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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
The Odyssey of Desire is a series of online conversations and explorations intended to lead us on a journey through the depth and breadth of our desires, in all their complex glory. Adventures (from the bedrooms of African women), an online platform where African women share their intimate experiences as told by us for ourselves is the one behind organising this series.
Our team leader took part in the Odyssey of Desire, a live Twitter conversation that candidly addressed things like sexting, sex tapes, and nudes and nothing was off-limits.