GenderScoop: Reaching for inclusivity, leveraging platforms for empowerment and fight vs. disinformation

GenderScoop is a monthly digest on gender & ICT in the Philippines

May 2022 scoop: Reaching for inclusivity, leveraging platforms for empowerment and fight vs. disinformation

What we gather this month:

Manifestations of gender-based violence (OGBV) offline and online. Reports of various forms of gender-based violence continued. How responsive are laws in the Philippines? Are there instances in which we need to rethink about how we deal with gender and ICT?

• CIDG-7 chief to public: Avoid sharing nude photos, videos
  • “Police Colonel Ireneo Dalogdog, chief of the CIDG-7, said sending nude photos and videos to anyone, even to their partners, is dangerous since these might be used as leverage for blackmail.”
• SC reprimands La Union judge for posting ‘half-dressed’ body, tattoo photos on Facebook
  • “The court also dismissed the respondent judge’s defense of relying on the friends only privacy setting, citing its 2014 ruling in Vivares v. St. Theresa’s College where the it held that “setting a post’s or profile detail’s privacy to ‘Friends’ is no assurance that it can no longer be viewed by another user who is not Facebook friends with the source of the content.””
• CHR condemns killing of transgender; calls for passage of SOGIE equality bills
  • “Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersexed (LGBTQI) community assailed Khay’s death as a hate crime. CHR Executive Director Jacqueline Ann de Guia said the “heinous act” brings to light the dangers faced by members of the LGBTQI community.”
• UN: “Ending the digital divide is critical to women’s rights”
  • “Khan expressed deep concern at rising levels of online gender-based violence, gendered hate speech and disinformation that heighten the risk of physical violence against women journalists.”
• ‘Malicious fabrication’: OVP denies Cebu Pacific pilot’s priority landing claim vs Robredo
  • ““Since becoming aware of the social media post by one of our pilots in reference to a flight of Vice President Leni Robredo, I confirm that the pilot has made it clear to us that he had no basis for his claim and was purely speculative and careless on his part,” [Captain Sam Avila] said.” Other:
    • Data privacy experts call for sanctions against CebuPac pilot
      • “You fail to verify a story before sharing it— that’s careless. But if you come up with one (on your own), complete with tiny details that make it that much more believable, and then proceed to share it with others, with no other apparent reason except to tarnish the reputation of another person—there is nothing there at all that screams “carelessness” to me. —Jamael Jacob
• Robredo’s spokesman sues Journal News Online writer, publisher for cyber libel
  • “The article falsely claimed that Sison supposedly acted as a key contributor to the Robredo campaign and allegedly also acted as an adviser to Robredo and Gutierrez.”
• Human Rights Watch urges gov’t to drop drug charges vs De Lima
  • “In a four-page affidavit dated April 30, former Bureau of Corrections Director General and ex-National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Deputy Director Rafael Z. Ragos took back his allegations that Ms. De Lima received P5 million in drug money from him — care of convicted drug lord Peter Co — when she was still Justice secretary in 2012.”
• CA upholds life terms on 2 Pampanga women in int’l sex ring
  • “Australian authorities gathered the details following their arrest of a certain Alan Thomas Latimer on Dec. 6, 2017 and whose mobile phone camera files yielded a sex video of a minor sent by Nicdao.”
• Quezon City gov’t official suspended for sexual harassment
  • “According to a complaint letter sent to Belmonte, a female employee filed a complaint detailing several acts of verbal and physical sexual harassment she suffered at the hands of a high-ranking official.”
• VERA Files fact sheet: Raffy Tulfo’s point on ‘genderless’ domestic violence, explained
  • “The PNP Women and Children Protection Center (WCPC) said the “few number” of reports of violence against men compared to that against women may be attributed to “non-reporting of incidents by alleged men-victims brought about by masculinity issues and fear of disclosure.”

Reaching for inclusivity. From elections to competitive spaces, calls for more representation of marginalized sectors continue.

