Take Back the Tech! is a campaign that reclaims the internet and women's often ignored herstory with technology, exploring and encouraging the creative use of digital technologies to denounce and eliminate online gender-based violence (GBV). Its name echoes back to the Take Back the Night marches all over the world, where women reclaimed public streets as their own, especially at night when they…
A daisy with a blurry pastel background, a sunset in an enchanting landscape, more flowers, coffee cups... If you are a Whatsapp user, you've probably encountered them a lot: “good morning” forwards. They might be flowing through your Whatsapp family groups, you might forward them yourself or you might be tired of seeing them everyday. Apparently, these specific forwards are so popular around…
For Take Back the Tech! the internet is a space for play, exploration, experimentation and learning, as well as a vital political space of free association and expression. That’s why we created a series of online sharing sessions so that TBTT campaigners and other curious cyberfeminists from all over the world can participate, create and put their knowledge into action to occupy the internet…
The movements denouncing sexual violence are unstoppable. We noted this in our previous post and questions continue to emerge: some focus on the way people are publicly shamed in "escraches"*, others on whether the internet is a legitimate place to denounce violence, and about its characteristics with respect to the over-exposure of both the victims and the aggressors. In order to follow up on…
Why do women still have to file reports of violence anonymously? Because we are talking about things that no one ever imagined. Why do we choose to do it over social media platforms? Because (for now) they remain the most accessible bridge to a large number of people. How can confidentiality be preserved at a time when there is an urgent need to publicly shame aggressors? Find out in this article
As we embark on a new year of #metoo and other forms of powerful testimonial movements such as #survivingRKelly, the wisdom shared in January’s Take Back the Tech! Webinar was an important learning opportunity and reminder of how we can contribute to collective wellbeing and care in our movement. Take Back the Tech! kicked off the New Year with a Reboot Webinar on documentation and reporting for…
For this year’s Take Back the Tech!, Philippines-based APC member Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA) spotlighted the work of local activists on social media, ran workshops with university students and participated in a radio show among other activities to bring attention to the problem of online gender based violence.
Nigeria-based Take Back the Tech! campaigner Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) organised a number of activities, both online and offline, this year, including workshops for young women in secondary schools and radio and television segments on digital rights and risks online. They even developed a lexicon for online gender based violence. We caught up with CITAD Program…
This year, Colnodo put together an action-packed 16-day campaign for Take Back the Tech, featuring everything from e-books to podcasts to human rights workshops. We spoke with Canadian intern Catherine Joubert, who was heavily involved in planning and executing Colnodo’s TBTT campaign about the highlights of the initiative.
For this year's Take Back the Tech, One World Platform (OWP), based in Bosnia and Herzegovina, used videos to highlight the concerns, ideas and experiences of local activists. We had the chance to catch up with OWP's Project Assistant Aida Salihovic to hear about the campaign and discuss issues of online gender-based violence in the country.
During #16daysofactivism 2018 the wonderful Take Back the Tech! team held a South to South Solidarity Tweetchat. This was an opportunity to begin to dissect intersectional and international solidarity. As a young black woman from the global North, this started with me sitting back, listening to and learning from allies and activists in the global South. I think it’s safe to say the 90s is one of…
We worked closely with Luchadoras and SocialTic, campaigners in Mexico, to develop this list of manifestations of online gender-based violence based on case documentation. Use it in your work and activism, and please share it widely!
We worked closely with Luchadoras and SocialTic, campaigners in Mexico, to develop this list of manifestations of online gender-based violence based on case documentation. Use it in your work and activism, and please share it widely!
Colnodo having fun during their tweet chat for their Take Back the Tech! campaign in 2017 From 25 November to 10 December, 2017, Take Back the Tech! Celebrated “Revisit to resist: Histories of the movement to end gender-based violence” as part of the 16 Days of Action Against Gender-Based Violence. The campaign, including global and local actions both online and onground, reached nearly 6 million…
During the last Take Back the Tech! campaign for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, a new local campaigner popped up in Egypt. Bnt Al Masarwa, a feminist band, holds storytelling circles where women share their experiences of violence and discrimination. Then those stories are turned into songs. Bnt Al Masarwa wrote about their unique songwriting process for the campaign, and…
Strikes, marches, stories. Women make change in many ways. Every day we are surviving and resisting, and on 8 March of every year we come together to celebrate our hard work and use our collective power to initiate changes that further cement women's human rights. We're going to spend the day celebrating women who use tech for change. Join us on Twitter with #takebackthetech and let us…
This audio comes from an interview between Sekoetlane Phamodi and a feminist migrant sex worker in South Africa who coordinates sex worker rights advocacy and provides sex worker support services through Sisonke National Sex Workers Movement in South Africa and the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT). Sekoetlane Phamodi is a South African activist who works at the intersections…
First of all I want to say hi to all the feminist community all over the world, greetings for all the sisters from Cairo! I am Marina, a member of a feminist Egyptian band, called Bnt Al Masarwa – the daughter of Egyptians. We were founded in June 2015, and from that point we have gone through a very long and intense journey that hasn't ended yet. We, the cofounders, met in a creative…
Gaby Sanchez is an independent accessible content strategist specialising in the intersectional issues of disability and other forms of structural oppression as they manifest in the South African context. Sekoetlane Phamodi is a South African activist who works at the intersections of social justice, strategic communications and the law. November is Disability Rights Month in…
Written by Sekoetlane Phamodi, a South African activist who works at the intersections of social justice, strategic communications and the law. "Our greatest quality, in the resistance,” she said, gently, to me on the front porch of her garden cottage in Kensington, having our morning coffee and smoke, “is our boundless capacity to imagine another world, in spite of how much patriarchal power…
