social media

To reclaim the emancipatory potential of social media for feminist transformation, we need urgent action along two fronts – a global normative benchmarking exercise that leads to new content moderation standards grounded in women's human rights, and techno-design alternatives for the creation of decolonized network infrastructures.

Here are tips and insights on how to use social media for activism and movement-building, on how to use internet and social media to amplify your cause. In this video Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah touches on several instances of how social media can and has been used by African feminists, and especially describing popular campaigns and hashtags on Twitter

Twitter, in particular, can be a powerful tool for women to make connections and express themselves - from high-level female politicians to journalists, activists, writers and bloggers, to women who simply want to know what’s happening around them. It is allegedly the space where ‘every voice has the power to impact the world’. But as revealed by the report by Amnesty International, Twitter is…

In this article Anthea Taderera looks at the personal and political meaning and potentials of a feminist internet. What does it mean to imagine and create a black, African feminist space with room for archiving, theorising and engagement away/free from the surveillance and regulation of state and private parties alike?

In her third column, Samukelisiwe Mabaso explores how groups and people, artists and performers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual are using the internet and social media to spread messages about love, diversity, and acceptance. This includes projects like Coalition for African Lesbians, Gaysi, Ahwaa and others.

Gendered barriers to internet access can range from social and cultural barriers imposed within family or by partners to extraneous factors relevant to all - such as affordability of data and devices. In this column Chenai Chair examines the specificity of how access is different for women and men.

In this column, Samukelisiwe explores how women in the global South have started using social media to make up for the lack of representation of black and brown women in mainstream media. Women of colour, people with disability, gender non conforming persons and others now use the internet to explore their image and their body, and form communities that celebrate different ways of being.

Africa is flooded with zero rating services such as Free Basics (Facebook’s zero rating scheme) and other subsidised data strategies. Do these schemes make internet more affordable and bring access to more people? In this column Chenai Chair examines whether ordinary people perceive such schemes as useful.

In this new column on reclaiming social media for addressing women's issues and feminist concerns, Samukelisiwe Mabaso begins by looking at the rising rates of femicide in South Africa (and other parts of the world). Various spontaneous movements led and powered by women have arisen and use technology and social media to amplify their voices and ensure their demands are met.

In April 2017 Facebook announced a new tool that will prevent an intimate image posted without consent from being shared further on Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. Erika Smith and Fungai Machirori go deep and debate the pros and cons of this proposed system, and how feminist-friendly and positive about alternate sexualities it is.