights law, the different forms of tech-related VAW, the reasons behind it, the…

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Virtual is real: Attempts to legally frame technology-related violence in a decentralized universe

Posted Mon 8 Dec 2014 - 14:54 | 21,989 views
In this article written for GenderIT.org, Lamia Kosovic explores some trends in legislation addressing tech-related VAW and stresses that “legislation itself will not solve the problem of VAW in digital spaces,” affirming that laws have to be accompanied by educational campaigns on the gendered nature of harm in digital spaces. “And it is urgent to expand our understanding of what survivors are…

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Mapping as a strategy to disclose online violence against women

Posted Mon 8 Dec 2014 - 14:50 | 17,725 views
When the APC Women's Rights Programme decided to use the Ushahidi map to collect information about the online violence that many women around the world were enduring, the aim was to gather evidence and show how ICTs can be used to perpetrate violence against women. In two years, from July 2012 to July 2014, almost 500 cases denouncing the use of ICTs and online spaces to perpetrate violence…

Publication

Technology-related violence against women – Recent legislative trends

Posted Tue 26 Aug 2014 - 16:28 | 17,745 views
This study seeks to explore recent legislative developments aimed at addressing and providing avenues of redress for technology-related violence against women. We explore the objectives, structure and application of four domestic legislative responses to different forms of violence against women, seeking to understand how domestic legislatures are responding to increasing awareness of violence…

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Feminist Principles of the Internet

Posted Wed 20 Aug 2014 - 08:11 | 75,880 views
Over three days, the participants discussed and debated intersections of gender, sexuality, and the internet – not only as a tool – but as a new public space. In thinking through these issues, the participants at the meeting developed a set of *15 feminist principles of the internet*. These are designed to be an evolving document that informs our work on gender and technology, as well as…

Gender, sexuality and the internet

Posted Wed 20 Aug 2014 - 07:52 | 14,612 views
Have we taken over the internet or has it taken us over? Are we using or being used by the internet? How can we resist the globalised commodification of the internet and defend it as open, diffused, decentralised and subversive? Is the divide between our online and offline lives blurring? Is this empowering or threatening? Many fascinating questions that look not for a definite and absolute…

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Becoming an agent of change

Posted Tue 19 Aug 2014 - 08:36 | 15,702 views
Are feminists bored with online activism? Cyber feminists’ minor politics and affirmative political approach often presents us with dynamic, thematic and changeable maps of affinities, of political kinship, and there is a strong potential in the crafting of such unities. However, there are more than just a few obstacles that feminists in the virtual communities have to deal with. “But their…

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Thirty years after 1984: Who’s looking at you?

Posted Tue 12 Aug 2014 - 11:43 | 15,667 views
Recording cameras everywhere, facial recognition software, gait-recognition technology, unauthorized collection of pictures: It is widely known now that private companies are working with states on surveillance, but does this affect women and girls in a particular way? “While online security is for everyone, women and girls are frequent targets of malicious attacks online, and they suffer greater…

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The not-so-strange feeling that someone’s always watching you

Posted Tue 12 Aug 2014 - 11:31 | 22,182 views
“The neighbour resembling plastic-bag-recording Ricky in American Beauty, who takes surreptitious pictures of you while collecting the day’s post. That picture of me that I posted 7 years ago on MySpace that’s now doing the rounds on some misogynistic Reddit thread. That nanny cam set up to protect your 6-year-old niece whose footage ends up on a child porn site. For most women, Big Brother lives…

Publication

Internet intermediaries and violence against women online: User policies and redress framework of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Posted Sun 3 Aug 2014 - 22:57 | 22,150 views
A recent report, “Internet intermediaries and violence against women online” released by the Association for Progressive Communications for the “End violence: Women’s rights and safety online” project, analyses the policies and redress framework of the three major internet intermediaries: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, in regard to violence against women online. These case studies allow APC to…