Name: Anja Kovacs

Organisation: Internet Democracy Project

Country: India

Stakeholder Group: Civil Society Organisation

Thematic Area: Freedom of Expression

Session Title: Don’t Let It Stand: How do women deal with online abuse?

Session Format: WORKSHOP (60/90 MINS)

Co-organizers Name (if any):

Speakers Name: Gayatri Khandadhai, Association for Progressive Communications, Centre for Social Research, Bodhini, Internet Democracy Project , Point of View , Sanitary Panels, Feminism in India, Aggarwal, Journalist, Hindustan Times

Speaker Status:

Relevance of the issue with specified session theme: The proposed workshop is directly relevant to the theme Freedom of Expression. Online abuse targeted at women has been argued to have a chilling effect on women’s participation in online spaces, negatively affecting freedom of expression. It is also related to the theme Digital literacy and empowerment. The workshop will include a presentation of a web resource “Don’t Let It Stand” that is forthcoming from the Internet Democracy Project. This resource hopes to be an empowering place where women can learn about strategies that other women use in dealing with abuse.

Content of the session (Objective of the session): The Internet Democracy Project will begin with a presentation of “Don’t Let It Stand”, a web resource (yet to be released as of June 5 2017), which will touch upon the strategies that women use to deal with online abuse. This builds on Internet Democracy Project’s work on the topic since 2012. After this short presentation, we will break into groups to discuss existing or potential strategies that women can use, and identify opportunities and gaps in the existing support systems.  At the end of the group discussion, we will present the main points in plenary, and as a network working on these issues, identify concrete ways in which we can contribute.

What is USP of the session: The workshop is outcome-oriented and will look at a collaborative approach to create solutions that are hard to create as individual organisations.

Please describe how you will use your speakers and how their views/ perspectives /expertise will be included in the session: We plan to invite some key organisations and individuals working in this space: Gayatri Khandadhai, Association for Progressive Communications, Centre for Social Research, Bodhini, Internet Democracy Project , Point of View , Sanitary Panels, Feminism in India. The session will aim to bring together the network of organisations working on online abuse, to collectively brainstorm about filling the missing gaps in fighting online abuse of women. We will also draw on the learnings of experts working to combat online child sexual abuse, feminist activists working on violence against women outside of the online sphere etc.

How are you bringing diversity in your proposed session whether it is relevant to the specified theme? The organisations we will invite deal with the issue of abuse from diverse perspectives: from running helplines and conducting workshops on safety, to using humour. This is aligned with the message in our forthcoming web resource- that women use diverse strategies to deal with abuse. Further, we will aim to create a space where participants feel welcome and are encouraged to contribute.

Relevant Tags (Minimum 3 tags) #onlineabuse #dontletitstand #fightingabuse