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Introducing the APC glossary: Why language matters for social justice
Introducing the APC glossary: Why language matters for social justice
Introducing the APC glossary: Why language matters for social justice
Introducing the APC glossary: Why language matters for social justice
Introducing the APC glossary: Why language matters for social justice
The APC Community Gathering took place from 15 to 17 May 2024 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, bringing together APC member organisations’ representatives, associates, close partners and allies, including civil society organisations based in Thailand, and the APC team. Over 225 people assembled from 46 countries and participated in 43 events, including plenaries, participant-led sessions and regional meetings, 40 lightning talks, presentations, pop-up sessions and project meetings, and several social events, including film screenings.
Sorry, this video will not work because your web browser does not support HTML5 video.
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, this convening came after a gap of seven years rather than the usual three years that the network meets face to face. The theme of the gathering was “More Together” and we celebrated being able to be, to do, to plan and to dream “more together”, as well as acknowledged and missed those unable to join us in person. We made significant advances towards our shared vision in this crucial moment and enjoyed a significant boost in networking, learning and collaboration across the APC network.
Starting with seven organisations in 1990, APC now comprises 70 organisational members and 41 associates active in 74 countries. The network emphasises a shared political narrative and vision – as one member said at a plenary, “APC is my political home.” The gathering offered all of us a timely and unique opportunity to learn from each other, to build shared meanings and to shape our collective advocacy strategies for the next four years, drawing on APC’s 2024-2027 strategic plan.
Sorry, this video will not work because your web browser does not support HTML5 video.
“The value of the APC network is the space it gives to find community, collaboration and camaraderie with other digital rights actors globally. We work in the Asia Pacific and it’s always nice to have a space to find and share learnings, challenges, solutions with those in other regions.”
–Sara Pacia, EngageMedia (Indonesia)
The centrepieces of the gathering’s programme were the five plenaries that anchored all discussion and built a shared narrative of how we can work together to leverage the current moment and defuse brewing challenges. The first plenary explored what forms of collective action are needed for the APC network to deepen its collective impact as well as how can it strengthen its collective identity while recognising its diversity. The second plenary showcased strategies for local movements and advocacy in times of violence and crises, while the third focused on ensuring digital technologies enable gender justice, environmental justice and digital inclusion. The fourth plenary discussed pathways to digital resilience and resistance in the context of climate change, conflicts and an anti-rights wave. The final plenary helped to synthesise the last three days to share common insights, the collective action needed and next steps within the framework of APC’s new strategic plan.
“The most important aspect for us being a member of APC is being able to get a global perspective on things that are affecting us in the part of the world where we work, getting to hear from other people in other parts of the world, what they’re facing and seeing where there are commonalities and coming up with solutions to solve some of those challenges.”
–Peter Bloom, Rhizomatica (Mexico)
Traditional Thai dance to launch the gathering
Plenary moments
Warm welcomes at a plenary with APC executive director Chat Garcia Ramilo
Musical interlude with local artists and activists at a plenary
Group engagement during a lightning talk
Collaborative brainstorming
Small group discussions during a plenary
Sharing projects during a lightning talk
Enthusiastic participation
Sharing inputs as a network
Learning joyfully from each other
Parallel sessions as learning opportunities
Great ideas bubbling up during sessions
Listening and exchanging
Presentation at a parallel session
Festive acknowledgements of APC members
Presentations of custom banners to every network member
Synthesising our collective learnings at the final plenary
Local elders making a traditional offering to participants
Connecting with local traditions
A festive performance at the APC party
The way ahead
Alongside the plenaries, there were several dozen sessions and talks co-designed by the participants, including ones on gendered disinformation, meaningful connectivity, big tech accountability, feminist principles of the internet, the safety needs of Myanmar women, AI, tech-life balance, internet shutdowns, hate speech, climate crisis and more. There were also regional meet-ups of members focused on Africa, Asia, Latin America, MENA, and Europe and North America. There were capacity-building sessions on human resources and communications, as well as daily self and collective care activities. Finally, participants also presented lightning talks and pop-up sessions, including on imagining feminist connectivity during crisis, decolonising the internet, Open Fibre Data Standard (OFDS), fair jobs and quality of life for women working in the digital sector, digital freedoms censorship, etc.
