How the Web Is Failing Women and Girls

IT for Change's Nandini Chami appeared on BBC Newshour on the 31st birthday of the World Wide Web to talk about the scale of online gender-based violence and the ways in which the web seems to be failing women and girls. The highlights of the discussion were as follows:

  • As IT for Change's previous research has already demonstrated, women from vulnerable social locations face particularly vicious forms of gender trolling.
  • Big Tech companies are able to put in checks and balances to address copyright violations on their platforms with remarkable agility. Why doesn't this extend to the domain of curbing cyberviolence?
  • Intended and unintended bias in the design of algorithms can reproduce gender discrimination. We need to urgently have a conversation on algorithmic accountability.
  • Legal reform, platform accountability and cultural transformation - we need action on all fronts to overcome sexism and misogyny online.

You can listen to the interview here (the relevant portion starts at 35 minutes, 30 seconds)

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