Manifesto on Tech Accountability for Online Gender-Based Violence
We all want to find joy and benefit from emerging technology in the online space and for it to be a tool for - and not a weapon against - our democracy.
But tech corporations are putting profit over people. Even with new regulations in place, these companies are allowing online gender-based violence and racist abuse to be posted and targeted at women and girls on their platforms. Together, we can hold our elected officials accountable for honouring the Online Safety Act and ensuring the online space is free from misogynoir.
Political parties must commit to:
👉🏿 Implementation of the Online Safety Act for all women and girls
👉🏿 A health approach to ending online gender-based violence, with increased media literacy and enhanced digital citizenship across the UK.
👉🏿 A ‘tech tax’ that ringfences the revenue collected from Big Tech and puts it towards preventative online gender-based violence interventions; and
👉🏿AI regulation that includes risk assessments for how AI can exacerbate racism and sexism through enabling abuse, such as deepfakes and misinformation, and encoding bias in databases, such as those used for policing or content moderation.
Together, we can change the online space and ensure online platforms are created by Big Tech for us, not just themselves.
Questions you could ask your political candidates in the general election:
What actions are you taking – as individuals and within your party – to protect and empower Black women online and encourage Black women’s civic participation?
How will you hold tech corporations accountable for ending online gender-based violence?
How will you ensure AI is regulated effectively to prevent the further spread of racism and sexism online?
The Tech TaxSince April 2020, the Government imposed a new Digital Services Tax of 2% on the revenues of search engines, social media services and online marketplaces which derive value from UK users. These include tech giants like Meta, Google and Amazon.
According to the Office for National Statistics, this ‘tech tax’ raised £29 million in the first month of operation alone. This is in line with the “polluter pays” principles, which means because these companies are enabling and creating these harms to society, they should pay to help rectify and stop the damage, allowing us to establish online standards which are fair, safe and necessary to the growing digital economy.
By ring-fencing at least 10% of this new tax annually for ending online abuse against women and girls, the Government can commit at least £35 million to further establishing online standards which are fair and necessary to the growing digital economy.
To efficiently and effectively combat online abuse and violence against women and girls, we recommend this 10% should be pledged to civil society organisations to help fund their vital work to end online abuse, such as training on digital citizenship and online safety.