Apart from the formal sessions in the programme, the gathering also offered a Community Village space for self-organised interactions between participants without any pre-scheduled programming. The Village included the Cinema à la carte space to watch some of the network’s audiovisual productions; the Kiosk for participants to exhibit a wide variety of materials such as books, reports, brochures, publications, postcards, stickers, gifts, etc.; the Plaza for spontaneous gatherings and interactions; and the Museum for visual displays, such as posters, artwork, artefacts and photos.
Community Village showcasing member projects
Browsing member content
Custom art installation
Members sharing visual materials
Stickers, books, pamphlets and the latest edition of GISWatch
Quiet moments in the village
Each member received their own customised banner
Banners for network members hang in the village
Sharing handouts in multiple languages
Contributions highlighting our dynamic network
Information and gifts shared in the village
Brainstorming through colour and creativity
“Our involvement in the APC network has a two-sided advantage. On the one hand, we know other organisations trying to link digital issues with environmental and social issues, which enables mutual learning. And we also believe that all of our accumulated work on understanding environmental problems from a structural perspective, and therefore from the perspective of finding real solutions, could also be advantageous for APC organisations that are beginning to address environmental issues. Above all, [the network] is a way of working jointly to find solutions for the multiple crises that humankind and the planet are facing at this moment in time.”
– Ivonne Yanez, Acción Ecológica (Ecuador)
The final plenary held an exercise to assess and digest the learnings from the gathering and move towards collective action and specific next steps. The group brainstormed on what had changed or been confirmed in the participants' thinking of collective action in the last few days, and what actions we need to take as a network moving forward.
The synthesis of this final plenary provided deep insights and key takeaways for the whole network that emerged from the collective brainstorming.
It was acknowledged that the APC network is impacted by several significant developments and changes in context, some of these including the expansion of digital capitalism and big tech power since the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, increasingly authoritarian states shrinking civic space, and the criminalisation of human rights defenders. Complicity between states, corporations, and violent non-state actors, alongside the rise of anti-rights agendas in UN spaces, were emphasised as changes that further the complexity of the rights landscape, added to global crises, from Palestine to Myanmar to Congo and beyond, which underscore the continued profitability of violence.
There was agreement on the fact that collective action is essential in this context, and that the network must go beyond frameworks that focus only on individual rights, advocating for digital justice and incorporating community and environmental rights. It was also flagged how crucial it is to articulate the relationship between digital rights, human rights and the rights of nature, and to imagine new rights grounded in these intersections. Addressing corporate power, particularly big tech, was deemed as a priority, while engaging deeply with Indigenous communities and activists was also mentioned as non-negotiable to ensure their voices are integral in discussions about Indigenous rights and environmental justice.
Participants concurred that advocacy needs to adopt an ecosystem approach, working at multiple levels and spaces with real examples to influence regulators and policy makers. It was highlighted that for this, the network must be prepared to confront anti-rights actors in UN spaces while leveraging civil society’s power in multilateral spaces. The APC community agreed that advocacy should be both disaggregated and intersectional, collaborating on distinct issues while articulating their interrelations to avoid siloed perspectives. To achieve this, collaboration with governments, the private sector and other social movements is key, as is avoiding reliance on big tech infrastructure for organising.
There was consensus that moving forward, the APC network needs to continue to work together from a shared political agenda and vision, rooted in diverse communities and prioritising marginalised voices. Within this, quick responses in emergencies, amplifying members’ work, and maintaining dialogue and communication were defined as essential, as well as collectively strategising on how to engage in problematic spaces, develop joint policy positions and deepen connections between advocacy processes. Other crucial steps mentioned were increasing membership from underrepresented countries, focusing on marginalised communities and fostering frequent convenings to build relationships and resilience.
