TechTalks: “Unseen and Unheard: How Technology Facilitates Gender-Based Violence and What We Can Do About It”

Les échanges seront disponibles en français également.

From harassment to sexual exploitation and forced prostitution, including doxxing (the malicious publication of personal information) and deepfakes (AI-manipulated pornographic imagery), gender-based violence facilitated by technology is growing in scale and complexity alongside digital innovation. As online interactions increase, traditional approaches to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (SDG 5) are being fundamentally challenged.

Digital platforms and tools actively contribute to the spread and entrenchment of structural and systemic violence. Certain groups are disproportionately targeted: adolescent girls, women with disabilities, women from ethnic minorities, women in public life such as journalists and politicians, and gender minorities. Their rights, reputations, physical safety, and both private and professional lives are severely impacted. And yet, solutions do exist.

As technology rapidly evolves, so do the ways in which perpetrators exploit it to facilitate gender-based violence. Technology and increasing interactions online is indeed questioning traditional ways of tackling inequality between men and women. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence can take various forms -from doxing, cyberstalking, unwanted sexual remarks to image-based abuse among other things. In this sense, platforms and digital tools not only generate other new forms of discrimination towards women and minorities, but also contribute to the perpetration and escalation of structural and systemic violence patterns.

This roundtable will explore how technology perpetuates, facilitates, and amplifies gender-based violence, while examining the consequences for victims. What are the consequences for the victims ? What are key stakeholders in the digital sector, feminist organizations, and political institutions doing to tackle these issues ?

Join us for a critical discussion on the initiatives and solutions that aim to build safer digital spaces and effectively combat technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

●        Co-moderated by Sabrine Tebessi, Project Manager in the Digital Department, AFD

●        Co-moderated by Claire Zanuso, Head of the Emerging Tech Lab, AFD

Intervenants 

●        Delphine O, Ambassador and Secretary General of the Generation Equality Forum

●        Chinasa T. Okolo, Artificial Intelligence Researcher, The Brookings Institution

●        Taibat Hussain, Researcher and Director of the Gender-Based Violence Program, Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative