Mental Health and the Internet

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The month of may is highlighted with Mental Health awareness a timmmme to talk and share about mental Health Issues. HER Internet ran a campaign on mental health were we shared the effects of over using the internet and how it impacts on our mental health. Many people with access to the Internet do so on a daily basis, and the Internet has become a well-integrated part of our lives. This has led to changes in how we live our lives, how we construct and maintain social relations and self-identities, seek information, and enjoy entertainment. The Internet itself is not the main cause of poor mental health but the way we use it can negatively impact us through a number of ways such as: causing anxiety and depression; some negative impact on physical health including strained eyes, back pain or change in sleep patterns; low self-esteem and in extreme cases, Internet addiction disorder. Taking care of our mental health is always important and we have all faced strange, unprecedented times with the COVID19 pandemic. With increased use of the internet – especially social media, there is often little escape from reality. It can feel impossible to “unplug” and take a break from the online world.

Digital safety & security

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On 11 May 2021, HER Internet hosted a dialogue on Surveillance and security to unpack what digital safety and security look like in this age of digital surveillance. The Internet excels at the job of quickly sharing things with others while on the other hand, keeping private information safe and secure online is a challenging task, doubly so for Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer womxn and female sex workers in particular. This dialogue therefore created space for much needed discourse on what the womxn present understand surveillance to mean and what their different and various vulnerabilities are; in comparison to the security skills, tools and information available to them.

HER Internet’s DigiSec Dialogues

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Starting out as a partnership with a civic tech organization- Pollicy, HER Internet’s DigiSec Dialogues have brought together artists, journalists and activists to discuss digital security and digital literacy. We delved into topics like Unlocking Algorithms; Misinformation, Disinformation and Trolling; Personal and Professional Branding; and Protecting your content online.

Research Report 2021: The Trends and Impact of Technology Assisted Violence Among Communities of Structurally Silenced Womxn.

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Technology Assisted Violence (TAV) is a complex worldwide phenomenon with devastating results. Research to date shows that victim-survivors of intimate partner violence are tracked by their abusive partners who use technology to monitor their movements and communication. Many womxn, journalists, human rights defenders and politicians – especially female politicians, vocal LBTQ activists face daily death threats and rape threats for speaking out about various issues.

Those with intersecting marginalized identities are especially at risk, with Black, Indigenous and people of color; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people, sex workers and people with disabilities facing higher rates of attacks as well as concerted attacks that specifically target their identities. These attacks create legitimate safety concerns, involve appalling degrees of invasions of privacy and can have significant financial costs for those targeted. One of the most serious impacts is the silencing of womxn’s and LGBTQ people’s voices in digital spaces. TAV makes it unsafe and unwelcoming for womxn and LGBTQ people to express themselves freely in a world where digital communication has become one of the primary modes of communication.

As a fairly new phenomenon, TAV is not generally well understood. There has been relatively little empirical research conducted on TAV, and the bulk of the research on this topic to date is focused on higher-income countries. To better understand TAV, HER Internet is commissioning this research.

This comprehensive assessment on experiences of TAV against LBQ womxn and FSW in Uganda was prepared pursuant to the changing trends in the use of technology, the overwhelming need to determine their needs and challenges in relation to this form of violence, and the development of contextualized response strategies to mitigate the recurrence of this violence.

The increasingly rapid technological advances have created new possibilities for the criminal misuse of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It is therefore important we interrogate how far the harm goes, the avenues of access to justice for these violations and what LBQ womxn and FSW needs are in this regard.

To download and read more of these insightful findings; https://www.herinternet.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Research-report-The-Trends-and-Impact-of-TAV-among-LBQ_FSW.pdf

 

Handbook on Decoding online violence

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In this handbook, we seek the causes of the persistent online violence, the ways in which it manifests and the target groups. Nevertheless, we strive for the betterment of womxn on the global web. Decoding Online Violence Handbook.

Click here to Download

Networking Meeting by Ubuntu Law and Justice Center

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HER Internet has been part of a networking meeting organized by Ubuntu Law and Justice Centre. One of the objectives of this meeting was to Localise the Global Advocacy Strategy among the diverse Key Populations groups in Uganda. The Global Advocacy Strategy focuses on supporting and strengthening key population movements to build and organize, particularly by increasing the presence and visibility of young key populations through partnerships and building the capacity of key population networks at national and regional levels to push governments and partners to take action to address human rights, gender equality, violence, criminalization, stigma, and discrimination.

Accelerator Campaign

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HER Internet is part of the accelerator campaign in partnership with Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and Amnesty Denmark. In light of the Sexual Offences Bill being passed by the parliament of Uganda, the campaign under #RepealSOBUg and #DeleteClause11 started off by the accelerators visiting various partners and allies in order to revisit commitments of allyship and strengthen existing partnerships with them and the LGBTQ community. The month of May was also significant to kickstart the campaign to celebrate and honor the International day against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). All the organizations reached pledged to create safe spaces for LGBTQ persons in Uganda.

Introduction to the Handbook

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Uganda has seen tremendous growth in mobile penetration, and access to the internet; for example, teledensity estimates in 2015 were 64%. The country also continues to experience growth in the internet subscription, with a 37.4% internet penetration rate in the same time period. With these advancements in access, there is also a marked rise in the incidence of cybercrime such as fraud, hacking and identity theft.

An increasingly worrying trend amongst cybercrimes is online violence against womxn and the numbers increase exponentially. When queer womxn, non-binary persons and sex workers are added to the equation.

In the recent U.N. report, cyber violence was found to be just as damaging to womxn as physical violence. The report goes on to indicate that womxn are becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyber violence with growing access to internet across the world, which could in turn detrimentally impede the uptake of broadband services by girls and womxn worldwide.

“Online violence has subverted the original positive promise to the internet freedoms and into many circumstances has made it a chilling space that permits anonymous cruelty and facilitates harmful acts towards womxn and girls “

-Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN women.

Cyber Security Awareness

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We hosted a space with womxn to dialogue under the topic “Privacy online, offline and in between” as part of our contribution towards #cybersecurityawarenessmonth call to all of us to DoYourPart #BeCyberSmart.

Whether or not we have privacy while online today is up for debate. The key is knowing where the invisible line that we so often cross is. We believe the liberation of womxn comes from having the right information.
We are raising awareness on violence that occurs while using the internet and collecting experiences from different communities as well. We aim to equip as many womxn as possible with pertinent information on how to engage safely online which will in turn ensure that womxn are aware of their freedoms on the internet

Circumstances that enable gender inequalities to persist in online usage and spaces.

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For Womxn’s Day 2020, we held a safe space for minority womxn to discuss circumstances that enable gender inequalities to persist in online usage and spaces. We tackled themes of patriarchy, misogyny, cyber security laws and enactment in Uganda in relation to minority womxn.