Finally, the network agreed that it needs to map its own capacities, strengths and opportunities for joint action, which should happen as we strengthen regional strategies and improve how we share knowledge to learn from each other’s experiences.
This last plenary proved an appropriate conclusion to the three days of the Community Gathering, providing productive and crucial actions to ensure a clear and fruitful path forward for the network.
Gaurav Jain is lead editor at APC. He is an award-winning editor, writer and media entrepreneur who co-founded a feminist digital media site and an independent longform media house. He has also been a content and community consultant, literary and investigative journalist, and research manager.
Introducing the APC glossary: Why language matters for social justice
The APC Community Gathering took place from 15 to 17 May 2024 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, bringing together APC member organisations’ representatives, associates, close partners and allies, including civil society organisations based in Thailand, and the APC team. Over 225 people assembled from 46 countries and participated in 43 events, including plenaries, participant-led sessions and regional meetings, 40 lightning talks, presentations, pop-up sessions and project meetings, and several social events, including film screenings.
Sorry, this video will not work because your web browser does not support HTML5 video.
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, this convening came after a gap of seven years rather than the usual three years that the network meets face to face. The theme of the gathering was “More Together” and we celebrated being able to be, to do, to plan and to dream “more together”, as well as acknowledged and missed those unable to join us in person. We made significant advances towards our shared vision in this crucial moment and enjoyed a significant boost in networking, learning and collaboration across the APC network.
Starting with seven organisations in 1990, APC now comprises 70 organisational members and 41 associates active in 74 countries. The network emphasises a shared political narrative and vision – as one member said at a plenary, “APC is my political home.” The gathering offered all of us a timely and unique opportunity to learn from each other, to build shared meanings and to shape our collective advocacy strategies for the next four years, drawing on APC’s 2024-2027 strategic plan.
Sorry, this video will not work because your web browser does not support HTML5 video.
“The value of the APC network is the space it gives to find community, collaboration and camaraderie with other digital rights actors globally. We work in the Asia Pacific and it’s always nice to have a space to find and share learnings, challenges, solutions with those in other regions.”
–Sara Pacia, EngageMedia (Indonesia)
The centrepieces of the gathering’s programme were the five plenaries that anchored all discussion and built a shared narrative of how we can work together to leverage the current moment and defuse brewing challenges. The first plenary explored what forms of collective action are needed for the APC network to deepen its collective impact as well as how can it strengthen its collective identity while recognising its diversity. The second plenary showcased strategies for local movements and advocacy in times of violence and crises, while the third focused on ensuring digital technologies enable gender justice, environmental justice and digital inclusion. The fourth plenary discussed pathways to digital resilience and resistance in the context of climate change, conflicts and an anti-rights wave. The final plenary helped to synthesise the last three days to share common insights, the collective action needed and next steps within the framework of APC’s new strategic plan.
“The most important aspect for us being a member of APC is being able to get a global perspective on things that are affecting us in the part of the world where we work, getting to hear from other people in other parts of the world, what they’re facing and seeing where there are commonalities and coming up with solutions to solve some of those challenges.”
–Peter Bloom, Rhizomatica (Mexico)
Traditional Thai dance to launch the gathering
Plenary moments
Warm welcomes at a plenary with APC executive director Chat Garcia Ramilo
Musical interlude with local artists and activists at a plenary
Group engagement during a lightning talk
Collaborative brainstorming
Small group discussions during a plenary
Sharing projects during a lightning talk
Enthusiastic participation
Sharing inputs as a network
Learning joyfully from each other
Parallel sessions as learning opportunities
Great ideas bubbling up during sessions
Listening and exchanging
Presentation at a parallel session
Festive acknowledgements of APC members
Presentations of custom banners to every network member
Synthesising our collective learnings at the final plenary
Local elders making a traditional offering to participants
Connecting with local traditions
A festive performance at the APC party
The way ahead
Alongside the plenaries, there were several dozen sessions and talks co-designed by the participants, including ones on gendered disinformation, meaningful connectivity, big tech accountability, feminist principles of the internet, the safety needs of Myanmar women, AI, tech-life balance, internet shutdowns, hate speech, climate crisis and more. There were also regional meet-ups of members focused on Africa, Asia, Latin America, MENA, and Europe and North America. There were capacity-building sessions on human resources and communications, as well as daily self and collective care activities. Finally, participants also presented lightning talks and pop-up sessions, including on imagining feminist connectivity during crisis, decolonising the internet, Open Fibre Data Standard (OFDS), fair jobs and quality of life for women working in the digital sector, digital freedoms censorship, etc.
Apart from the formal sessions in the programme, the gathering also offered a Community Village space for self-organised interactions between participants without any pre-scheduled programming. The Village included the Cinema à la carte space to watch some of the network’s audiovisual productions; the Kiosk for participants to exhibit a wide variety of materials such as books, reports, brochures, publications, postcards, stickers, gifts, etc.; the Plaza for spontaneous gatherings and interactions; and the Museum for visual displays, such as posters, artwork, artefacts and photos.
Community Village showcasing member projects
Browsing member content
Custom art installation
Members sharing visual materials
Stickers, books, pamphlets and the latest edition of GISWatch
Quiet moments in the village
Each member received their own customised banner
Banners for network members hang in the village
Sharing handouts in multiple languages
Contributions highlighting our dynamic network
Information and gifts shared in the village
Brainstorming through colour and creativity
“Our involvement in the APC network has a two-sided advantage. On the one hand, we know other organisations trying to link digital issues with environmental and social issues, which enables mutual learning. And we also believe that all of our accumulated work on understanding environmental problems from a structural perspective, and therefore from the perspective of finding real solutions, could also be advantageous for APC organisations that are beginning to address environmental issues. Above all, [the network] is a way of working jointly to find solutions for the multiple crises that humankind and the planet are facing at this moment in time.”
– Ivonne Yanez, Acción Ecológica (Ecuador)
The final plenary held an exercise to assess and digest the learnings from the gathering and move towards collective action and specific next steps. The group brainstormed on what had changed or been confirmed in the participants' thinking of collective action in the last few days, and what actions we need to take as a network moving forward.
The synthesis of this final plenary provided deep insights and key takeaways for the whole network that emerged from the collective brainstorming.
It was acknowledged that the APC network is impacted by several significant developments and changes in context, some of these including the expansion of digital capitalism and big tech power since the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, increasingly authoritarian states shrinking civic space, and the criminalisation of human rights defenders. Complicity between states, corporations, and violent non-state actors, alongside the rise of anti-rights agendas in UN spaces, were emphasised as changes that further the complexity of the rights landscape, added to global crises, from Palestine to Myanmar to Congo and beyond, which underscore the continued profitability of violence.
There was agreement on the fact that collective action is essential in this context, and that the network must go beyond frameworks that focus only on individual rights, advocating for digital justice and incorporating community and environmental rights. It was also flagged how crucial it is to articulate the relationship between digital rights, human rights and the rights of nature, and to imagine new rights grounded in these intersections. Addressing corporate power, particularly big tech, was deemed as a priority, while engaging deeply with Indigenous communities and activists was also mentioned as non-negotiable to ensure their voices are integral in discussions about Indigenous rights and environmental justice.
Participants concurred that advocacy needs to adopt an ecosystem approach, working at multiple levels and spaces with real examples to influence regulators and policy makers. It was highlighted that for this, the network must be prepared to confront anti-rights actors in UN spaces while leveraging civil society’s power in multilateral spaces. The APC community agreed that advocacy should be both disaggregated and intersectional, collaborating on distinct issues while articulating their interrelations to avoid siloed perspectives. To achieve this, collaboration with governments, the private sector and other social movements is key, as is avoiding reliance on big tech infrastructure for organising.
There was consensus that moving forward, the APC network needs to continue to work together from a shared political agenda and vision, rooted in diverse communities and prioritising marginalised voices. Within this, quick responses in emergencies, amplifying members’ work, and maintaining dialogue and communication were defined as essential, as well as collectively strategising on how to engage in problematic spaces, develop joint policy positions and deepen connections between advocacy processes. Other crucial steps mentioned were increasing membership from underrepresented countries, focusing on marginalised communities and fostering frequent convenings to build relationships and resilience.
