Online Civic Spaces and Queer and Trans Women in Manipur: A case study of selected cases and collective action

By Pavel Sagolsem

In January 2023, under the “Without fear” fellowship of The Bachchao Project, I had the opportunity to witness, interact and inhabit the dent of social, emotional and psychological remnants of a past experience of online harassment and of standing up against it. My project is an invitation to that experience.

Ushinadabana pharabo? – “Shall I overlook?!”

When your intentions are questioned,

you want to clear the air.

You want to defend your intention.

It all comes down to that”

Misogynist, homophobic and transphobic online harassment is an everyday spectacle, experience and occurrence in the online spaces of the social and digital media platforms catering to the people in Imphal and adjoining areas. Due awareness raising, statewide campaigns as well as public discussions has been observed but the trend remains undeterred.

At such a juncture the survivors and those who came to the front to raise voices against it are posed with a rather troubling question – shall I overlook and move on?

At a plain sight, it is a very simple question. Furthermore, answering it seems even easier. Just a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or perhaps a ‘maybe’. But is it really so?

Houjikphaoba ei gyan taaba ngamde – Still trying to make sense…

It’s always on my mind. I think I should ignore but I can’t help it.

I’ll think of it and would often sigh, “Oh Me! Are we not allowed to live? How wrong is it to be me?””

While survivors are still grappling to understand why and how of the harrowing experiences that unfolded, those who campaigned against it are baffled with the backlash they faced. All in all, a plethora of questions opens up like a floodgate.

Days, months and years have passed. The people, life and the world had well served its purpose of embedding in under layers and layers of time and new experiences. Meanwhile the memories remain vivid and striking. As if still waiting to be unpacked and resolved. A conversation that began with a general comment on online space and experiences, now turns vivid.

Kanana kari natraga kanada karamna? – Asks – To whom and how?

I was just living my life normally like everyone. And they came and did all these to my life. So, I am the victim and not the other way around”

The experiences seem to be an isolated phenomenon centred around a person, an individual act or a mishap that could have been easily avoided. But often it is not – the world is the witness and what of the anonymous perpetrators? While certain facts are there for full public view and open to interpretations, certain facts remain ambiguous and unclaimed. When complicity prevails how do we really make a sense of what is and what is not? And most importantly what to do? Whom to ask and how?

This project sought to create a multimedia digital archive through interviews, photographs, audio recordings, illustrations, text based excerpts; of experiences of select and chosen individuals (queer and trans* person) and their personal stories of online based harassments and related consequences in the quality of their physical, mental, emotional, economical and social health and outcomes. Further, the project sought to delve into a creative process with the participants in creating digital content in Manipuri that seek to raise awareness and alleviate reporting and collectivisation for the same.

The project consisted of three parts:

  1. Digital Archive of Cases of Online Harassment faced by Queer and Trans* person in Manipur. Experiences and opinions of Groups and Organisations who have been actively working on the same will be documented in the same.
  2. A short video from the above capturing the essence of cases and expert opinion on who to reach out and what could be done and any additional information for public consumption geared towards prevention and access to justice.
  3. An online campaign + offline dissemination of the above among legal practitioners, state police force, media houses and social activists.

The above has been inferred through close consultation with activists, survivors, community and individuals I have been in touch with.

  1. All audio or video material on the archive were in Manipuri Language with English Subtitles. The accompanying text was in two languages – Manipuri and English.

“Internet Shutdowns and its impact on Gig and Platform Workers of India”: A case study of gig and platform workers of Rajasthan and Telangana

A study by Basudev Barman For Telengana GIG and Platform Workers Union

Gig and platform workers are those who use online platforms or apps to find and perform work, such as delivery, ride-hailing, or freelancing. These workers depend on the internet for their livelihood, but they often face challenges due to the frequent and arbitrary internet shutdowns imposed by the government or the poor internet connectivity in some areas.

 

This research involved an attempt with a group of gig and platform workers to understand their experiences and perspectives on internet shutdowns and internet dead zones. As part of this exercise we also included a workshop where the workers were informed about their data rights and privacy, and how they can cope with the disruptions caused by internet shutdowns and internet dead zones. The report that documents  activities, outcomes, and implications of the exercise for the workers’ lives and livelihoods.

The report covers the following topics:

– The background and context of gig and platform work in India, and the existing research on its impact on workers’ rights, welfare, and empowerment.
– The rationale and objectives of the exercise and the workshop, and the methodology used to conduct them.
– The main findings from the exercise, such as the workers’ awareness of the reasons for internet shutdowns, the impact of internet shutdowns and internet dead zones on their work, income, family, health, and well-being, and the gendered dimensions of these effects.
– The main learnings from the workshop, such as the workers’ knowledge of their data rights and privacy, the strategies they use to deal with internet shutdowns and internet dead zones, and the suggestions they have for improving their situation.
– The conclusions and recommendations based on the research project, such as the need for more research and dialogue on gig and platform work in India, especially in relation to internet shutdowns and internet dead zones, the need for more awareness and advocacy on data rights and privacy for gig and platform workers, and the need for more support and protection for gig and platform workers from various stakeholders.

