This year, I was lucky enough to attend the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, in October. Among other themes, technology-facilitated violence (TFV) was an area of much discussion.
We witness on a daily basis the ways digital technology is reshaping society. In recent years, we have seen technology change the face of commerce, how we work, the way we consume and share information, and how we socialize and interact. Though we see all the progress that technology has ushered in, we also see the dark side. One negative aspect is that technology is also driving increased incidents of violence.
During one of the open plenary sessions at SVRI, Jac sm Kee poignantly noted that “[SV] is less about violence, it is more about control, and it reveals how societies organize power.” This is because violence against women is rooted in deeply entrenched systemic structural inequalities between men and women. These inequalities find their basis in socio-cultural norms that assign privilege, power, value, and status to men and boys. These harmful norms propagate the belief, attitude, and perception that women and girls are inferior to men and boys. The result is the justification or normalization of violence against women and girls, the disempowerment they experience, the limitations they face in exercising their decision-making power across all levels of society (i.e., government, community, household, individual), the marginalization they experience from opportunities and resources to improve their lives, and the subordinate roles assigned to them.
These power inequalities play out in all types of societal interactions, including in the digital arena, and especially on social media platforms. Social media channels and pages that promote misogyny are followed by millions of people across the globe. Anyone who reads the comment section of social media channels and virtually any pages—but especially those dedicated to feminism and women’s equality—will find an abundance of verbal abuse, including threats toward women, men who are supporters of feminism, and others. This type of abusive content and comments are not likely to decrease as perpetrators are emboldened by misinformation, conspiracy theories, the dog whistles of sensationalism, repressive political agendas, the rise of governments supporting a reduction of the progress women’s rights movements have made (e.g., the Taliban in Afghanistan), and the anonymity of the internet.
Several discussants at SVRI noted the alarming increase of TFV in recent years. Like other forms of violence against women, TFV rose notably during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when the world shut down, and everyone was mostly online for work or school and to socialize. The Economist found 38 percent of women have experienced technology-facilitated violence against women while 85 percent of women online have witnessed it being experienced by other women. The rich discussions at this year’s SVRI Forum revealed several valuable learnings that could inform the areas of focus for international development practitioners, donor governments, and philanthropic foundations as the field seeks to design effective prevention and response program interventions.
- Legal and regulatory frameworks: Gaps often exist in legal and regulatory frameworks, and laws and policies designed to address TFV are inconsistently or not implemented at all.
- Research and evidence: Gaps exist in evidence-based TFV strategies, including ways to engage men and boys effectively, and the links between online and offline violence are not particularly well understood.
- Socialization, youth, and children: As far as children and youth are concerned, there is evidence to support that the values they learn offline inform their behavior online, and the toxic values they are exposed to online inform what they consider normal. Youth and children are normalizing TFV, seeing it as a given for having social media accounts. In addition, they prefer not to report it for fear of their parents taking away their phones.
Ending all forms of violence against women, including TFV, cannot happen solely through government or philanthropic funding interventions. The drivers of violence against women are systemic and deeply rooted in how boys, girls, men, and women are socialized through norms. Societies have to want to change harmful norms without funder or international development programmatic interventions. We all have to do our part.
Since my return from the conference, I have been reflecting on how we can incorporate Making Cents’ work into making some progress in TFV. For instance, under USAID’s YouthPower2: Learning and Evaluation activity, Making Cents International hosted the International Youth Digital Leadership Council. The Council collaborated to advise, inform, and advocate for digital safety in their own countries and advised the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as it developed its Digital Strategy. Perhaps we should consider a new council focused specifically on TFV.
Under the USAID-funded INVEST mechanism, Making Cents worked with Milliman to develop a tool that incorporated violence against women (VAW) considerations into risk assessment. The goal was to encourage governments and government agencies to see violence against women prevention as a key issue in achieving economic growth. Perhaps this could be adapted to consider TFV as a measure as well.
As we come to the end of the 16 Days, I invite you to consider the types of actions you can take in your daily life within your immediate spheres of influence that can advance more equitable sociocultural norms. If you need some ideas, please check out How to Identify and Advance Equitable Social Norms, a resource that Making Cents developed under USAID’s activity to collectively take action to reduce violence against women.