Finally, the network agreed that it needs to map its own capacities, strengths and opportunities for joint action, which should happen as we strengthen regional strategies and improve how we share knowledge to learn from each other’s experiences.
This last plenary proved an appropriate conclusion to the three days of the Community Gathering, providing productive and crucial actions to ensure a clear and fruitful path forward for the network.
Gaurav Jain is lead editor at APC. He is an award-winning editor, writer and media entrepreneur who co-founded a feminist digital media site and an independent longform media house. He has also been a content and community consultant, literary and investigative journalist, and research manager.
Spotlight on the vexing questions around biometrics and digital IDs
Spotlight on the vexing questions around biometrics and digital IDs
Spotlight on the vexing questions around biometrics and digital IDs
Spotlight on the vexing questions around biometrics and digital IDs
More together at the 2024 APC Community Gathering
“If people react to what I say online, I should step back and analyse the situation. One should not be scared. Being cautious, being aware of reactions to what you say, also builds resilience. It is learnt from how you respond to abuse online.”
Raylenne Kambua, a journalist and communications officer at APC network member International Association of Women in Radio and Television-Kenya (IAWRT-K), worried about digital safety. On 28 February and 1 March 2023, Kambua attended a two-day workshop organised by another APC member, Pollicy. She had signed up because she wanted to learn skills to manage the toxicity of social media. After the workshop, she came away thinking hard about the idea of digital resilience.
This was exactly what Pollicy hoped to do. Kambua was one of about 50 journalists and social communicators from Uganda and Kenya who attended the workshop that arose out of Pollicy’s project, “The Future of Work: Improving Digital Safety for Women at Work and Combating Gendered Disinformation”. The project, supported by an APC subgrant, aims to build a critical mass of African women who are well-versed in digital safety, resilience and shaping a feminist internet. “When women face harassment, they feel forced to leave digital spaces,” said Kambua as she recalled the workshop. “The idea of developing digital resilience was a key takeaway.”
So what does digital resilience look like? Kambua’s response was thoughtful. “As a woman journalist, you say something. Women journalists are considered ‘vocal’. If people react to what I say online, I should step back and analyse the situation – and not react with anger or other emotions. Some of these people are just keyboard warriors. One should not be scared. Being cautious, being aware of reactions to what you say, also builds resilience. It is learnt from how you respond to abuse online. It determines the impact on you for the future. It’s a long process.”
She also spoke about actions she has taken to change online behaviour since the workshop. “Sometimes I am a content consumer and sometimes a producer. We have to be considerate. I shouldn’t bully people online, and then expect people to not be bullied. I have many friends who are Twitter influencers. I told some of them [who bully others online] not to do it. I explained how it creates a cycle and encourages others to harass people online. Some friends listened and some didn’t.” She shrugged. “For some of them all publicity is good, even bad publicity.”
Empowering women journalists in East AfricaPollicy has collaborated with organisations in Uganda and Kenya such as the IAWRT-K, the Uganda Media Women’s Association (UMWA) and the Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) to understand how women in media can “survive the realities of the future of work.” We spoke with Pollicy’s programmes coordinator, Rachel Magege, and their engagement and advocacy lead, Tricia Gloria Nabaye, about the project’s journey and next steps.
Kenya recently saw massive protests around gender-based violence. Magege and Nabaye say that what was happening in Kenya was familiar in Uganda – femicides and gender-based violence on women journalists as well as other women. Pollicy was familiar with the issues faced by women in media, such as how many journalists have become freelancers over the last few years. While this gives them independence, it also removes the security of being attached to media houses. The question Pollicy asks is if women journalists in Kenya had safety from gender-based violence even when they were attached to media houses.
