Feminist talk

Who’s afraid of the Centaur: Musings on Blockchain and Feminism

Posted Fri 28 Jul 2023 - 03:57 | 198 views

Habash from Egypt explores the relationship between feminism and blockchain technologies in a curious and critical review of possibilities emergent in DAOs and DisCos. They accompany us through several iterations and thought experiments on political organisation and theory in the realms of web3.

Feminist talk

kotobli: a homegrown experiment in resisting dominant algorithms

Posted Fri 28 Jul 2023 - 03:39 | 249 views

Journalist, Yara el Murr, from Lebanon presents a case study of kotobli, a book discovery platform that counters colonial algorithms used in searching for books about the SWANA region. She details how Big Tech favours publishers and authors from the Global North and presents the challenges and opportunities of working with local publishers and authors to change this.

Feminist talk

In digital defence of bodily autonomy

Posted Fri 28 Jul 2023 - 03:14 | 128 views

Open-source advocate from Jordan, Raya Sharbain, makes the case for digital self-defence to support sexual rights and reproductive justice movements amidst growing crackdowns and threats. She elaborates on use of secure and protective technologies to share and access information critical to feminist movements.

In depth

Women in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: Increased Targeting and Growing Challenges

Posted Fri 28 Jul 2023 - 02:30 | 1,903 views

AI expert, Nour Naim from Gaza, details the particular challenges of gender and racial bias in algorithms and datasets. In her piece, she presents an overview of important and emerging trends in the movement for trustworthy AI, as well as activist responses to these inequalities.

Feminist talk

Is Civil Society In MENA Ready To Tackle AI’s Human Rights Challenges?

Posted Fri 28 Jul 2023 - 02:13 | 437 views

Tunisian researcher, Afef Abrougui, writes about the perils of AI-enhanced technologies deployed by authoritarian regimes in the region towards increased surveillance and predictive policing. She raises important questions about the readiness of civil society in the MENA to respond to these dangers and what is needed to preserve privacy and human rights in the coming…

Editorial

Algorithmic Anxieties & Feminist Futures in MENA

Posted Fri 28 Jul 2023 - 01:12 | 227 views

For a region like the MENA (which some authors refer to as S/WANA, others as Arabic-speaking countries), tech policy problems are compounded with a litany of daily struggles, most devastating of these being occupation, war, conflict, and displacement which affects, we sometimes forget, two billion people - a quarter of the world’s population. People Like Us are often…

Feminist talk

The Siren Song of Subservience: Perpetuation of Gender Stereotypes in AI Through Pop Culture

Posted Tue 27 Jun 2023 - 03:32 | 476 views

Technology is constantly evolving everyday, with new advancements in models like artificial intelligence that on one hand claims to help humans in making tasks easy, but on the other hand, it reinforces harmful societal stereotypes. In this article, Beatrix Kondo explores the portrayal of gender through AI in pop culture and how it has been seen in still-new AI chatbots.

In depth

When Protection Becomes Threat: Cybercrime Regulation As A Tool For Silencing Women And LGBTQIA+ People Around The World

Posted Mon 26 Jun 2023 - 03:58 | 215 views

Derechos Digitales maps cases involving the abusive use of cybercrime regulation to silence and criminalise women and LGBTQIA+ people worldwide. The results are troubling and warn of the inherent danger of imposing international standards without considering national contexts or building human rights safeguards, particularly for historically marginalised groups.

A Feminist Conversation on Cybersecurity

Posted Mon 26 Jun 2023 - 03:30 | 597 views

This edition focuses on the human dimension of cybersecurity. To do this, the editors asked themselves how cybersecurity policies developed from the centres of political, economic and epistemological power affect those at the margins; and how they can think about cybersecurity from a feminist perspective. The editors set out to find specific and contextualised examples of how cybersecurity…

Feminist talk

Feminist Sparks of Reflection About Digital Forensics

Posted Mon 26 Jun 2023 - 01:46 | 357 views

The international forensic community still fails to develop tools and techniques to address women’s needs. Carl, from Marialab, explores how feminist activists in Brazil are working on frameworks for teaching and applying computer forensics in cases of gender-based violence online.