The “Take action to end gender-based violence on Facebook” campaign, or #FBrape campaign, co-signed by the APC Women´s Rights Programme, triggered interesting, timely, and necessary debates around freedom of expression, censorship, privacy, and intermediary liability. Read the collection of GenderIT.org Feminist Talk discussions.

“Take action to end gender-based violence on Facebook” is this campaign’s call that asks companies whose publicity appears on explicitly violent Facebook pages and profiles to help pressure the social networking platform to re-examine its response to violence against women and girls.

The Cyber Stewards network organised a meeting that took place on 17-18 March 2013. APC member Colnodo took part in a workshop at the meeting, themed “Governance without government in cyberspace?” Colnodo’s participation in the network strengthens Colnodo’s work in the “End violence: Women’s rights and safety online” project in Colombia.

Many gender equality and women’s empowerment related events are taking place at the World Summit on the Information Society Forum in Geneva. Jac sm Kee from APC Women’s Rights Programme participated in the High Level Dialogue on “Women’s Empowerment in the Information Society: Systemic, Scalable Strategies.”

If you are planning to attend the World Summit on the Information Society Forum taking place from May 13-17 in Geneva, either in person or remotely, here you can find a compilation of all the events focusing on women’s rights.

One of the main complaints by women during the discussions at the World Summit on the Information Society focused on the need for more women to participate in decisions about the development of the Internet, and the discussion and implementation of public policies aimed at building an inclusive information society, without discrimination based on gender or any other grounds.

The UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women in Law and Public Life launched its thematic report, which received inputs from various stakeholders, among them APC. The final report reflects how women are participating online, some of the ways in which discrimination is taking place and the impact of that discrimination.

APC and its seven country partners have achieved milestones after their first year of work on the project “End violence: Women’s rights and safety online.” APCNews interviewed Jan Moolman, project coordinator, about the main highlights of this first year and the challenges and expectations for the year ahead.