For journalists, gendered disinformation campaigns are especially effective when combined with other forms of attacks, such as online abuse and harassment, which aim at silencing their voice in public ~@ggithaiga @KICTANet #IWD23 #FutureOfWork @FNF_EastAfrica @PollicyOrg pic.twitter.com/zMXDgqqDEU
— IAWRT-Kenya (@IawrtK) March 1, 2023
A big focus of Pollicy’s work in this area has been to look for solutions for the problem of where women can report cases of misinformation and digital harassment. “Cybersecurity departments in police stations, the gender desk – we looked into that and tried to see how effective they really were. Not very effective,” said Magege. “The implementation of many cybersecurity laws for the protection of women is still very, very poor. So that would be an interesting angle for the future – to look into more in terms of the legal remedies and spaces where they can report.”
The election processes in countries like Tanzania and Kenya highlight the importance of empowering media professionals to navigate the complexities of reporting and ensuring accountability. Pollicy’s project aims to increase its presence and collaborate with organisations across Africa, aligning with its organisational mission as an African-based institution dedicated to promoting a safer and more inclusive media landscape.
Innovative tools and collaborative relationshipsOne interesting by-product of the project has been “Where's My Data?”, a card game developed by Pollicy as a creative tool for training sessions on data protection and digital rights. As Neema Iyer, founder and former executive director of Pollicy writes, it has been an organisational tradition to play “Otyo, a Uganda-specific Taboo-like game at all our gatherings and retreats, where things often get heated and hectic.” Iyer and Phillip Ayazika, director of programmes at Pollicy, co-developed the card game. Iyer writes that a player needs to make “headway by successfully navigating through the challenges and making wise choices to protect your data.” Each card offers a familiar data privacy or security scenario – scams, surveillance, hacking, passwords, phishing, etc.
Participants at the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) 2023 play the “Where's My Data?” card game. Image via Neema Iyer's website.“It's a creative way of helping a person remember, ‘Oh, when this happens, it’s a data breach.' Or, ‘What sites am I using for fact-checking? Did I just use fake news?’ Easier than me coming with slides for training,” laughs Nabaye. They tested their card game at the Africa Internet Governance Forum and at the Forum of Internet Freedom in Africa in 2023, both forums at which the game was very well received. Pollicy has also designed an online game addressing disinformation called Choose Your Own Fake News, and participants at the two-day workshop also played another game called Digital Safe-Tea.
Magege noted that one of the project’s highlights for her has been the building of collaborative relationships. She spoke of Cecilia Maundu, a broadcast journalist and specialist in gender digital security training in Kenya. “When we interacted with Cecilia, she had just begun to host a podcast called Digital Data Podcast and exploring digital rights training. Today she is a full-fledged trainer. She continues to empower women through digital skills trainings, through digital storytelling and creative writing workshops. In our collaboration with Digital Data and Cecilia Maundu, there is growth and change within the space even in the last few years – such as the existence now of generative AI in newsrooms which is contextually unregulated. We are glad to see the work continue.” Through the project's engagement, Maundu became actively involved in digital rights work and has since become a full-time trainer, conducting workshops on these topics. Magege added, “We're trying to make sure that there is longevity long after the consultations and the trainings, making sure that communities are brought together in what we've termed ‘communities of practice' to continue the work and to build networks.”
The project's impact has also extended beyond just workshops in the form of collaborations with media associations, including through panel discussions, debates, and podcasts, ensuring that the dialogue on misinformation, tech-facilitated gender-based violence and women's issues in media remained ongoing. The project itself continues to grow across the continent. Pollicy has just finished focus group discussions in Uganda, Kenya and Cameroon and is planning discussions for Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique. They plan to release an Afro Feminist Internet Scorecard that will inform their interventions in each of these countries. The scorecard, along with Pollicy’s Afro Feminist Internet Awards, will be launched at their Data Fest event in Kenya in mid-July.
As someone who hoped that the Pollicy workshop would give her skills that she could share with colleagues, Raylenne Kambua at IAWRT-K came away hopeful. The workshop encouraged her to take the first step to create a safe environment. “Digital safety starts with you,” concluded Kambua. “If I don’t do it, then my neighbour won’t either.”