“Internet Shutdowns and its impact on Gig and Platform Workers of India”

This study was done with the support of The Bachchao Project and OPTIMA Internews

TOMORROW, IT WILL BE US: Facing and Challenging Digital Hate Speech Against Muslim Women in India

By Afrah Asif

The outputs mentioned in this blog post are part of the Without Fear fellowship program 2022 – 2023. The Bachchao Project started this fellowship program to bring together a cohort of talented individuals with experience and interest in the gender and development space, who could bring fresh perspectives and potential solutions to threats faced by structurally silenced women and gender minorities in the country. This cohort could learn from itself and others, and look at innovative tech based interventions and ideas. The fellows were based around three central verticals; the social and development space, tech, and art. Afrah was part of the social and development space Vertical.

Violence seems random, and everywhere, there is no saying who would be targeted and who would be spared. Fatima, a young girl currently residing in Saudi Arabia, uses social media to stay in the loop of Indian politics and keenly follows and speaks up against atrocities committed against Muslims in India. While visiting India this year, she admitted that her ‘entire family was terrified’. When she did stay some time in India, she felt a sense of dissonance. Safety was surprising, not relieving.”

For most Muslim women interviewed for this report, social media was their window to the world. Its discursive potential had enticed them. For the first time in their lives, using social media, they learned to forge a political identity, be stakeholders in political conversations that have traditionally been dominated by men, advocate for what they believed in, and create an impact even if such impact meant changing a colleague’s ideas about something through extensive debating in the comments section. Targeted hate speech against these women then obviously harmed them much beyond their online presence.

The title of this report comes from what one of the interviewees said in response to the ‘liberal claim’ that while Muslim women are being targeted today, tomorrow, other marginalized women will be, and then all women will be. ‘Today is it us’, she had said, ‘tomorrow it will be us, and yesterday it was us’. In asserting so, she reemphasized Muslim women’s victimhood in light of the Hindutva project and drew a critical distinction missed by many- that hate and violence against Muslim women is not a way for misogyny to fulfill its agenda, but that misogyny against Muslim women is yet another way to fulfill the Hindutva agenda. Such a distinction is significant as we are confronted with political leaders and groups regularly insisting that the issues that Muslim women face are ‘women’s issues’ and not Muslim women’s issues.

Based on a series of interviews with activist-victims, this report seeks to complicate our understanding of the impact of targeted hate speech and push us to explore what meaningful solidarity and action centering Muslim women should look like. Allowing the interviewees a free-flowing space to mold their own narratives has helped this report move beyond cliches of oppression and marginalization to allow Muslim women the space to explore their hurt outside of narratives that they are socially forced to perform.

Through this report, the author has sought to contextualize the lives, work, and hurt of Muslim women who have been affected by digital hate speech. In order to convey the same, the report is divided into three distinct chapters: the first dealing with the hurt itself, the second dealing with the impact and aftermath of being subject to this hurt, and the final chapter dealing with the action and advocacy that is particularly being taken up by civil society initiatives at various levels in order to emphasize the bottom-up nature of digital hate speech.

tomorrow it will be us

Internet Shutdowns: Diverse risks, challenges, and needs at IGF 2022

Members of TBP participated in IGF 2022 hosted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The IGF was held from 28th Nov to 2nd Dec 2022.

Chinmayi  S K was a session organizer and a speaker along with Laura Schwartz-Henderson from Internews, The session also had Diagne El Hadji Daouda and
Miraj Chowdhury as other speakers.

https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/igf-2022-ws-482-internet-shutdowns-diverse-risks-challenges-and-needs

The session was hosted both in person and online and has a discussion on the needs assessment work undertaken as part of the Prepare, Prevent, Resist: The OPTIMA Internet Shutdowns Resource Library. Chinmayi S K presented the india assessment report and spoke about the various impacts of internet shutdowns urging government to think of necessity and proportionality while implementing shutdowns.

An event report on this session as compiled by Bojana Kovac of digwatch  can be found here : https://dig.watch/event/igf2022/internet-shutdowns-diverse-risks-challenges-and-needs

Without Fear?

Without Fear ?

Exploring online civic space participation by marginalised women in India 

Women activists and political organisers who belong to marginalised groups and challenge oppressive social orders often face state scrutiny, identity-based delegitimisation, sexual harassment and abuse in India’s online civic space.

