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Feminist Principles of the Internet
An evolving document
Developed at the Gender,
Sexuality and the Internet Meeting organized by the Association for Progressive
Communications
13-15 April, 2014- Malaysia
In April 2014, the Association
for Progressive Communications, APC, organized a Global
Meeting on Gender, Sexuality and the Internet in Port Dickson, Malaysia,
bringing together 50 participants from six continents comprising gender and
women’s rights activists, LGBTQI (lesbian, gay,
bisexual, trans* and intersex) movements, internet and technology rights
organizations, and human rights advocates. The goal of the meeting was to
bridge the gap between feminist movements and internet rights movements and
look at intersections and strategic opportunities to work together as allies
and partners.
The existing discourse around
gender and the internet tends to focus on gender components lacking in polices
that govern the internet, violations that take place as a result, and the need
for increased women’s participation in decision-making forums. In a bid to
reframe the conversation, the Global Meeting used a collaborative
process to ask the question: ‘As feminists, what kind of internet do we want,
and what will it take for us to achieve it?’
#ImagineaFeministInternet
Over three days, the participants
discussed and debated intersections of gender, sexuality, and the internet –
not only as a tool – but as a new public space. In thinking through these
issues, the participants at the meeting developed a set of 15 feminist
principles of the internet. These are designed to be an evolving
document that informs our work on gender and technology, as well as influences
our policy-making discussions when it comes to internet governance.
We invite you to join the
discussion and debate on our evolving set of feminist principles of the
internet. Get in touch on http://erotics.apc.org or email erotics@apc.org
1. A feminist internet starts with and works
towards empowering more women and queer persons – in all our diversities – to
dismantle patriarchy. This includes universal, affordable, unfettered,
unconditional and equal access to the internet.
2. A feminist internet is an extension,
reflection and continuum of our movements and resistance in
other spaces, public and private. Our agency lies in us deciding as individuals
and collectives what aspects of our lives to politicize and/or publicize on the
internet.
3. The internet is a transformative
public and political space. It facilitates new forms of citizenship that enable
individuals to claim, construct, and express our selves, genders, sexualities.
This includes connecting across territories, demanding accountability and
transparency, and significant opportunities for feminist movement-building.
4. Violence online and
tech-related violence are part of the continuum of gender-based violence. The
misogynistic attacks, threats, intimidation, and policing experienced by women
and queers LGBTQI people is are real, harmful, and
alarming. It is our collective responsibility as different internet
stakeholders to prevent, respond to, and resist this violence.
5. There is a need to resist the religious
right, along with other extremist forces, and the state, in monopolizing their
claim over morality in silencing feminist voices at national and international
levels. We must claim the power of the internet to amplify
alternative and diverse narratives of women’s lived realities.
6. As feminist activists, we believe in
challenging the patriarchal spaces that currently control the internet and
putting more feminists and queers LGBTQI people at the decision-making
tables. We believe in democratizing the legislation and regulation of the
internet as well as diffusing ownership and power of global and local networks.
7. Feminist interrogation of the neoliberal
capitalist logic that drives the internet is critical to destabilize,
dismantle, and create alternative forms of economic power that
are grounded on principles of the collective, solidarity, and openness.
8. As feminist activists, we are politically
committed to creating and experimenting with technology utilizing open
source tools and platforms. Promoting, disseminating, and sharing
knowledge about the use of such tools is central to our praxis.
9. The internet’s role in enabling access to
critical information – including on health, pleasure, and
risks – to communities, cultural expression, and conversation is essential, and
must be supported and protected.
10. Surveillance by default is the tool of
patriarchy to control and restrict rights both online and offline. The right to
privacy and to exercise full control over our own data is a
critical principle for a safer, open internet for all. Equal attention needs to
be paid to surveillance practices by individuals against each other, as well as
the private sector and non-state actors, in addition to the state.
11. Everyone has the right to be forgotten on
the internet. This includes being able to access all our personal data
and information online, and to be able to exercise control over, including
knowing who has access to them and under what conditions, and being able to
delete them forever. However, this right needs to be balanced against the right
to access public information, transparency and accountability.
12. It is our inalienable right to choose,
express, and experiment with our diverse sexualities on the internet. Anonymity
enables this.
13. We strongly object to the efforts of
state and non-state actors to control, regulate and restrict
the sexual lives of consenting people and how this is expressed and practiced
on the internet. We recognize this as part of the larger political project of
moral policing, censorship and hierarchization of citizenship and rights.
14. We recognize our role as feminists and
internet rights advocates in securing a safe, healthy, and informative internet
for children and young people. This includes promoting digital
and social safety practices. At the same time, we acknowledge children’s rights
to healthy development, which includes access to positive information about
sexuality at critical times in their development. We believe in including the
voices and experiences of young people in the decisions made about harmful
content.
15. We recognize that the issue of pornography
online is a human rights and labor issue, and has to do with agency, consent,
autonomy and choice. We reject simple causal linkages made between consumption
of pornographic content and violence against women. We also reject the umbrella
term of pornographic content labeled to any sexuality content such as
educational material, SOGIE (sexual orientation, gender
identity and expression) content, and expression related to women’s sexuality.