Cover image via Raylenne Kambua at International Association of Women in Radio and Television-Kenya (IAWRT-K)
Gaurav Jain is lead editor at APC. He is an award-winning editor, writer and media entrepreneur who co-founded a feminist digital media site and an independent longform media house. He has also been a content and community consultant, literary and investigative journalist, and research manager.
Regions Africa Topics Capacity building Feminist internet Freedom of expression Tags Areas of work Feminist internet Human rights Column Seeding change OnMore together at the 2024 APC Community Gathering
“If people react to what I say online, I should step back and analyse the situation. One should not be scared. Being cautious, being aware of reactions to what you say, also builds resilience. It is learnt from how you respond to abuse online.”
Raylenne Kambua, a journalist and communications officer at APC network member International Association of Women in Radio and Television-Kenya (IAWRT-K), worried about digital safety. On 28 February and 1 March 2023, Kambua attended a two-day workshop organised by another APC member, Pollicy. She had signed up because she wanted to learn skills to manage the toxicity of social media. After the workshop, she came away thinking hard about the idea of digital resilience.
This was exactly what Pollicy hoped to do. Kambua was one of about 50 journalists and social communicators from Uganda and Kenya who attended the workshop that arose out of Pollicy’s project, “The Future of Work: Improving Digital Safety for Women at Work and Combating Gendered Disinformation”. The project, supported by an APC subgrant, aims to build a critical mass of African women who are well-versed in digital safety, resilience and shaping a feminist internet. “When women face harassment, they feel forced to leave digital spaces,” said Kambua as she recalled the workshop. “The idea of developing digital resilience was a key takeaway.”
So what does digital resilience look like? Kambua’s response was thoughtful. “As a woman journalist, you say something. Women journalists are considered ‘vocal’. If people react to what I say online, I should step back and analyse the situation – and not react with anger or other emotions. Some of these people are just keyboard warriors. One should not be scared. Being cautious, being aware of reactions to what you say, also builds resilience. It is learnt from how you respond to abuse online. It determines the impact on you for the future. It’s a long process.”
She also spoke about actions she has taken to change online behaviour since the workshop. “Sometimes I am a content consumer and sometimes a producer. We have to be considerate. I shouldn’t bully people online, and then expect people to not be bullied. I have many friends who are Twitter influencers. I told some of them [who bully others online] not to do it. I explained how it creates a cycle and encourages others to harass people online. Some friends listened and some didn’t.” She shrugged. “For some of them all publicity is good, even bad publicity.”
Empowering women journalists in East AfricaPollicy has collaborated with organisations in Uganda and Kenya such as the IAWRT-K, the Uganda Media Women’s Association (UMWA) and the Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) to understand how women in media can “survive the realities of the future of work.” We spoke with Pollicy’s programmes coordinator, Rachel Magege, and their engagement and advocacy lead, Tricia Gloria Nabaye, about the project’s journey and next steps.
Kenya recently saw massive protests around gender-based violence. Magege and Nabaye say that what was happening in Kenya was familiar in Uganda – femicides and gender-based violence on women journalists as well as other women. Pollicy was familiar with the issues faced by women in media, such as how many journalists have become freelancers over the last few years. While this gives them independence, it also removes the security of being attached to media houses. The question Pollicy asks is if women journalists in Kenya had safety from gender-based violence even when they were attached to media houses.
For journalists, gendered disinformation campaigns are especially effective when combined with other forms of attacks, such as online abuse and harassment, which aim at silencing their voice in public ~@ggithaiga @KICTANet #IWD23 #FutureOfWork @FNF_EastAfrica @PollicyOrg pic.twitter.com/zMXDgqqDEU
— IAWRT-Kenya (@IawrtK) March 1, 2023
A big focus of Pollicy’s work in this area has been to look for solutions for the problem of where women can report cases of misinformation and digital harassment. “Cybersecurity departments in police stations, the gender desk – we looked into that and tried to see how effective they really were. Not very effective,” said Magege. “The implementation of many cybersecurity laws for the protection of women is still very, very poor. So that would be an interesting angle for the future – to look into more in terms of the legal remedies and spaces where they can report.”
