IGF 2023 WS #489 Crying shame or shameless?NCII response in policy & practice

Organizer 1: Rohini Lakshané, 🔒
Organizer 2: Erika Smith, Association for Progressive Communications
Organizer 3: Velasco Karla, Association for Progressive Communications
Organizer 4: Sheena Magenya, Association for Progressive Communications

Speaker 1: Rohini Lakshané, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2: Julie Inman Grant, Government, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Smita V, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 4: Alexandra Robinson, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization

Moderator

Velasco Karla, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Online Moderator

Erika Smith, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Rapporteur

Sheena Magenya, Civil Society, African Group

Format

Round Table - 90 Min

Policy Question(s)

How can corporations, governments and civil society work together to address this problem that frequently plays out across multiple jurisdictions and legal environments, while respecting due process, privacy, expression and other human rights?

Increasingly legal responses to NCII focus on criminalization, despite high rates of impunity in many countries. What are other possible legal or company remedies to NCII? Can these include pathways to transformative justice?

What would policies that place women’s rights at the centre look like? How can women and people of diverse genders and sexualities influence the policies that are being created in their defense?

What will participants gain from attending this session? Participants will take away a thorough understanding of how NCII is being experienced in India based on recent research.

They will gain insight into corporate initiatives and tech being used to address NCII and better understand how they can activate tools for protection and reporting, including take-down requests.

They will learn of different governmental initiatives to prevent, prosecute and repair harm in NCII cases as well as explore alternatives for care and reparation that national legislation might consider.

Description:

This round table discussion brings together experts working from diverse viewpoints to address non-consensual intimate image capture and distribution. Speakers have a myriad of experiences: public policy official for an online dating app that prides itself on being women-centred, a researcher able to unpack the subtleties and harsh reality of NCII in India, a feminist activist who accompanies women and LGBTQIA+ community coping with NCII, a government Esafety commissioner.

The session aims for speakers to help unpack the current legal and social reality of NCII from a human rights framework as well as initiatives by governments and corporations to address this rampant problem. The roundtable format will allow speakers and participants to pose questions to each other to hopefully gain insights on key issues such as content take-downs and legal remedy across borders, how companies can cater their services to ensure women’s rights, and creative strategies and solutions from governments, private sector and feminist activists. The aim is for interconnected complexities of NCII to be discussed, where the onus of prevention and resolution does not lie on the victim’s shoulders, and their right to sexual expression and agency is not subject to stereotypical and moralist interpretation.

Participant involvement through different polling and expression tools online will be used, as well as ensuring space and time for the audience to enter into direct conversation with experts in the round table.

Expected Outcomes

Plans to connect this session to this future work:
Documentation and publication of collective knowledge to address NCII including hacks, policy and legislative recommendations.

Unpacking the pros and cons of criminalisation in cases of NCII and guidelines for legislative proposals.

Mapping of strategies to address jurisdictional limitations in reporting and remedies.

Possible creation of a mechanism to have a continuous participatory outcome, in collaboration with different actions against online gender-based violence via intiatives such as the Take Back the Tech 16-day campaign, acoso.online or national legislation.

Having this session, future publications, for others to share tools they use to address NCII

Hybrid Format: The 90-minute session roll-out has been elaborated by the APC which has over 3 decades of online and remote participation experience. Key to any hybrid session is providing equal recognition to online participants as onsite, “seeing” them in the room and making each space visible to the other through verbal and visual communication. Describing who is in the room and room set up will also benefit anyone who is visually impaired. This session wants to gain insights from its audience at different moments regarding the prevalence of NCII and reporting results in local contexts, opinions and experiences around different prevention methods and ideas regarding legal remedies. To achieve this at least one-third of the session will be set aside for audience participation, and session organizers will run polls and/or “take the pulse” of participants with Mentimeter. Furthermore Mural or padlet platforms will be used to crowdsource strategies to address NCII.