• Next admin urged to address students’ learning gaps; ensure a safe return to school
  • “Moreover, there is also a need to strengthen teacher professional development, ensuring that adequate mental health and psychosocial support are made available to learners to ensure their mental wellness, and providing appropriate facilities and adequate resources to support their optimum development.”
• Hontiveros is lone opposition bet to enter Senate ‘Magic 12’
  • “Hontiveros is only one of two female candidates to win the 2022 Senate race, along with returning senator Loren Legarda, who ran with the Marcos-Duterte Uniteam slate and the Nationalist People’s Coalition.”
• DOST-PCAARRD concludes women’s month celebration with webinars on gender policy and tools
  • “GAD advocate and certified trainer of the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW), Ms. Renifer Francisco, was the resource person for the Safe Spaces Act (SSA) webinar, attended by 40 PCAARRD staff members. She highlighted the salient provisions of SSA or the Republic Act No. 11313, also known as the Anti-Bastos Law.”
• History made as Sibol rules women’s Wild Rift for maiden esports gold
  • “Charize Doble, Christine Natividad, Rose Ann Robles, Giana Llanes, April Sotto, and Angel Lozada earn the distinction as the first women champions in SEA Games esports history.”
• Watch: Homebound (2022)
  • “The film tells the story of Tari, a female migrant worker who had planned to return to her homeland Indonesia after working in Taiwan for 10 years. But, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, her plans unravelled, and the lack of rights for vulnerable migrant workers was exposed.” (EngageMedia)

Leveraging platforms. We recognize that intersecting issues of human rights and technology open up many branches of conversations and contexts. How are platforms maximized to raise awareness? How are internet intermediaries joining the conversation?

• For people with disabilities, AI can only go so far to make the web more accessible
  • “Whether struggling to comprehend a screen reader barking out dynamic updates to a website, trying to make sense of poorly written video captions or watching out for fast-moving imagery that could induce a seizure, the everyday obstacles blocking people with disabilities from a satisfying digital experience are immense.”
• Online harassment is on the rise – and Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover isn’t helping
  • “Many advocates say tech companies should do more to tackle online abuse, but with people like Musk in charge, it’s hard to see this happening any time soon.”
• Fil-Am group launches ‘troll exposer’ website in fight against disinformation
  • “TrollExposer.com provides analysis of the troll networks and activities, and the direct links to the troll Facebook accounts so that the public can explore the pages of the trolls themselves. Now people don’t need to trust sources they might view as biased. They can literally do their own research to discover the activities of the trolls, and find out if the content they view online is actually the result of a covert influence operation, rather than authentic narratives from real people,” the group said in its statement.
• Bumble launches Bloom, free online sexual trauma support for app users
  • “Users within the Bumble community will now be able to report any cases of sexual assault or relationship abuse to the app’s feedback team and will be given “immediate assistance through Bloom’s support specifically for Bumble.”
• How YouTube can rewrite the past and shape an election
  • “Philippine researcher Fatima Gaw says the platform has become a hub for pro-Marcos historical revisionism”
• Algorithms as a weapon against women: How YouTube lures boys and young men into the ‘manosphere’
  • “This research documents how YouTube’s algorithms contribute to promoting misogynistic, anti-feminist and other extremist content to Australian boys and young men. Using experimental accounts, this research tracks the content that YouTube, and their new ‘YouTube Shorts’ feature, routinely recommends to boys and young men.

This month’s Feminist Principle of the Internet (FPI)

Resistance

The internet is a space where social norms are negotiated, performed and imposed, often in an extension of other spaces shaped by patriarchy and heteronormativity. Our struggle for a feminist internet is one that forms part of a continuum of our resistance in other spaces, public, private and in-between. Why make a feminist internet?

Interested about digital rights in the Philippines?
Tune into Foundation for Media Alternatives’ Digital Rights Roundup.
Check out the Philippine Digital Rights Electoral Agenda.

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Maraming Salamat po!