Connecting care and justice in conversations around technology-facilitated GBV
The theme of this year’s campaign on 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence centres gendered harms taking place online. Our lives online cannot be neatly cordoned off from our offline lives, making the harmful impacts of sexual harassment, grooming, non-consensual image creation and sharing, stalking, doxing, smear campaigns, surveillance, gendered disinformation, misogynistic speech, and privacy violations very real and tangible.
A recent report published by Equality Now and Breakthrough (among other research conducted by human rights, feminist and queer collectives and organisations such as the Feminist Internet Research Network, GenderIT, Association for Progressive Communications, Human Rights Watch, and Outright International, to name a few) reveals the disproportionate targeting of people with intersecting structural oppressions such as age, gender diverse expression and identity, non-normative sexuality, disability, caste, class, religion, migrant and refugee status, and ethnicity. Those who are young, queer, gender diverse and trans, disabled, and belonging to an oppressed caste or minority religion and who are active, visible, and vocal online are more vulnerable to technology-facilitated GBV (TFGBV). They are also more likely to face structural barriers such as lack of resources, lack of adequate and accurate information as well as social stigma and hostility in accessing remedies for such violence and violations. Often, there are no tools and services that can meaningfully address TFGBV, and the onus is on the individual to retreat from their online lives to ‘prevent’ or ‘avoid’ more harm.
Those facing TFGBV have differing and multi-faceted ideas of justice which include punitive actions, speedy remedies, removal of harmful material, monetary compensation, psycho-social support, and mental health care services for their trauma.
For young people, access to the digital sphere provides opportunities to explore their romantic, sexual, and social selves; cross physical barriers to form connections and relationships; build communities; and obtain diverse information and content (including that which are related to their sexual and reproductive health and rights). Justice may often not look like approaching the police or a regulatory body because of the patriarchal social stigma they may incur and the probable (almost certain) involvement of their family members. Research reveals that justice frequently looks like stopping the violence and ensuring it never occurs again; sharing your story in non-judgemental spaces; having honest and open conversations with family members and loved ones; mental health care and support; and having useful information about legal options with the option to pursue a formal complaint (for more examinations of justice outside of the criminal legal system, see here and here).
Feminists and human rights advocates have persistently demonstrated how the criminal legal system is a site of violence, not justice, for structurally excluded communities such as sex workers, persons who use drugs, persons living with HIV, and queer and gender-diverse persons, among others (see here, here, and here). Criminalisation is inappropriate and ineffective in addressing gender-based violence as punitive measures do not address the structural root causes of such violence. Furthermore, legal processes are often so tedious, cost-intensive, and unfriendly to complainants that they may exacerbate trauma. The ramifications of gender-based violence are personal and individualised, but its causes are rooted in intersecting oppressive systems such as cisheteropatriarchy, classism, casteism, communalism, racism, ableism, imperialism, colonialism and capitalism. Investing our limited time, energy and resources in demanding more criminalisation distracts and diverts us from demanding political and systemic changes and maintains a status quo that is not working for us.
In the case of young people, criminal laws aimed at ‘protecting’ them may impede their bodily autonomy; deprive access to culturally relevant and scientific information on sexual and reproductive health and rights; and invite punishment for their gender and sexual exploration. Blanket criminalisation of child sexual abuse online may lead to policing young people’s voluntary creation and sharing of digital images, personas, and content, and render them vulnerable to prosecution.
Amidst calls for reclaiming the digital sphere, feminist collectives have prepared toolkits and guidelines for those who have faced or might face TFGBV, including those curated by and for young people. You may have seen resources on ‘feminist holistic protection’, ‘digital care’, and ‘digital security’ that highlight individual and collective practices for enhancing online safety and provide knowledge around digital rights.
Feminist approaches to care recognise that it is only if we care for ourselves and our communities that we can sustain our movements (for example, see Urgent Action Fund Africa’s reflections on fostering cultures of care). With increasing burnout, stress, repression, restrictions on collective organising, and attacks on our rights, freedoms, and spaces, care is emerging as a practice we must prioritise. Digital care can include taking care of our data and the data we keep on other people; using secure platforms to communicate; learning about our rights and remedies; and connecting with others with similar experiences to share stories and build networks. Digital care is as much about individual protection as it is about strengthening our collective approaches to online safety, including political engagement with private and state actors.
While valuable resources have been curated using feminist methodologies, conversations around justice for ‘survivors’ (often confined to legal approaches) seem to take place in parallel to those around care and security.
When it comes to young people, protectionist measures often do not address why violence takes place or the impunity it is awarded, but instead inhibit their freedoms and rights. Retreating from their online selves may be the most ‘effective’ form of self-care, but it puts the responsibility on the person facing harm rather than the systems and structures that enable it.
Instead of looking at care and justice as coming into play as prevention or after harm has occurred, how can we look at them as ongoing practices? And more importantly, can we move beyond carceral visions of justice to centre care, healing and affirming dignity, equality, and inclusivity?
For instance, can our imagination of care and justice include:
- Comprehensive sexuality education with the freedom to ask questions and advice without policing from parents, teachers, and law enforcement?
- Available, accessible, culturally acceptable, and high-quality mental care services, including at schools, universities, and workspaces?
- Greater access to safe, secure, affordable, accessible, and non-judgemental physical and online communities and spaces?
- Providing a range of remedies to those facing discrimination and violence online that are not restricted to criminalisation and policing?
- Equalising digital literacy and access to services and facilities without undue surveillance, displacement of Indigenous communities, and devastating and irreparable consequences to the environment?
- Encouraging meaningful leadership and active involvement of young people in policy discussions centred around their ‘protection’?
Care and justice are not just individual pursuits, they are political goals and demand structural transformation. As we focus on how individuals can protect themselves from TFGBV, we must also critically engage with how Big Tech, states, and political players enable, propagate, and encourage targeted violence online and demand accountability, transparency and action as we continue to express ourselves, collectivise and practise activism.
This year, we invite progressive social justice movements to think alongside us: what connections can we make between discourses around digital care, safety, and support with feminist imaginations of justice for TGBV?
—
Aarushi Mahajan is an Indian feminist lawyer, researcher and development practitioner passionate about exploring non-punitive and feminist approaches to addressing, preventing and seeking redress for gendered harms. She has experience in working with structurally excluded communities and movements through advocacy, capacity-strengthening and participatory research.