Online violence safety tips

Sara Baker, global coordinator for the Take Back The Tech Campaign, shares with us a rich list of safety roadmaps, research references and toolkits to respond to online violence, protect yourself online and assist others who might need support.

When women are attacked through ICT, their communication rights are at risk. Such violence aims to silence women, to push them out of digital spaces and keep them from participating in all levels of society. Further, women are often at a disadvantage when dealing with issues such as media ownership, censorship and content regulations, privacy and intellectual property rights because they are not always directly represented in local, regional, national and international decision-making.

Click to Open Take Back The Tech’s Digital Safety Roadmaps

– Blackmail: the crime of threatening to reveal embarrassing or damaging information about a person to the public, family or associates unless that person buys the blackmailer’s silence.
– Cyberstalking :a technologically-based attack on a person for reasons of anger, revenge or control.
– Hate speech: includes written, spoken or visual discrimination, harassment, threats or violence against a person or group on the basis of their gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, etc.

Take Back the Tech Safety Toolkits

– General safety toolkit  (Security in a box)
– How to talk to survivors  of tech-related violence
– How different sectors can protect with privacy and anonymity
– How institutions, providers and employers should store data

Feminist Principles of the Internet

A feminist internet works towards empowering more women and queer persons – in all our diversities – to fully enjoy our rights, engage in pleasure and play, and dismantle patriarchy. This integrates our different realities, contexts and specificities – including age, disabilities, sexualities, gender identities and expressions, socioeconomic locations, political and religious beliefs, ethnic origins, and racial markers.
Read about how the following key principles are critical towards realising a feminist internet.

Research

– From impunity to justice: Exploring corporate and legal remedies for technology-related violence against women (2012-2015)

Articles

– Coming back to tech
– Protecting the right to freedom of expression: strategies of survivors of tech-related violence against women
– Feminist tech tools
– Women’s safety? There is an app for that

The Take Back the Tech! campaign assists women in claiming their full communication rights by celebrating women’s contributions to ICT development, sharing information and creating collective knowledge, engaging in capacity building and education, producing media alternatives, networking and building solidarity.  The Womanity Award 2016 was given to APC and Luchadoras TV to replicate the Take Back the Tech! in Mexico amongst young feminist collectives.