Feminist talk
Transparency and accountability: Finding points of agreement following the #fbrape campaign
Last month a coalition of women's organisations led a campaign to hold Facebook accountable for its content policy. In particular, how it deals with hateful speech and representations of gender-based violence shared by its users. In response, freedom of expression advocates have expressed concern and criticism over the precedent set by demands for Facebook to remove hateful content from its site…
Feminist talk
#fbrape is about gender-based hate speech, not about censorship
On May 21 more than a hundred organisations lead by "Women, Action…
Feminist talk
How women around the world are taking part in combating gender-based hate speech on Facebook
Sexist, gender-based violent speech is a norm today. Sign in, check your home page and somewhere on that or over the timeline you’ll be linked to a page or a photo which only serves to demean the existence of woman. What’s worse is finding some of your friends making jokes about it. But should that be a norm too? Finding your friends making rape and other gender-based jokes? No, it’s NOT funny!…
Feminist talk
How funny is this, Facebook?
“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.
Feminist talk
Blaming the victim
It was a bit like ping-pong - reporters, activists, and representatives from civil society organisations in a hot debate on privacy in Facebook. Some pointed out how Facebook (FB) from its inception is designed to encourage giving up your innermost secrets – or at least your relationship status. That privacy configurations change frequently on FB and it's hard to keep up or understand the…
In depth
Tell me what social network you use and I'll tell you what your struggle is
This article, written by Florencia Flores Iborra for GenderIT.org, analyses some current cultural practices on some of the more popular online social networks, and the ways in which the publication policies of these platforms support or restrict the proliferation of certain behaviors relating to respect for the rights of women on the internet.
Feminist talk
Facebook support sucks
Since November 22, when I made a password error, Facebook has restricted me from certain features for 30 days. Highly inconvenient because I am admin of several groups and pages (mostly related to peace and human rights). Each I try to take any of the above actions, I get a note saying I have been blocked from certain features because I may have violated community standards. Like which ones?
Feminist talk
“A Facebook status can get you arrested faster than killing someone now”
In India, the largest democracy on Earth, 21-year old girl Shaheen Dhada was arrested for posting a status update on Facebook questioning the complete shutdown of cities for Bal Thackeray’s (rightwing leader notorious for inciting religious hatred and violence) funeral on Sunday, 18th November. Her friend Renu Srinivas was also arrested for “liking” the update which reportedly read: "People like…
Feminist talk
The Uprising of Women in the Arab World censored by Facebook
On 10 November, the page of The Uprising of Women in the Arab World posted that Dana, the Syrian woman whose photo was censored by Facebook, was restored after a call for support against Facebook censorship of her photo.
Feminist talk
A little red dot on a map points to a significant debate
A Feminist talk entry published in GenderIT.org (in Portuguese) started an interesting exchange related to the complex fields of freedom of expression, censorship, hate speech, legal remedies, and ICT related violence against women. You must be asking yourself what it was about, in order to start such a complex debate. Well, it all starts with a map.
