GenderIT.org
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 about their name, age, location, family, marital status and even daily activities. Over the years I h...
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 ...
Let's think of the Take Back The Tech! (TBTT) camp in Nepal. About 50 feminists from different parts of the world: many ideas, experiences and emotions boiling, bouncing and growing in this effervescent environment. The facilitators invite us to an open space: sheets and markers are handed out so that whoever wants to can propose a workshop. The list of workshops is long and interesting, but th...
For the past few years, I've committed to doing the conventional New Year's resolution on my birthday rather than on 1 January. My resolutions or “intentions” so far have been reflective and inward-looking rather than about the external. For instance, finding more peace, being more focused, and this year it is self-love, also known as self-care. So it was a pleasant coincidence to fly out t...
Sex is f**king serious. This (punny) statement has some truth in it and also a great deal of myth. Societal conversations around sex usually centre around the fact that it is some taboo dark powerful force not to be toyed with outside the confines of commitment or something that we simply cannot engage in without giggling like pre-teens looking through an adult magazine. The balance in engaging...
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