Microsoft’s Bing tailors its search engine to serve different countries and regions and offers its services in 41 languages. It has a filtering system at the keyword level for users in several countries. Users in the Arab countries are prevented from conducting certain search queries in both English and Arabic.

The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) (a collaboration of the Citizen Lab at the…

Sex, Social Mores, and Keyword Filtering: Microsoft Bing in the "Arabian Countries"

The UN Secretary-General's report (E/CN.6/2010/2) in preparation for the 54th Commission on the Status of Women who undertook the 15 year review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BpfA), including the section J – Women and Media. Media and ICT are mentioned throughout the Report as important tools for awareness raising and information dissemination, for example, under the…

Review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action - Report of the Secretary-General

María Isabel and María Alejandra Davidziuk compare the findings of four national reports from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia undertaken as part of the APC WNSP project “Strengthening women’s strategic use of ICTs to combat violence against women and girls”. In their analysis they look at some barriers (both institutional and cultural) that need to be overcome in order for ICTs to be…

Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia: Cross-country Study on Violence against Women and Information Communication Technologies

A regional analysis on the status of women 15 years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The report maps out the progress, gaps and challenges under each of the critical areas of concern in the West, Eastern and Southern sub-regions, with emphasis on the period since the last review in 2004 (Beijing +10). For example, the report argues ,that the ICTs have…

The Africa Women's Regional Shadow Report on Beijing +15

Sonia Randhawa, genderIT.org writer and editor, compares the findings of four national reports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines undertaken by the APC WNSP as part of the project “Strengthening women’s strategic use of ICTs to combat violence against women and girls”.

Cambodia, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines: Cross-country Study on Violence against Women and Information Communication Technologies

As the international community prepares to join the United Nation’s 49th Session of the Commission on the Status on Women (CSW), women media practitioners are asking: where is women’s “J” spot? Commonly known as “Beijing +10,” the role of the official UN session is to evaluate what governments have done to implement the Platform for Action (PFA) of the Fourth World Conference on Women 10 years…

Where is Women´s “J” Spot?

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the consideration of gender issues in all research on radio, convergence and development in Africa. It is intended to guide the deliberations at our Butare roundtable (September 2009) discussion on a research agenda and to ensure that we put gender considerations front and centre as we design our research plans.

Radio, Convergence and Development in Africa: Gender as a Cross-Cutting Issue


This paper was presented at the "

Privacy, Openness, Online Advertising and Online Behavioral Targeting Advertising

Cristina Peralta examines the situation in Argentina, where few cases of VAW using ICTs have been denounced. One study found that a small percentage of young girls had been contacted by unknown people via chat or Facebook before disappearing. Cell phones are also used for controlling women's mobility and have become one of the first artifacts to be destroyed by the partner during violent…

Argentina: Violence against Women and Information Communication Technologies