2024-06-12 –, Room F - Garden Tent
Have you ever tried to post seemingly-innocent and/or informative education content on social media to discover it’s quickly been removed, had a Meta advert automatically rejected for publication, found your account shadow-banned on social media, or your website removed and suddenly inaccessible?!
For many everyday people - but particularly for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) practitioners and sexuality educators - this is the everyday reality of simply sharing your knowledge with the world, as automated decision-making and algorithms execute strategies to censor and monitor SRHR content globally.
In this discussion, Share-Net International (SNI), RNW Media, and Center for Intimacy Justice (CIJ) unpack some of the problems faced by the online SRHR world. From automated content moderation based on politicised and sexist community guidelines, disinformation networks, and unfair policies, to search engines marking educational content as ‘mature’ (aka pornographic), algorithmic discrimination exacerbating gender biases and denying access to comprehensive healthcare, and court cases declaring it possible to ‘partially unblock’ abortion-information websites demonstrating the knowledge disparities between those with legal-decision making power and technology, the panelists will guide you through a variety of often absurd problems the SRHR world faces through tech-censorship and related issues. The discussion will further cover topics like data privacy, period-tracking apps and the links to reproductive justice, how DALL.E banned abortion pill art, the digital erasure of non-binary people, Jordan's new CyberCrime law impacting LGBTQIA+ people, criminalising free speech and punishing those publishing SRHR information, how digital suppression prevents access to health services, and other examples of systemic inequalities being reinforced by proxy!
On a more positive note, we'll also discuss methods for creating inclusive, transparent, and accessible ecosystems for digital SRHR information, the methods RNW, SNI and CIJ are using to make this a reality, and how you can get involved in changing the future of big-tech policy and SRHR information.
I work at the intersection of digital media, digital rights and wide-ranging social issues, including comprehensive sexuality education, countering disinformation, and advancing democratic and inclusive civic space online. I am originally from Mumbai, India, and now based in Amsterdam, where I work with RNW Media, an international digital media accelerator, as partnership lead, on fundraising, resource mobilisation, and strategic positioning.
Rhian Farnworth (they/them) is queer, non-binary advisor in KIT - Royal Tropical Research Institute's SRHR team, and the Digital Coordinator for Share-Net International, a global SRHR network. They are an intersectional feminist researcher specialising in mixed-methods research, systematic reviews, data analysis, and a digital rights specialist working at the intersections of SRHR and LGBTQIA+ rights. They possess 14 years experience in digital project management, and LGBTQIA+ rights, SRHR, gender advocacy, and knowledge management. Rhian holds an MA in Gender Studies from Utrecht University, The Netherlands, where their research focused on digital ethics and the impact of technology on society, specifically on women, LGBTQIA+, non-binary and gender-diverse people.
Carol (she/her) is a Global Health professional and sexual and reproductive health and rights advocate. With a background in SRHR and immunization supply chain, Carol works at the intersection of health, equity, and technology. Carol has been with Center for Intimacy Justice (CIJ) since 2019, and prior to her work with CIJ she was supporting UNICEF’s immunization supply chain team in Copenhagen.