The Tools We Need to Fight Online Gender-Based Violence

In order to fight the gender-based violence that women and other vulnerable sectors face online, we can start by recognizing that the internet has immense potential for empowerment. When women, queer and transgender people employ the internet as a means of creating space for themselves and others like them, slowly but surely the misogynistic nature of digital landscapes can be broken down. The Feminist Principles of the Internet (FPI) can help; these principles are a collection of statements that look at internet rights through a gender and sexual rights-minded lens. Organized by Association for Progressive Communications, the principles are a collective effort written by groups of advocates working in women’s, sexual, and internet rights in 2014 and 2015. These principles serve as a living framework that is constantly evolving. There are currently seventeen principles that touch on a broad range of issues related to the rights of marginalized genders online; as a whole their purpose is to provide a framework for women’s and LGBTQAI+ empowerment, movements and realization of rights online.