Thread by @prajnya

Hi, I’m Radhika Radhakrishnan @so_radhikal, a feminist researcher working at @iNetDemocracy. I will be tweeting in this thread about gender-based online violence. You can quote-tweet the tweets in this thread with your thoughts, Qs, & experiences. #Prajnya16Days #16DaysOfActivism

Let's begin with understanding online violence. What is it, why it occurs, who is more likely to experience it, and how does it manifest in digital spaces. Have thoughts about these? Share and let us know here! Read on to understand more about it. #Prajnya16Days #nosgbv

Violence is always about power, both online and offline. One’s identities, such as gender, caste, sexuality etc., play a crucial role in how online as well as offline spaces are experienced by us. The power hierarchies that govern society also govern the Internet. #Prajnya16Days

Historically public spaces have been the domain of men and women have had limited access to these spaces. The “private” domestic woman is considered a “good woman” and the “public” woman is considered a “bad woman”. Do you think of the Internet as a public space? #Prajnya16Days

What does this have to do with violence? Once we understand how spaces are hierarchised based on our identities, it's clearer how violence is a form of “putting women in their place” when they have crossed the boundaries of the spaces they are permitted to be in. #Prajnya16Days

Violence then is a form of surveillance: a dominant mode of controlling ppl such that everyone is implicitly governed by expectations of social conduct. These expectations are also determined by our identities. See …ringsurveillance.internetdemocracy.in for more. @iNetDemocracy #Prajnya16Days

In physical spaces, women are expected to speak softly, not wear certain clothes, etc. In online spaces, women are expected to not share sexual content etc. Adhering to these norms is rewarded through protection from violence & deviations are punished via violence. #Prajnya16Days

Some women, who are considered more “deviant”, such as trans-queer women, Muslim women, Dalit women, etc. face higher levels of violence in physical as well as online spaces due to this “deviance.” Hence, we need an intersectional understanding of online violence. #Prajnya16Days

What does online violence include? Many things! Abusive comments, threats of violence, accessing & stealing personal data, taking & distributing photos & videos without consent, monitoring your movements & activities online & offline, blackmail... Add to this list! #Prajnya16Days

As an example, I'm linking here a thread based on a recent instance of image-based online violence that I faced earlier this year on @Twitter, in which I also talk about the role of platforms in responding to violence (more on that shortly, keep reading!):

https://twitter.com/so_radhikal/status/1238529620573446144

As another example, earlier this year I also spoke to @annavetticad about the disturbingly common phenomenon of men sending rape threats to women online. Why does this happen? What is the thinking behind such actions? Read this article to find out more: firstpost.com/opinion/corona…

We are more familiar with terms such as "domestic violence." But does our understanding of domestic violence include violence through tech? Listen to this podcast I hosted with @SunoIndia_in with @busydot on expanding our definitions of domestic violence: sunoindia.in/cyber-democrac…

Do you know how our laws and policies understand online violence? They largely consider it to be a harm to our data. If our images are shared non-consensually online, it's only our data that has been shared and harmed. Do you agree with this? Read on to know more! #Prajnya16Days

An example by @anjakovacs: When women talk about online violence, they don’t describe its harms as data harms but as bodily harm, expressing fear, anxiety. Online violence is more than data violation. Our bodies are not just physical bodies, but are also our digital identities.

Digital platforms don't take online violence seriously cuz they see it as a data harm. When we see images shared non-consensually as part of our bodies, having an embodied effect on us, not just on our data, we will begin to take online violence more seriously. @iNetDemocracy

Now that we've understood what online violence is, why it occurs, and how it's gendered in nature, how can we respond to it? The digital space is a site for violence, but it should also be a space for addressing that violence. Agree? Let us see how. #Prajnya16Days #nosgbv

Research carried out by @iNetDemocracy shows that the law is not always the preferred option for women in response to online violence. Legal institutions are often difficult, long-drawn & expensive to navigate, filled with patriarchal attitudes. Read here:
internetdemocracy.in/wp-content/upl…

The law can also be a site for patriarchy. Research by @povmumbai shows that S.67 of the IT Act which, apart from being used to respond to online violence, has been used to censor expression and criminalise political speech. @busydot @smitav18 Read here:
apc.org/en/pubs/erotic…

Justice means different things to different ppl. If a woman wants to forget the violence and move on, that's a valid choice. What justice means for that woman in that situation is a complex Q. We must center the needs, choices & rights of survivors in response to online violence.

