Approaching the Question of Safety against Online Gender Based Violence on College Campuses: Drafting Collective Community Manifesto
This project focuses on understanding if college campuses are indeed safe spaces. My inquiry involved unpacking current college policies on online gender based violence; examining legal provisions; and studying digital media platform policies
Project by
Individual
Timeline
20 weeks
Tools used
FigJam, Adobe Illustrator
Role
Research, design
Summary
Online gender based violence (OGBV) can take various forms from doxxing, stalking, fraping, morphing, sock puppet, flaming and more. So, fostering a safe environment becomes crucial where students’ space is respected and their views are heard. When that happens, students don’t suffer on their own. But, even when there are support groups in colleges, they are a distant entity, often placing the burden on students to lead the conversation, and not everyone takes the first step to reach out to the group. When they do reach out, there is a stigma attached to accessing support. Adding to these predicaments and challenges are issues of conscious and unconscious bias that we travel with, as well as concerns of privacy within and connected to institutional support services and spaces.
Through qualitative research strategy involving tactics such as focus group discussions and one-to-one interviews with legal experts from the Alternative Law Forum (ALF) and digital feminist organisations such as ITforChange, my project aims to draft a collective and an ongoing set of declarations specific to OGBV so that our actions and interventions become a community practice, which enable us to foreground questions of accountability and extend them into the academic institutions we inhabit; the digital platforms we encounter and experience; and the discourse on feminist internet we wish to build and nurture.
Process
Area of Inquiry
Brainstorming
Secondary research
Narrowing down a topic
Secondary Research
Critical digital scholarship
Law and Technology
Feminist internets
News media
Primary research
Qualitative method
One-to-one interviews
Focus group discussions
Analysis
Thematic mapping
Findings to insights
Ideate
Brainstorming ideas
Iterating
Literature study
I started my research by looking at news media around online gender based violence specific to college going population. There were several instances of OGBV experienced by students that had various forms and locations. I then looked at various legal provisions for each of these forms, policies and responses from technology platforms, reporting mechanisms and college policies and responses. I later delved into the complexity of digital privacy, what gender justice non-profit organisations are already doing in this field, and feminist internet initiatives by different organisations.
Instances of OGBV in India
Mapping of online gender based violence cases in India over the years from trusted newschannels. It is colour coded based on the year the case was reported. Red: 2024; Green: 2023;Violet:2022; Blue: 2021, cases reported in 2020 and before that are marked in pink and the very first cases are marked in yellow. For more details, see here
Forms and locations of OGBV
To understand better about the issue of violence facilitated by technology, I listed around 13 forms and locations of OGBV along with a few instances that have occurred recently in the past. Below is the mindmap of my secondary research - Connections and Interconnections: In this image, I started mapping different forms of OGBV, real life instances and platforms where they occurred, legal provisions - gaps in the laws, platform policies, college policies, and organisations that are already working towards gender justice. For a more clearer view, click here
How do algorithms amplify the issue?
Social networking platforms are driven by machine learning algorithms and we get personalised feed based on the type of content we engage with. In a way, platforms play a major role in deciding who gets to see what and it also determines whose content or voiceis heard or silenced. So, everything that we see on digital platforms is based off of an algorithm. However, these algorithms can amplify the bias and online gender based violence online.Safiya Umoja Noble in her Algorithms of Oppression, Noble writes how search engines reinforce racism and sexism online.
What are colleges across India currently doing and their reporting mechanisms
I looked at websites of 25 colleges. They are the top 5 colleges of various streams like liberal arts, engineering, medical, law, and management. Most of the colleges don’t haveanti-cyberbullying policies and the colleges that do have such policies, their reporting mechanisms are hard to find or the links do not work. The policies too are not written in collaboration with students. Most have counselling centres where they have tied up with organisations like YourDOST who support students during distress.
What is a feminist Internet and why building one is important?
Most feminist organisations work on the principles of feminist internet. These principles are collectively drafted by feminist organisations by collaborating with activists and advocates. Building a feminist internet is to imagine an internet where there is no room for online gender based violence to take place. Several feminists have drafted Internet principles but on the whole, they speak of the same values. These principles talk about the aspirations for a safer Internet place.
Insights and research question
From my secondary research, I got a clear understanding of how OGBV is an interconnected issue where several stakeholders are a part of it and not just the individual. It’s a layered issue where when we build a feminist internet, there will be no place for OGBV to take place.
How are digital platforms and institutions held accountable and responsible foronline gender based violence?
What role do colleges play in building safer spaces for students?
Primary Research
Overall approach
I employed qualitative research techniques for this study. I conducted three focus group discussions with young adults and interviewed lawyers from Alternative Law Forum and program associate at ITforChange.
