In depth
APC's Women's Rights Programme statement: Forwarding violence is violence
By APC
The Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Rights Programme (APC WRP) rejects and condemns systemic, technology-related violence against women in all its expressions. The acts of recording, photographing and documenting acts of sexual violence and further distribution and sharing are all part of the violence. With each view, share and forward, people are continuing and replicating the…
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Take Back the Tech! campaign wins ITU award for gender equality in tech
By Flavia Fascendini
APC's Take Back the Tech! campaign was globally aclaimed for its “efforts to reduce threats online and building women's confidence and security in the use of ICTs,” winning first place on this first edition of the prize from over 360 nominations and 37 finalists from more than 70 countries under category 6. The Gender Equality Mainstreaming - Technology (GEM-Tech) Award is an annual special ITU-…
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Participants in Costa Rican Women's Hackathon develop software applications to solve social problems
By Flavia Fascendini
On 30 and 31 August 2014, 39 women engineers and technologists created nine prototypes of software applications aimed at solving social problems in the north of Costa Rica, at the First Women's Hackathon, organised by APC member organisation Sulá Batsú through its TIC-AS project, with the support of UN Women's Fund for Gender Equality.
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“In our work, the internet is a main stakeholder”: A feminist talk with Hayriye Avatar at the IGF
By Bishakha Datta
The Turkish LGBTI rights organization Kaos GL turns 20 on September 20. At the Internet Governance Forum just held in Istanbul, Bishakha Datta interviewed Kaos activist Hayriye Avatar on their pathbreaking LGBTI activism, both online and offline.
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Emma Watson, trolls and a feminist internet
By Jac sm Kee
Within days of her highly visible and publicised speech, Emma Watson became the subject and target of violence. The threat and reality of using women’s sexualised bodies as weapons to humiliate, shut them up or blackmail them into submission is an increasingly prevalent expression of violence against women online. Jac sm Kee, APC´s Women´s Rights Programme manager shares her insight on the…
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EROTICS, activism and feminist porn
By Caroline Tagny
Caroline Tagny interviewed Rohini Lakshané, who used to work with EROTICS India, and Sheena Magenya, from the Coalition of African Lesbians during the Global meeting on gender, sexuality and the internet in April 2014 to ask them how they understand pornography from their respective contexts, and how do they engage their activism with the intersection between sexual rights and internet rights.
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Feminist Principles of the Internet
By APC
Over three days, the participants discussed and debated intersections of gender, sexuality, and the internet – not only as a tool – but as a new public space. In thinking through these issues, the participants at the meeting developed a set of *15 feminist principles of the internet*. These are designed to be an evolving document that informs our work on gender and technology, as well as…
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Becoming an agent of change
By Lamia Kosovic
Are feminists bored with online activism? Cyber feminists’ minor politics and affirmative political approach often presents us with dynamic, thematic and changeable maps of affinities, of political kinship, and there is a strong potential in the crafting of such unities. However, there are more than just a few obstacles that feminists in the virtual communities have to deal with. “But their…
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Marginalised desires and the internet
By Nyx McLean
This article explores marginalised desires and the need individuals have to express these desires online, especially when it may not be safe to do so offline. Attention is brought to the need to protect individuals’ rights to engage in sharing content and expressing their desires online; and the need for digital security to protection their data and identities. The article also discusses notions…
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Thirty years after 1984: Who’s looking at you?
By Melissa Hope Ditmore
Recording cameras everywhere, facial recognition software, gait-recognition technology, unauthorized collection of pictures: It is widely known now that private companies are working with states on surveillance, but does this affect women and girls in a particular way? “While online security is for everyone, women and girls are frequent targets of malicious attacks online, and they suffer greater…