Research by @iNetDemocracy finds some non-legal strategies women use in response to online violence:
Ignore/block/report abuser
Moderate comments
Find support
Naming and shaming
Trolling back
Self-Censorship (make your profile private etc.)
Read here:
internetdemocracy.in/wp-content/upl…

See @iNetDemocracy's submission to United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women on adoption of more non-legal measures: internetdemocracy.in/reports/un-srv…

Now let's get creative. Do you think technology itself can help in responding to online violence? Listen to this talk I gave last year at @anthillin by @hasgeek about whether virtual assistants (like Siri) can assist with gendered violence (psst, no!):

This talk is based on research I had carried out a few years ago. I find that there are missed opportunities to leverage technology to improve referrals to crisis support services in response to gender-based violence in India. #Prajnya16Days
Read here:
itforchange.net/e-vaw/wp-conte…

Research by @iNetDemocracy @neintara also discusses safety apps seeking to make public spaces safer for women. Are these apps actually useful? Have you used such apps? What are your thoughts on it? Read here to find out more: #Prajnya16Days #nosgbv
…ringsurveillance.internetdemocracy.in/safety-app/

So far, we've covered some ground on online violence and responding to it. Now let's shine the light on an important stakeholder in this conversation: digital platforms like twitter, FB, instagram etc. What is their role in creating safe digital spaces? Read on! #Prajnya16Days

The first Q to ask here is who builds & runs online platforms? Tech design is dominated by cis-men from privileged backgrounds, and their perspectives and priorities get embedded in the design. Tech is not a neutral tool & reflects the biases of its designers. #Prajnya16Days

If you want an example of this white male bias in tech design, just think of how the popular Netflix documentary Social Dilemma highlighted a lot of problems with digital platforms for 2 hours, and yet not a minute was spent on talking about online violence that women face here!

In a digital world, we see automated content moderation, where algorithms moderate content online with minimal to no human involvement. During COVID-19, this has increased all the more due to lack of human moderators. Read on to know why this is problematic. #Prajnya16Days

Algorithms rely on biased datasets to make decisions. Try to Google for “South Indian masala.” You will not get images of spices as expected. You will get images of South Indian women. This is because the data that the algorithm is trained on is itself biased. #Prajnya16Days

Algorithms also don't understand context. If you voluntarily upload an image of yourself in ‘revealing’ clothes, algorithms can mistake it to be pornographic cuz they can't always detect consent. Has this happened to you? See a recent example of this here:
theguardian.com/technology/202…

Lastly, algorithms have binary responses to violence. The account that is reported is either suspended or not. But violence is not a binary experience for women because justice means different things to different people, & resolution can mean many different things. #Prajnya16Days

So we need human involvement in content moderation on digital platforms. But which humans? Have you noticed how abusive posts in non-English languages or caste-specific slurs are rarely taken down? White men can’t understand these concerns to moderate it. Diversity is important.

And we're onto the last part of this conversation! Hope you've stayed with us till this point, because it gets exciting now! Given all that we've understood about online violence, how can we envision and create a feminist Internet? Share your thoughts and read on! #Prajnya16Days

Tell us what a feminist Internet would look like for you! What do you value and look for when you log in online?

Check out my academic curriculum on a feminist Internet for the global south published by Feminist Principles of the Internet @APC_News:
feministinternet.org/sites/default/…

Feminist Principles of the Internet has excellent resources to help us visualise what a feminist Internet would mean for women and trans-queer persons. @APC_News You can check out their site here and share what you'd like to add to it: #Prajnya16Days
feministinternet.org/en

I spoke to a journalist this year about how I use the Internet as a feminist platform to share my thoughts, and reclaim this violent space to use it for something meaningful. How do you use the Internet to counter violence?
You can read my interview here:
edexlive.com/people/2020/oc…

Another resource that I am sharing here is a lovely new online module designed by @APC_News on online gender-based violence. I had the privilege to work with @saraannbaker many years ago for the early conceptualisation of this module. Check it out here:
en.ftx.apc.org/books/online-g…

That's all from me (@so_radhikal) on this thread. I hope it has been meaningful. Huge shoutout to @prajnya for organising this and trusting me with their Twitter account to post this here. It has been so much fun. #Prajnya16Days #16DaysOfActivism Shareable link to thread below.

@threadreaderapp unroll thread please?