Every once in a while, there is the high optics drama about a woman celebrity or public persona who has been trolled, and then, predictably, the dust settles. But make no mistake. This is but the proverbial tip of an iceberg that is ballooning.
The internet-mediated world presents a…
Digital technologies have generated unprecedented ways of being and doing, dramatically changing the social and economic order. Recoding human subjectivity and social interactions, they recast power relationships. Gender relations are centrally implicated in this shift to a networked sociality…
Technologies that map women’s bodies and reproductive choices are a site of patriarchal control and surveillance while simultaneously creating an illusion of choice or autonomy for users. This report recognizes and examines the ways in which the absence of safeguards for sensitive and personal…
This is the first issue paper under the Feminist Digital Justice Project, co-written by Anita Gurumurthy, Nandini Chami and Cecilia Alemany. It outlines a strategic road map that focuses on new legal institutional frameworks and data governance models to counter data extractivism and women’s…
This discussion paper argues that the omnipresence of the digital demands a re-evaluation of legal-institutional response to violence against women. The networked logic of the Internet, and social media platforms that overrun it bank upon virality, effectively rendering ineffectual notions of ‘…
The criminal legal system is built on a hierarchy of offences. This is evident from the punishment accorded to different crimes which range from the death penalty to a fine. Brutality of an act is one way in which offences are arranged. For instance, the National Crimes Records Bureau has…
This exploratory research study of gender-based cyber violence was led by IT for Change with feminist partners across six sites of study in India, and covered the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The research used mixed methods - self administered surveys with college students between…
This position paper looks at the issue of intermediary filtering in the context of two Supreme Court cases. The first was a petition filed by activist Sabu Matthew George in 2008, asking for a ban on advertisements on search engines related to pre-natal sex determination. The…
First published in LSE’s Women Peace and Security blog, this article discusses the need for a feminist jurisprudence on violence against women. Laws on online VAW draw from foundational ideas that have informed interpretations of gender-based (in) justice, recognizing the immersion of human…
Our discussion paper on the issue of technology-mediated violence against women analyses the adequacy of the current legal and institutional frameworks in India and proposes alternate models that need to be debated and analysed. The paper raises a series of questions on overhauling the existing…
Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami authored two issue papers for Association for Progressive Communication's research series on 'Internet and ICTs for social justice and development'. The papers examine a history of feminist engagement with development and digital technologies, and chalk out…
In 2017, the Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF) commissioned IT for Change to undertake a research study critically analysing the government's Digital India programme, assessing the key gaps and opportunities for gender equality in relation to the programme and recommending a strategic action plan…
The starting point of this paper is that efforts to bridge the gender digital divide or use ICTs towards women’s empowerment in the current digitalised socio-economic paradigm must be more than just about women’s access to connectivity. They must focus on the design of institutional frameworks…
Feminist Digital Justice is a collaborative research and advocacy initiative of IT for Change and DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era). We aim to re-interpret the emerging techno-social paradigm from a Southern feminist standpoint. The project foregrounds debates at the…
The purpose of this issue paper is to lay out the key legal, institutional, and ethical issues concerning technology-mediated Violence against Women (VAW), to raise critical questions for further deliberation and action. This paper draws upon secondary literature in this area, and inputs from…