Feminist reflections on internet policies

When countries invoke peripheral laws such as pharmaceutical violations or conscientious objection clauses as justification for blocking, restricting, or limiting abortion access, they are invariably creating additional barriers, not upholding legal integrity.

The code, although open, is not neutral with respect to who contributes and for what. What happens to our contributions when we reveal our gender or sexuality? How can a project in which a significant portion of the work is invisible and not counted really be “free” and open source?

In this article, Garnett Achieng takes a deep-dive look into the Telegram app from the perspective of African women’s experience, particularly that of data privacy and online gender based violence.

In this article, Daiane Araujo discuss the link between popular education and community networks, and argues that class, race and gender should be part of the analysis in the implementation of autonomous infrastructure and technical training dedicated to digitally excluded communities.

At the 65th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women that is currently underway (March 15-26, 2021), the focus is on evolving a global roadmap towards "achieving full equality in public life". In the digital epoch, this includes enabling women's effective participation online. Mainstream social media platforms today represent privately controlled public arenas that are re-configuring social interaction and political democracy.

“Caste-hate speech is caste-war waged through everyday conversations. It is a war waged against us with humiliating words.” Rem Bahadur, Jagaran Media Centre, Nepal.

Caste is one of the oldest forms of social discrimination in the world. It continues to exist through endogamous practices, rituals, and cultural codes. It has the power to shape people's identities and life-experiences in the context of violence, privilege, everyday articulation, representation and individual or groups' rights to participate in society.

This piece is part of a series where Julia Keseru explores the connection between our online systems and bodily integrity, and the long term effects of digital innovation on our collective well-being.

COVID-19 pandemic has led to a spike in gender-based violence in India. Helpline numbers and digital tools have been used to reach out to survivors, given the absence of physical services. But those women who cannot use phones, email or social media are most likely to be entirely excluded from these systems.

When it comes to the making of a feminist internet, knowledge and research matter. Building evidence, collecting data, visualising and effectively communicating research findings are critical and important ways to influence and impact activism as well as policy reforms.

During the lockdown in India, the circumstances of marginalised population groups, including gender and sexual minorities (GSM), has worsened. Community and peer support has been critical, but in many cases it depends on phone and/or internet connectivity. The author wonders if informed choices regarding internet usage is possible in this context.

What if we could approach queer Muslim collective care as being part of a whole generation that doesn’t want the next to feelthey’re starting on empty like we did? — Liy Yusof

The Signs in Ourselves is an illustrated publication that documents in depth lived experiences of 12 queer Muslims from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, while also sharing snapshots of experiences from queer Muslims across the world.

Once upon a time, not long ago, in a village in southeast Brazil, women came together to exchange information and learn collectively about the influence of technology on their lives and on the spirit of the community. In the process, they learned something of great value.

New changes to Poland's abortion law could effectively ban abortion. Online protests have been building momentum to counter the force of the government, even as the pandemic rages on in Europe.

GenderIT and Locnet invited women who work in CNs to share their experiences in the times of COVID-19 and their reflections on what these times have revealed around centering meaningful communication in their physical and digital communities. This is the second part of the stories that got to be told about the acts of care in communication technlogies under the pandemic.

Through awareness-raising work groups organised by Pamoja Net in DRC, women and girls learned how to participate in the network and to access and verify health information through a telephone helpline and a chatbot.

In this second post in a series on artificial intelligence, research in the African context, Chenai shares why she believes that a feminist approach to research around AI is the only way.

Design justice advocates for processes of design that do not extract or appropriate the knowledge of users but build systems and software that are of use to them, rather than to companies and designers themselves. In this review of the book on design justice by Sasha Constanza-Chock, there is a call to subvert and upend the process of designing and to make it about justice rather than efficiency or efficacy. 

Recent reports reveal that hundreds of people experience sexual harassment and abuse on Tinder and damningly, that Tinder largely ignored survivors. What is the legal and ethical obligation that dating platforms have when their platform is repeatedly used by sexual assaulters to prey on women and others? 

In this article, Nyx McLean calls for a diverse representation of LGBTIAQ+ people and issues in the conversations around the internet, and for the adoption of an intersectional approach to organising the IGF.