This online civic space also seems to be ‘shrinking’ due to the increased criminalisation of dissent, social media censorship, internet shutdowns, troll and bot manipulations, and widespread hate against religious minorities and oppressed caste groups.

While such ‘shrinking’ is assumed to repress all civic space actors equally, women organisers belonging to marginalised groups often bear disproportionate impacts and heightened abuse. This is likely due to the reproduction of social power structures within the civic space (including online), and the marginalised groups having limited access to legal, medical and financial aid, political power and social networks of influence.

Marginalised women have been historically excluded by the mainstream Indian feminist movement, which is framed for an archetypal Hindu, upper-caste, cis-gendered urban, middle-class woman. Since proportionally few marginalised women have access to participate in India’s online civic space, any shrinking disproportionately affects them as they are already underrepresented.

This qualitative, exploratory study examines marginalised women’s participation in the online civic space through in-depth interviews with 12 participants.

 

Findings

Censorship and self-censorship

One participant reported censorship attempts by state actors while another stated feeling direct and indirect state presence through the surveillance of her livelihood. Nearly all participants reported practising ‘self-censorship’ due to state surveillance, criminalisation and online speech repression. Such ‘self-censorship’ was not directed by their ‘free’ will but by the fear of possible state repression. Participants were habituated to being hypervigilant about the content they shared in the public domain and its tone. They constantly carried out risk assessments in their heads of the limits within which they could express their opinions without getting into trouble or facing further repression.

Delegitimisation and harassment

Two-thirds of the participants faced online sexual harassment from platform users. Participants reported attacks on their identity with casteist, Islamophobic, homophobic and transphobic remarks; misogyny and collective trolling; unauthorised access and use of personal information (e.g. morphed photos) and hateful messages in their inboxes. Participants reported increased harassment when the content they shared received more visibility or had higher reach.

Powerlessness and impact on personal life

Participants reported feeling various degrees of fear and powerlessness, inseparable from their marginalised identity and the lack of access to capital or influential networks. Several participants expressed the fear that they may be subject to legal proceedings or unjust incarceration. They raised concerns about the risks by association for their family and friends, doxing, account takedowns and the consequent loss of networks, and the wider implications of state persecution, such as impacts on livelihood, future employment and pursuit of higher education.

Impact on mental health

A majority of participants reported adverse impacts on their mental health due to online harassment by platform users and hostile interactions with state actors. They described feeling trauma, triggers, hurt, depression, anxiety and shock. Some participants had taken social media breaks for their mental health. Without support systems such as publicly funded mental health facilities, participants’ mental health risks remained largely unaddressed.

Inadequate support from reporting mechanisms

All participants reported receiving inadequate redressal from online reporting mechanisms. They highlighted that reporting mechanisms do not account for context, have limitations as they are designed to only censor specific words or phrases, and are content-agnostic, which enables censoring of human rights abuse documentation.

On approaching law enforcement

A majority of participants reported that they did not feel comfortable approaching the police for online harassment. This is unsurprising given the police’s historical and present role in enforcing social hierarchies.

Precautionary measures

In order to navigate the unsafe online civic space, participants reported making their accounts private and refrained from sharing their personal information, work or field information and physical location. Participants did not necessarily have greater awareness about, or access to, digital safety and privacy.

Steering online discourse

Participants reported that the mainstream Indian feminist movement was exclusionary. They shared that the online civic spaces were often captured by privileged persons who offered conditional allyship or spoke on behalf of marginalised women. Some participants shared that they were slotted into specific, narrow categories and work domains. Participants also reported the risks of having their labour appropriated by bigger accounts run by privileged persons. Here, they identified algorithmic features and technological tools as facilitators of erasure and appropriation. Lastly, participants reported how online discourse on specific movements have started being steered by communities themselves only recently.

 

Way forward

This exploratory study recommends:

    1. Systematic, comprehensive and disaggregated documentation of abuse which captures the particular experiences of organisers in their self-determined, intersectional identities;
    2. A disaggregated and longitudinal study of vulnerabilities and risks from online abuse to help determine appropriate support and redressal strategies;
    3. Further research about platform governance (including its purpose), platform architecture and the political economies of platform profits and state patronage; 
    4.  Building diverse and specialised networks that provide safety, legal, medical and  technological support to the different groups of marginalised women online;
    5. Studying access and power within the online civic space and the feminist movement to help dismantle power hierarchies; and
    6. Studying the exercise of police powers, including police discretion, online.  

The complete report can be freely accessed here under CC-BY-SA 4.0.

What we owe to each other: a user focused model of tool development – TBP at RightsCon

We presented our learnings on the usability of Tails in a country with heightened surveillance and reduced freedom of expression, where many users struggle with unreliable internet connectivity. We hope with this  and other efforts we can encourage tool builders to do similar work on their tools to see if they are being built to suit the needs of their users.