APC launches Take Back the Tech! campaign, focusing on freedom of expression and violence against women
PERGAMINO, Argentina – On the heels of its successful#whatareyoudoingaboutvaw campaign on private sector responsibility, targeting such corporations as Facebook and Twitter, the Association for Progressive Communications announces the 2014 Take Back the Tech! 16 Days Campaign Against Gender-Based Violence. Running 25 November to 10 December, this year's Take Back the Tech! campaign will focus on the relationship between freedom of expression and violence against women.
Violence against women attempts to restrict freedom of expression. It is difficult for women and girls to participate in the public sphere, contribute to culture and decision making, or critique policies and systems when they are fearful.
Take Back The Tech
Image by jaqian
Whether it is a stranger tweeting threats or a partner monitoring mobile phone activity, the aim is to silence and control. Additionally, such violence is often sexualised and aims to make women and girls feel isolated and alone.
A Pew report revealed that “internet users who have participated in online chats and discussion groups dropped from 28% in 2000 to as low as 17% in 2005, entirely because of women’s fall off in participation. The drop off coincided with increased awareness of and sensitivity to worrisome behaviour in chat rooms.” The internet is becoming an increasingly important public space, and violence is a real threat – a strategy to narrow women's capacity to participate in and define the space.
As the United Nations makes clear, freedom of expression is one of our most fundamental rights because it enables us to claim all of our rights. This makes it critical to ending violence. In the “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression”, Frank LaRue writes: “Restrictions of anonymity in communication, for example, have an evident chilling effect on victims of all forms of violence and abuse, who may be reluctant to report for fear of double victimization.” This double victimisation is played out frequently through social media and texting, as made evident by the cases of Rehtaeh Parsons, Amanda Todd and Jessica Laney. Women in 21% of cases on the Take Back the Tech! map experienced harm to their reputation because the violence they faced went public, an act that keeps survivors from reporting, speaking out or telling their stories in their own words.
Campaign coordinator Sara Baker says, “It's important to recognise that online and offline violence are both part of the same problem, with no real barrier between them. While technology-related violence may seem like it isn't real, it does cause real harm. Restricting freedom of expression for women and girls is one of those harms, so we must mobilise to speak out and keep speaking out.”
Take Back the Tech! encourages women and girls to create change by speaking up, making violence visible, exchanging information and building solidarity through communication. The campaign invites users to help reframe the conversation about violence against women as a violation of the fundamental human right to freedom of expression. Opportunities for action during the campaign period include:
Build knowledge on how violence is used as a strategy to silence. Use your mobile phone and interview women and girls where you live on what, when and how they are silenced through violence. To share your videos, tweet us at @takebackthetech, share on our YouTube channel or sign up for a campaign account on our website and simply upload your video. (As always, get consent before publishing.)
On 29 November, join us in commemorating the women human rights defenders who are silenced through various tactics of violence, including removal of their channels of communication. We will create a digital quilt with messages of solidarity, adding our voices to their resistance to silencing. Upload to our site or tweet us your image @takebackthetech.
How have you responded to online violence? What actions did you take? Strengthen our capacity to fight back and challenge violence by sharing your strategies of resistance. Blog your story, chat with us on Twitter @takebackthetech or write your own 10 tips for challenging violence and safe communications and tag us!
Don't let violence silence us. Speak out! Take back the tech!
About the Take Back the Tech! campaign
Take Back the Tech! is a collaborative campaign to reclaim information and communication technologies (ICT) to end violence against women (VAW). The campaign calls on all ICT users – especially women and girls – to take control of technology and use it for activism against gender-based violence.
www.takebackthetech.net/
About the Association for Progressive Communications
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network and non-profit organisation founded in 1990 that wants everyone to have access to a free and open internet to improve lives and create a more just world.
apc.org
PO Box 29755
Melville, GT 2109
South Africa
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