Digital solidarity against gender-based violence

3 min read

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a woman in India who had been married for 17 years discovered her husband's violent side. One contributing factor was the financial strain resulting from job loss. Strict lockdowns trapped her at home with no escape route, while stigma and uncertainty made it more difficult for her to seek help. After one violent incident, however, she found a gender-based violence (GBV) app through Instagram. The app's chatbot provided crucial guidance, directing her to verified helplines and showing her the steps she might take to safely leave her abusive situation.

Violence against women is, among other things, estimated to cost $1.5 trillion worldwide, according to the United Nations, and devours up to 3.7 per cent of GDP in some countries, according to the World Bank. 

At a time in which online and offline violence against women and underrepresented groups is intensifying worldwide, digital interventions for survivor support are no longer just technical solutions, but critical social infrastructure. This growing crisis doesn’t just harm individuals; it systematically erodes the potential of entire communities to contribute meaningfully to the economy, the workforce and society at large. If we’re serious about building equitable futures, we must start by designing technologies that prioritize survivor safety and empowerment as foundational to progress.

Activating hopeful agency through tech

Hopeful technology is not mere technosolutionism. As Rachel Coldicutt, founder of the civic organisation Careful Technologies argues in its Hopeful Tech Charter, we need a movement in which technologists are united by an equitable and inclusive vision that sees through hype, challenges inequality, rejects exploitative models and works to build accessible, sustainable and joyful technology that serves people and the planet with justice, solidarity and transparency. 

The story about domestic violence provides one real example out of so many that reflect what survivors may derive from a tech resource: confidentiality, no judgement, access to support, a resource to enable them to exercise their rights, and ultimately, hope. As civil rights activist Audre Lorde argues, the »master’s tools will not dismantle the master’s house«, but they may certainly expand the scope for agency and subversion.

Tech-based and tech-facilitated services make it possible to make support services more accessible to survivors. Facilitating ease of access with confidentiality provides options for building safety and creating opportunities to circumvent the enablers of violence in a variety of spaces. In doing so, they help remove barriers to justice and support by both expanding access to resources and enabling discreet help-seeking behaviours.

Global mapping of tech tools for coping with gender-based violence

The world over, technology has been a powerful source of support for survivors seeking to report incidents of violence without the fear of stigmatisation. A recent study evaluated over 400 apps to see how technology can and indeed is (in specific use cases) using survivor-centred design to address some of the problems. Specific aspects include protecting data confidentiality, overcoming data fragmentation to foster trust, and delivering tailored support, relevant resources and community solidarity, among other things. 

For instance, SafeHer, an AI-driven transit safety app for Manila in the Philippines, provides a reporting system, an alarm system and a notification page that includes reported incidents. It offers travellers ways of exercising agency by traveling when and where they need to rather than to refrain from moving about town for safety reasons. Sheria Kiganjani (»The law in your palm«) in Tanzania allows individuals to report incidents of gender-based violence via a mobile number. Victims can use the app to identify appropriate services, and it gives survivors the freedom to report incidents without having to out themselves publicly. 

A key form of support tech offers is to open up access to help. For instance, Mapa do Acolhimento in Brazil is a powerful solidarity network that links gender-based violence survivors with pro bono lawyers and mental health professionals. The platform trains volunteers online and matches them to survivors based on proximity, and has created a guide and map of gender-based violence-related public services.

Technology has been particularly helpful in documenting medical and forensic evidence, as well as accessing legal support. Another powerful tool, MediCapt, created by Physicians for Human Rights, is a mobile app that captures court-admissible forensic evidence from survivors of sexual violence and securely transmits data to police, lawyers and judges. VictimsVoice, a mobile app in the United States, enables people in unhealthy relationships to document the information they need to get protection, seek legal justice and help prosecutors hold abusers accountable in a way that's safe, secure and legally admissible. 

BackUp, a secure web app, makes it possible to report conflict-related sexual violence anonymously, and preserves legally admissible evidence while also connecting survivors with specialised professionals, all through AI and blockchain technology. These resources are particularly powerful in the face of the systemic erasure of various forms of gender-based violence across the security sector and justice systems on the grounds of a lack of evidence.

Tech as an entry point to human work

In a world in which barriers to justice persist, tech-enabled hope is not so much a solution as a start. Efforts to design AI tools inclusively can gain tremendously by learning from and improving upon the digital proliferation of gender-based violence-safety tools and apps. Strategies to develop and deploy inclusive AI can build on lessons already learned in technology for addressing gender-based violence. As we continue to develop AI and digital tools, the imperative is clear: we must bring those who have been marginalised centre stage, prioritise their safety and work boldly towards dismantling barriers to build safe spaces. Ultimately, every moment of hope gained counts. 

The future of inclusive technology lies not in viewing tech as a silver bullet, but rather in harnessing it as one vital tool among many, in this case, as a bridge between survivors and the justice, support and dignity they deserve. In this work, optimism is not naïve, but necessary, grounded in the real experiences of those who have found their way forward, one digital step at a time.

The Inclusive AI Lab at Utrecht University is dedicated to incubating leaders and helping to build inclusive, responsible and ethical AI data, tools, services, policies and platforms, with a special focus on the Global South.

Kirthi Jayakumar runs Civitatem Resolutions, which works on the development of networked feminisms, feminist foreign policy, tech geopolitics and women’s peace and security. She is doing her PhD at Utrecht University.

Jensine Larsen, founder of Unfurl Futures and World Pulse, is an award-winning digital entrepreneur and international journalist with two decades of experience building cross-border feminist social networks. 

Prof. Dr. Payal Arora is Chair of Inclusive AI Cultures at Utrecht University and co-founder of the Inclusive AI Lab. She is the author of award-winning books including The Next Billion Users (Harvard University Press) and From Pessimism to Promise (MIT Press). Forbes called her the champion of the next billion and the »right kind of person to reform tech.