The goalpost towards ending violence against women and girls began shifting swiftly three decades ago with growth in the popularity of the Internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) has continued to morph and spread in alarming ways ever since, fuelled by a range of drivers, among them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To mark the 33rd edition of the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence<\/a> this year, the United Nations in its UNiTE campaign \u201ccalls for concrete actions<\/a>, including holding perpetrators accountable, and accelerating action through well-resourced national strategies and increased funding to women\u2019s rights movements.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Civil society, informed by a commitment to secure equal rights and justice for all, have a responsibility to intervene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WACC invites you to take action by participating in the Global Gender-focussed Observatory of Social Media<\/a>. The Observatory seeks to gather globally comparable, consistent, and reliable data on TFGBV at the same time as it builds critical digital media literacy on a world scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An example is provided by the recent implementation by GMMP national coordinator Uganda Media Women\u2019s Association (UMWA) of the social media watch methodology<\/a> developed based on that of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UMWA\u2019s monitoring revealed that over 50% of misogynistic posts on X (formerly Twitter), whether targeting a specific woman or all women in general, focus on body-shaming. While men, women, groups, and organisations are responsible for perpetrating online misogyny, men tend to post such content more than any other category of social media user; over 6 out of 10 such posts are by individual males.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us know<\/a> you want to participate in the global social media watch.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gather friends, family and colleagues to form a social media watch team. Download the training toolkit<\/a> to learn how to apply the data collection tools. Monitor as a team, then share your findings with us<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n#StopTFGBV: 3 ways to take action<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Become a Social Media Watcher<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Invite Others to Join<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Support the Observatory<\/h3>\n\n\n\n