On African Feminism and the Internet
For the first time ever in my life, I went against my own rule — posting intimate information online — and shared with absolute strangers an incident of assault that happened to me. It was in response to Kelly Oxford’s request for women to share about incidences such as this that had happened to them.
This is what the internet has done for women and feminism. A wonderful marvelous thing. Things that were once whispered in hushed tones just among girls are now being screamed out loud into the public squares that are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. These are not attention seeking stunts nor are they meant to shame or even call out. These are calls for awareness. These are calls for men to see, to recognize the harm in their actions. Their words. This is women’s way of taking back the tech that has often been used to shame them, with revenge pornography, doxxing and such.
I was slated to speak at GIGx2016 (the Gender & Internet Governance eXchange ) held prior to the African Internet Governance Forum in Durban this year about privacy (the right to privacy and to full control over personal data and information online at all levels) which is a wide topic considering it covers surveillance practices by individuals, private companies and state agencies. The lead in to my talk, the quote below;
“Privacy is an inherent human right and requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.”- Bruce Schneier.
I was going to focus on individual actors because of an issue that I followed recently on Nigerian twitter; Cyberstalking. Just so you know, technology-related violence against women — such as cyberstalking, harassment and misogynist speech — encompasses acts of gender-based violence that are committed, abetted or aggravated, in part or fully, by the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as phones, the internet, social media platforms, and email. Technology-related violence against women is part of the same continuum as violence against women offline.
A female user was calling out a man that has been harassing girls (online and offline).He had a practice of threatening to share images that had been sent to him in confidence online if he was not given money and/or sexual favours. What followed horrified me (as per usual); men staying away and keeping quiet about the issue and others trying to discredit her by character assassination, as well as female apologists of male chauvinism claiming she was doing it all for attention.
But shortly, there was a tide of change. Some men stood up. They defended her. They called out one of their own.
They owned their own share of harm by inaction.
Many remarked that constant barrage of words from feminists had changed their way of thinking.
Others asked to be educated.
It was honestly heartwarming to see. This is the light at the end of the tunnel. In spite of all the hate is spewed daily on the internet, there is good coming out of it. It might take a while but then, Rome was not built in a day.
According to APC research, (the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) began publishing findings from our seven-country ‘From impunity to justice: Exploring corporate and legal remedies for technology-related violence against women’ research project, which included an analysis of Twitter’s reporting procedures.) they found that law enforcement frequently lacked the capacity to respond appropriately to cases. They refused to take technology-related violence seriously, blamed victims for the harassment and privacy violations they faced and failed to make use of available laws. This is especially true for my country, Uganda which means that we are often left to police each other online as digital citizens. So to see men standing up for a woman renewed my hope that the gravity of how these issues are now being taken online will transform into action offline.
A survey by the Uganda communications commission found that only 6% of women are online and only 21% of the women in Kampala reported having used the internet. What is even more shocking is that 45% of the female internet users in Kampala reported having experienced online threats. There is an urgent need to address women’s digital rights to encourage more women to go online. In this vein, I wholeheartedly agree with the feminist internet’s principle of Usage that Women and queer persons have the right to code, design, adapt and critically and sustainably use ICTs and reclaim technology as a platform for creativity and expression, as well as to challenge the cultures of sexism and discrimination in all spaces.
As a dear Professor of mine once said during a discussion on gender, the oppressed cannot free the oppressed. Change will come when both sexes meet at the table and agree to a common ground.
I’ve always despaired at the feminist movement because I felt that the status quo would never change, that it’s been a man’s world for far too long but these new trends online have proved me otherwise. The internet is going to be the space where social norms are re-negotiated.
Change is a coming. Like the Arab Spring Movements that have swept the world, this online movement will transcend into life offline. And I will do my part. I will actively engage in policy conversations. I will speak out more, stand up more for women because now I know for a fact that I can and will leave a better world for my daughter.
Read more about the feminist principles of the internet here; http://feministinternet.net/sites/default/files/FeministPrinciplesoftheInternetv2.0_0.pdf