Qualitative research helped me understand people's experiences with the Internet, their perceptions and feelings towards social networking platforms such as Instagram, Meta and X and messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Snapchat.I chose this method as it helped me explore technology that facilitated gender based violence in detail and understand student’s experiences in college campuses.
Ways of gaining access to community
I reached out to the organisations by going to their website and finding out their email addresses and contact details. I reached out through phone calls, emails and LinkedIn.When I did not receive any response from either of these mediums, I went to their office in Bengaluru. I reached out to students through email and WhatsApp.
Topology network: ways I reached out to organisations and students
Interviews with Organizations
Alternative Law Forum(ALF)
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Alternative Law Forum is a space that integrates alternative lawyering with critical research, alternative dispute resolution, pedagogic interventions and more generally maintaining sustained legal interventions in various social issues.
Discussion with Aravind Narrain
Location: Alternative Law Forum office
Date: 5 March 2024
Duration: 20 minutes
ITforChange
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IT for Change is an NGO based in Bengaluru, India. It aims for a society in which digital technologies contribute to human rights, social justice and equity.They have worked on several projects and one such project is (Born Digital, Born Free report, under the project Righting Gender Wrongs) with a focus on institutions/campuses which was conducted in 2018
On digital awareness and agency they also work a lot in schools and their research shows that colleges are mostly impervious to and negligent about gender-based abuse, and do not want to bring the law into their institutions, there is a big gap.
Discussion with Aparna Valley (Senior Program Associate) and two of her team members
Location: Online
Date: 7 March 2024
Duration: 25 minutes
Blank Noise
Jasmeen Patheja is a human rights activist and the founder and director of Blank Noise.Blank Noise is a community of Sheroes, Heroes and Theyroes who are working toward sending sexual and gender-based violence. Some of the key projects are ‘Meet to Sleep,’ ‘I Never Ask for It,’ and ‘Talk to me.’ Her work addresses street harassment and spaces of violence with the main aim to work towards the right to be defenseless by participating with communities.
Discussion with Jasmeen Patheja
Location: Online
Date: 13 February 2024
Duration: 30 minutes
Focus Group Discussions(FGD)
Conducting FGDs with students will help me understand student’s relationship with social networking sites and messaging apps, their experiences and beliefs.All the students chosen for the discussion were young adults between the ages 18 to 25years old. Discussions consisted of UG and PG students and also working professionalswithin the age group who have gone through the college experience.Three focus group discussions were conducted. The first FGD helped me form a base forother discussions, reframe or add questions for the next discussion.
Summary
Focus group discussion 1
The image here is from Cubbon Park where I conducted my first focus group discussion with students of a private college in Bengaluru held in April 2024. Five students were a part of the discussion. I had prepared a discussion guide, a consent form and had taken A4 sheets and sketch pens to write their thoughts. This was my first discussion with students so I had all the materials needed along with refreshments like chocolates and oranges (you can see it if you look closely) to beat the heat. The focus group discussion was conducted in a relaxed environment where everyone felt at ease to voice their thoughts and data was gathered through notes and sketches and the discussion went beyond the set timeframe! Overall it was a fun and fruitful first discussion.
Focus group discussion 2
I took this image during my second focus group discussion conducted at the Just Futures Co-lab Rooh 104 with undergrad students of SMI in March 2024. I had placed a pen, a sketch pen, a consent form and an A4 sheet for the students along with a box of stationery for them to choose from to draw/write their thoughts during the discussion. 4 students were supposed to be there for the discussion but two could attend. The second photo is where you can see me conducting discussion. The discussion was for an hour and Sowmya C was the moderator who made notes thorughout the session which helped me a lot during my analysis phase. We discussed about safe space, feeling of belonging within colleges and also the forms of online gender based violence across platforms.
Data collection
Data was collected in the form of sketches, write ups and observation notes.
Data Analysis
All of the data was put on FigJam and analysed and clustered according to recurring themes.
Themes Identified
Themes were identified and ideas were brainstormed for each theme.
Outcome
Collaborative Workshop Design
Purpose
To design a collaborative workshop where students and feminist organizations come together and draft a set of declarations to tackle online gender based violence. During the ideation phase, one of the ideas was workshop pedagogy which I feel would be the best way to move forward because bringing in students and organisations who work on the issue of OGBV will help everyone understand each other's concerns and aspirations for a safer campus.
Outcome
The workshop will produce a set of declarations collaboratively drafted by students, lawyers, and feminist organisations. This set of declarations will go through several iterations and could be used by campuses as a guideline while drafting policies.