International Women's Day on 8 March marks a month dedicated to drawing attention to gender inequalities and the changes needed to tackle them. To contribute to necessary reflections, we have compiled five recommended readings for those wishing to delve deeper into the intersections between gender, power relations and digital technologies.
From the new challenges and regulatory gaps posed by AI to the need to understand the realities in which technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), gendered disinformation and other forms of violence occur, these publications help to paint a picture of the current problems faced, the ongoing resistance and the paths that can lead to digital justice and better digital futures.
Read on and find out more.
Bridging the gap: Addressing technology-facilitated gender-based violence in global AI governance
Among the most urgent and under-regulated consequences of AI deployment is the rise of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), including automated harassment, deepfakes, gendered disinformation and surveillance-enabled abuse. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of this intersection, while also examining critical gaps and exploring how to tackle them.
Researching ourselves: A decolonial feminist analysis on technology-facilitated gender-based violence
This GenderIT.org edition provides important analysis of the critical insights that have emerged from the 10 research projects under the third cycle of the Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN). They illustrate the complexities of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) and how it intersects with the hierarchy of identities and belongings shaped by various geopolitical, nationalist and socioeconomic factors. For instance, research on Black women in Brazil and South Africa revealed that, despite their shared legacy of a history of racial oppressions organised via slavery, colonialism and imperialism and further entrenched by the global rise of white supremacy and the anti-gender movement, their experiences with TFGBV are not identical. In the research by our partners in Egypt and Ethiopia, they have highlighted how hate speech and crackdown campaigns against LGBTQIA+ individuals tend to intensify amidst rising inflation, economic unrest, corruption, war and social unrest.
Beyond the algorithm: Weaponised technologies and human rights under digital siege
Across conflict zones and fragile democracies, technologies once imagined as tools of empowerment and exploration now serve as instruments of surveillance, repression and even killing. A series of investigations were conducted to explore how technology, whether simple or advanced, is weaponised against women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in conflict-affected states of Ethiopia, Kashmir, Pakistan, Sudan and Venezuela. This GenderIT.org special edition captures the similarities and specificities among them, helping us to understand how patterns of technology-facilitated violence are intentional and structured through state policies, security doctrines and corporate designs driven by profit and capitalist greed.
Unyielding: Personal essays from women human rights defenders
This anthology presents personal essays from women human rights defenders. Over five months, between April and August 2025, the contributors to this anthology carefully crafted their stories, despite great challenges to their own well-being and safety. Across contexts and geographies, worsening inequalities have fuelled terrible violence, both online and offline, leaving women human rights defenders exposed to unprecedented abuse that is intimate and targeted. From state and non-state brutality in the streets to orchestrated smear campaigns on media and digital platforms, this violence has evolved in ways that laws have failed (or refused) to address. In this context, it was essential to publish these first-hand accounts of resilience, strength and steadfastness, directly from those on the frontlines of defending queer and women’s rights, freedoms and dignity.
Placing "gender" in disinformation
In order to better capture the variety of problems that women and gender-diverse people face when expressing their views and opinions, APC co-organised a series of consultations in 2023 to collect further information on their lived experiences, in different cultures and geographies. These in-depth conversations pointed to the fact that gender-based violence, hate speech and disinformation are different challenges that sometimes overlap. It points out that the ultimate goal of gender-related and identity-based disinformation is to discourage the exercise of freedom of expression by women, gender-diverse individuals and marginalised groups and to manipulate the information ecosystem.