Day 12 | Take a Stand | Don’t forward violence

Don't forward violence. Take a pledge to not forward images, messages or videos of someone being violated or humiliated. Make a stand!

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There are many ways to bear witness. Seeing is a political act. When you see, you affect what is being seen, and it affects you. What we bring into the act of witnessing is the politics that we bring into situation.

How do you witness violence against women? Do you witness it as a spectator, interested only to be shocked, bored or entertained? Or do you witness it as a person engaged in creating a more just and equal world that is free from violence against women?

Day 9 | Be safe | Use https!

What does being “safe” on the internet mean for you? Does it mean feeling confident about your skills? Are you concerned about your privacy? If someone found out about the websites that you visit or the information that you download, would you be at risk? Know the risks and empower yourself with knowledge.

What does being “safe” on the internet mean for you? Does it mean feeling confident about your skills? Are you concerned about your privacy and about others having access to your emails, photos, files or who you communicate with? Are you an activist who needs to hide your real identity to stay safe? If someone found out about the websites that you visit or the information that you download, would you be at risk?

Day 3 | Be safe | Password protect

How many passwords do you have? How many times do you get asked for a password as you use different spaces on the internet? Keep your information safe. Secure your passwords!

How many passwords do you have? How many times do you get asked for a password as you use different spaces on the internet - from email to social networking and all those cool tools you've signed up for that are internet-based?  Hopefully you get asked A LOT. If not, it's probably because your browser already knows your password – and so would anyone else using your computer.

3 May: World Press Freedom Day | Declare your right to communicate

On 3 May, World Press Freedom Day, join Take Back the Tech! and Communication is your right for a global action day to defend our right to freely access, use, engage and share information and opinions and become our own media through information and communication technologies (ICT).

Happy World Press Freedom Day!

On 3 May join Communication Is Your Right! and Take Back the Tech! for a global action day to defend our right to freely access, use, engage and share information and opinions and become our own media through information and communication technologies (ICT).

Day 12 | Take a Stand | Don’t forward

Don't forward violence. Take a pledge to not forward images, messages or videos of someone being violated or humiliated. Make a stand!

In Canada a teenager was arrested for distributing photos and a video of a sexual assault of a 16-year old girl. In South Africa, a video that depicts the alleged rape of young girl by two boys in her school is being distributed via cellphone and through the internet. The video was recorded on a cellphones by someone who was watching. These are not isolated incidents.

Day 3 | Feminist slogans wanted | Wear your protest!

Exercise our right to protest! Wear your feminist stance against violence against women!

Sometimes wearing a T-shirt with a political message can speak volumes. During the Apartheid regime in South Africa, strict censorship was enforced to include not just books and films, but also badges and T-shirts that contained symbols and messages viewed as threatening to the ruling power at the time. Activists used to wear political T-shirts hidden underneath plain shirts and find opportune moments to flash their political T-shirts to passing cars of public officials' before melting into the crowd.

Day 8 | The Great Debate: Pornography | What's the harm?

The internet has become an important public space especially in contexts where other channels for information are regulated through law, custom or norms. Sexuality in particular, is an area that is subjected to close scrutiny and policing in all parts of the world, in different ways. It is often difficult for women to find safe spaces to find information related to sexual reproductive health or sexual pleasure from the diverse perspective of women and girls, or to engage in open conversations about these matters. At the same time, the internet has also enabled the flourishing of pornography. The dominant forms of pornography are often created for the male audience, with disempowering sexualised representations of women. This is also the basis in which calls have been made to regulate the exchange of information and communication over the internet, and for its censorship. Women are more often than not, absent in these discussions. What is the problem with online pornography? Speak for yourself. Join the great debate.

The internet has become an important public space for us to access information, exchange what we know, express our opinions, communicate with each other and more. Especially in contexts where other channels for information are regulated through law, custom or norms, the internet and related communication technologies are valuable platforms for the continued participation and engagement of ordinary people in things and issues that matter to us.

Day 7 | 1 Dec - World AIDS Day | Take control - my body my terms

The UNAIDS 2009 AIDS Epidemic Update indicates that the number of people living with HIV worldwide continues to grow. Analysis of HIV prevention programmes reveals that integrating measures to address gender inequality and norms - including violence against women and exploitative forms of sex work - are critical in long-term solutions to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. One of the main reasons is because unequal power relations between women and men make it harder for women to negotiate for safer sex and condom-use with their partners. The risk of not having this conversation however, is very high. HIV can stop with each and everyone of us. Exercise control over what happens to our own bodies, and claim our right to define how we choose to engage in sexual relations. My body, my terms. Let's talk about safer sex! Spell out the terms on when and how you want to have sex, and break the stigma around HIV - get tested!

 

The UNAIDS 2009 AIDS Epidemic Update indicates that the number of people living with HIV worldwide continues to grow. In 2008, an estimated 33.4 million people are living with HIV, 20% higher than than the number in 2000, and three times higher than in 1990. Women still make up 50% of people living with HIV, with infection rates increasing in several countries, including countries in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Day 6 | Public or Private? | Draw the line

Digital technologies have blurred some of the lines that we think of as dividing what is private, and what is public. When you are in a cybercafe, having an online chat with your boyfriend, is it public or private? When you put something up on Facebook, to be seen only by people who are in your network, is it private or public? When you shoot a picture of yourself with your mobile phone, and MMS it to a friend, does it become public because you lose control over how the image might continue to be circulated? You decide what is public or private. Draw the line. Make it known.