policy

The Asia Pacific Internet Governance Forum just completed in July 2019 and it took place in Russia. There were very few sessions that dealt with either gender or human rights and none that addressed sexuality. At one session there were discussions on the ICT related-laws and particularly on the broad and unclear provisions that deal with online censorship.

Between right-wing governments and corporate capture of online spaces, there are interesting shifts in how sexuality is censored and governed online and offline. This article looks at the reach and over-reach of laws related to obscenity and censorship in South Asia and the impact that has had on free speech around sex, sex work and sexuality.

The annual Forum on Internet Freedom, Africa brings together people from across the African continent to to deliberate on gaps, concerns and opportunities for advancing privacy, access to information, free expression, non-discrimination and the free flow of information online on the continent. But what about gender perspectives? 

In Tanzania, even as access to internet has brought changes to the lives of people, there is still a lot to be done to get everyone connected and at the same time ensuring good policies to lay the ground for a safer internet. Rebecca explores legal options to the non consensual sharing of intimate images of women in the country. 

Regulating new digital dangers can be challenging. This is especially true when they are unforeseeable at the time of drafting the policy. Aitana Garcia Domingo explores two policy designs that can potentially help in countering tech-facilitated violence, and discusses limitations that both these designs pose to their successful implementation.

Meta claims that it respects people's freedom of expression, but has historically been intentionally silencing Palestinian voices and those standing for Palestine. So how do we hold it accountable?

We gathered some of the reflections from the participation of OVOF country partners in this year’s IGF as relates to their work with the OVOF project in their respective countries.

The Feminist Internet Research Network intentionally seeks to go beyond research to impact on policy and advocacy. But what should be a feminist approach to policy shifts, specifically coming from the global South?

For some of us pleasure in our work is possible, even if it is to find the breaking and bending points in the institutions of policy and law. But even though political and particularly feminist frameworks make space for pleasure, where is the space for that in legal or policy language at the international or national level?

In this third column on gender and community networks, GenderIT interviews Carlos Rey Moreno on what movement building around community networks is all about. How do we get policy makers, organisers, community based organisations and others invested and interested in community networks? And in this constellation of actors and organisations, how do we start talking about gender equality and…