GenderIT.org
For the last few years, I’ve worked in different corners of what can be generally be dubbed as the content moderation industry. First as a contractor, then as an employee for well-known social media platforms, where day-to-day work is intimately linked to crucial social outcomes in different parts of the world. The decisions made in that industry can decide what counts as a real identity, the level of nudity deemed socially acceptable, and even what war images will make it to society’s co...
The new freedom of expression brought by the internet goes far beyond politics. People relate to each other in new ways on a medium that offers the cover of anonymity but also deception. However, information technology and the internet are rapidly transforming almost every aspect of our lives - some for better, while others for worse. Ghana has in recent years been celebrated for achieving a number of development milestones, despite these achievements, there are still deep-seated inequalities...
Data and privacy are especially important in the context of the anti-gay clampdown in Tanzania. Currently, the digital world and the governments of most countries are setting up measures to ensure data is protected while most African countries are still at the stage that views the internet as a revolutionary weapon. In relation to gender as well, there are policies yet to be implemented, polici...
APC's Take Back the Tech! project worked closely with Luchadoras and SocialTIC, campaigners in Mexico, to develop an illustrated list of manifestations of online gender-based violence based on case documentation. You can access it at the GenderIT.org website here. Use it in your work and activism, and please share it widely!
Growing up in Bangladesh, I experienced my first “wrong-number” phone call when I was 10 years old, during the time of landlines, before we had mobiles or smartphones. Wrong-number calls would usually be initiated by young men who would dial a random number until they heard a young woman answer. Then they would try to strike up a conversation by asking the recipient a barrage of questions a...
The Feminist Internet Research Network is a three-and-a-half-year collaborative and multidisciplinary research project led by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The project draws on the study “Mapping research in gender and digital technology” carried out by APC and commissioned by IDRC, an...
Since its introduction in Ghana in 1993, the internet has provided numerous opportunities to Ghanaians, including the ability to create networks, share information, as well as communicate. Today, Ghana boasts about 10 million internet users and ranks 28th out of 55 countries on the continent in terms of internet penetration. Despite the many advantages the internet has brought to the citizenry,...
An unexpected duo, tech bros and sex workers, banded together in February in opposition to two bills meant to curb online sex trafficking. Despite their efforts, the bills, Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), were incorporated into a conglomeration of the two, called the FOSTA-SESTA package. With a bipartisan approv...
Each time I switched on the Netflix app on my phone, I activated the subtitles. They allowed me to focus on the screen and the show on hand during any periods of brain fog or anxious moments. The closed captioning was an added bonus for me. We know that subtitles and closed captioning are ways to make the content accessible to deaf and hard of hearing persons. But they are also useful for many ...
Since 2014, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), a Ugandan-based think tank, has being convening the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) in collaboration with other partners. This year, in collaboration with the Media Foundation for West Africa (MWFA), participants from different parts of the continent and beyond were brought together ...
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2018
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