The election processes in countries like Tanzania and Kenya highlight the importance of empowering media professionals to navigate the complexities of reporting and ensuring accountability. Pollicy’s project aims to increase its presence and collaborate with organisations across Africa, aligning with its organisational mission as an African-based institution dedicated to promoting a safer and more inclusive media landscape.
Innovative tools and collaborative relationshipsOne interesting by-product of the project has been “Where's My Data?”, a card game developed by Pollicy as a creative tool for training sessions on data protection and digital rights. As Neema Iyer, founder and former executive director of Pollicy writes, it has been an organisational tradition to play “Otyo, a Uganda-specific Taboo-like game at all our gatherings and retreats, where things often get heated and hectic.” Iyer and Phillip Ayazika, director of programmes at Pollicy, co-developed the card game. Iyer writes that a player needs to make “headway by successfully navigating through the challenges and making wise choices to protect your data.” Each card offers a familiar data privacy or security scenario – scams, surveillance, hacking, passwords, phishing, etc.
Participants at the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) 2023 play the “Where's My Data?” card game. Image via Neema Iyer's website.“It's a creative way of helping a person remember, ‘Oh, when this happens, it’s a data breach.' Or, ‘What sites am I using for fact-checking? Did I just use fake news?’ Easier than me coming with slides for training,” laughs Nabaye. They tested their card game at the Africa Internet Governance Forum and at the Forum of Internet Freedom in Africa in 2023, both forums at which the game was very well received. Pollicy has also designed an online game addressing disinformation called Choose Your Own Fake News, and participants at the two-day workshop also played another game called Digital Safe-Tea.
Magege noted that one of the project’s highlights for her has been the building of collaborative relationships. She spoke of Cecilia Maundu, a broadcast journalist and specialist in gender digital security training in Kenya. “When we interacted with Cecilia, she had just begun to host a podcast called Digital Data Podcast and exploring digital rights training. Today she is a full-fledged trainer. She continues to empower women through digital skills trainings, through digital storytelling and creative writing workshops. In our collaboration with Digital Data and Cecilia Maundu, there is growth and change within the space even in the last few years – such as the existence now of generative AI in newsrooms which is contextually unregulated. We are glad to see the work continue.” Through the project's engagement, Maundu became actively involved in digital rights work and has since become a full-time trainer, conducting workshops on these topics. Magege added, “We're trying to make sure that there is longevity long after the consultations and the trainings, making sure that communities are brought together in what we've termed ‘communities of practice' to continue the work and to build networks.”
The project's impact has also extended beyond just workshops in the form of collaborations with media associations, including through panel discussions, debates, and podcasts, ensuring that the dialogue on misinformation, tech-facilitated gender-based violence and women's issues in media remained ongoing. The project itself continues to grow across the continent. Pollicy has just finished focus group discussions in Uganda, Kenya and Cameroon and is planning discussions for Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique. They plan to release an Afro Feminist Internet Scorecard that will inform their interventions in each of these countries. The scorecard, along with Pollicy’s Afro Feminist Internet Awards, will be launched at their Data Fest event in Kenya in mid-July.
As someone who hoped that the Pollicy workshop would give her skills that she could share with colleagues, Raylenne Kambua at IAWRT-K came away hopeful. The workshop encouraged her to take the first step to create a safe environment. “Digital safety starts with you,” concluded Kambua. “If I don’t do it, then my neighbour won’t either.”
Cover image via Raylenne Kambua at International Association of Women in Radio and Television-Kenya (IAWRT-K)
Gaurav Jain is lead editor at APC. He is an award-winning editor, writer and media entrepreneur who co-founded a feminist digital media site and an independent longform media house. He has also been a content and community consultant, literary and investigative journalist, and research manager.
Regions Africa Topics Capacity building Feminist internet Freedom of expression Tags Areas of work Feminist internet Human rights Column Seeding change On
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