Feminist reflections on internet policies

The internet is viewed as the gateway to development. So, how do we respond to the challenge of the persistent digital divide? Mariana Fossatti says that we have to do this from a standpoint of decolonising our thinking, and only that will open the possibilities of reconsideration of the global governance of the internet, prioritising factors of justice and equity.

In the last five years, reports on connectivity around the world show remarkable progress: those of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recorded a year-on-year increase of 9% and 20%, respectively, in fixed and mobile broadband subscriptions, while this growth is even stronger in the global South.

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In this fourth column on gender and community networks, Nic Bidwell looks closely at the processes and difficulties of research on the social and gender impact of Community Networks in rural places, and focuses on some issues encountered in the nitty-gritty of such research.

Image source: author. Near a community network installed in refugee camp, northern Uganda

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Here are some tips and insights on how to use social media for activism and movement-building. These are learnings from the vocal and active African feminists that have used internet and social media to amplify their causes. In this video Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah touches on several instances of how social media can and has been used, especially through popular campaigns and hashtags on Twitter

Note: this is not an exact transcript of this video - but the text I wrote before recording the video

Hi everyone, my name is Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, I am a Ghanaian feminist and social media enthusiast. I’m here to share my observations of how activists are using social media to build movements in West Africa. I will focus primarily on how feminist activists use the power of social media to build relationships, to network and to amplify causes. I will speak based on my own personal experiences, and my general observations.

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Politicians, journalists and other women with public profiles face a substantial share of online harassment, bullying and violence. In this article, Koliwe Majama shows how in the context of the Zimbabwean elections, even as the internet brings the public closer to politicians, it opens up new avenues for discrediting them and their work, and reveals the patriarchal misogyny that underlies democratic processes.

The women’s movement in Africa should up the ante in its fight against the male-dominated, hyper-masculine policy and legislative development framework that has tended to exclude women in cybercrime and cyber-security debate leaving them victims of abuse.

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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 parity.

Image credit: Steve Song

Feminist talk Co-author:  KathleenDiga

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Sanitary Panels is an ironic yet hard hitting series where social commentary masquerades as humour and makes us rethink many of our assumptions. In this comic Sanitary Panels looks at the difference that women and men achievers face and what assumptions are imposed by social and cultural ideas around gender.

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 the difference that women and men achievers face and what assumptions are imposed by social and cultural ideas around gender.

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How do we measure the difference between access to the internet for men and women? It is without a doubt that such gender internet access gap indicators contribute to defining goals for international and country-level policies. But it is important for us to interrogate the role of indicators and measures in access related work and research. Nic Bidwell analyses the use of tools proposed to measure the gender digital gap.

Atlas showing internet penetration based on standard ping measurements. Original at Ripe Atlas

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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 networks - whether this hinders or fosters their growth, and further the presence of women in these policy spaces.

Artwork by Flavia Fascendini

This column series begins with looking at community networks through the prism of community and gender. The first column sets up what is a community network and what is its "value" or importance in the current media and technology landscape, and the shifting importance of gender within this discourse.

Feminist talk Co-author:  namita

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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.

Image source: Fancycrave at Pexels.

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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 complain of threats, harassment and violence online.

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 complain of threats, harassment and violence online.

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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 also a platform where violence and abuse against women flourishes, often with little accountability. This article gives the main highlights from the report "Toxic Twitter"

Collage of images from video report by Amnesty International on #TOXICTWITTER

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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.

Image source: Wikimedia commons. Woman holding knife, protest and march against street harassment in Cairo, Tahrir Square, 6 Feb 2013. Photograph by Gigi Ibrahim

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Detail of collage by Flavia Fascendini

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Internet Governance Forum, 2009 at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt

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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 accessible, and how do we ensure equality for women of different backgrounds?

Image source:Poster from InternetLab, Gender and other social markers.

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Violence against women online is shaped by historical, cultural and social factors and this article explores the specific context of Bangladesh. This includes specific targeting of public women and journalists online and the exploitation of women by those they have intimate relationships with. Far from being an "elite white country problem", this article shows how women in the global South have to deal with various forms of online gender-based violence and ineffective policing and judicial systems.

Detail of poster: End violence against women now! More details here

1. Introduction

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In recent times there has been a dramatic increase in the use of internet and social media by Palestinians. In this context there is also a rising wave of online gender-based violence that leads to intimidation of women and self-censorship, which means that often women are withdrawing from social media platforms that are an arena of political and social confrontation against the Israeli occupation, building historical narratives as well as talking about internal issues within Palestinian society.

Image from 7amleh campaign on raising awareness around digital security

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On 24 May 2018, the Office of the Human Rights Commission, United Nations put out a statement that the Indian government has a duty to protect its citizens and journalists from threats and in particular about the severity of threats against Rana Ayyub, journalist and writer based in India. This article looks at the severity of violence faced by the journalist, including physical threats, doxxing, fake videos and tweets etc.

Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons. Photo by Zuhairali

Article reprinted with permission from The Print

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Image source: Author

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An understanding of online gender-based violence as part of the structure of cultural and social violence that women face is essential to finding solutions or to combat it. In this article Serene Lim delves into what could be feminist legal approaches to online GBV, the alleged opposition to free speech and the multi-generational work required to dismantle frameworks of patriarchal oppression.

To write about online gender-based violence (GBV) is to write about everything for it is oppression so pervasive that it is natural and normalised. Yet, it is also to write about nothing. It is rarely new or original even when it is perpetrated online.

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