Bertina Lou
Just Access Legal Fellow
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The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)’s third Global Symposium on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence from the 6th to 7th of March 2025 was a rich forum for knowledge exchange and personal reflections on collective efforts to address technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) using an intersectional approach.
Several themes emerged over the two-day discussions that warrant continued reflection as highly topical issues impacting the ways in which governments, UN agencies, researchers, civil society organisations, service providers, and private technology companies can prevent or mitigate TFGBV.
It is imperative to keep connecting and coordinating efforts to address TFGBV together across different sectors and continents.
Forced Compromises in Digital Participation: Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence and Disability
Are compromises on privacy, security, and wellbeing inevitable with digital participation? For too many users, the answer is ‘yes.’ Â
In Session 6, ‘Understanding TFGBV through Intersectional Experiences and Lived Realities,’ Maryangel Garcia-Ramos offered an intersectional analysis of TFGBV and disabilities. Technology users with disabilities are subject to ableist stereotypes in addition to gender stereotypes in digital spaces. With the existence of anti-disability discourse, a concerning trend is the perception of accessibility as a luxury instead of a right that governments and technology companies are obligated to provide to everyone, regardless of cost. Â
Indeed, technological products that are not informed by understandings of disability can do more harm than good. Users with disabilities are at a higher risk for privacy and data breaches as a result of using the accessibility technologies they rely on. For example, ‘accessibility permission’ is a feature in mobile phone operating systems that allows apps to access the user’s interactions with the device in order to enable assistive technologies. Accessibility permission enables important features like screen readers, voice commands, and other technologies that assist individuals with disabilities. At the same time, this makes the device more vulnerable to malicious actors seeking to exploit user privacy and data since the apps can then monitor all activities on the mobile screen, including personal information and banking credentials.  Â
As a result, enabling assistive technologies increases the possibility of phishing attacks, credential theft, malware, and more. Nevertheless, these technologies remain crucial for users with disabilities, who should not have to compromise their privacy and data security to a greater extent than other technology users. This dilemma demonstrates the intersectional factors contributing to the risk of TFGBV. Â
Intersectionality matters for the sake of safety, for the sake of decision-making, and for the sake of survival.
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The Double-edged Function of Social Media: Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Vioelnce, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation
During the same session, Sophie Carol shared another example of the tension technologies can create at the intersection of various identities. As a queer rights activist in Uganda, Sophie and others doing similar work rely on social media platforms to advance advocacy, mobilisation, and change-making efforts. However, decisions by Ugandan authorities to criminalise aspects of the lives of LGBTQI+ people have resulted in shrinking online civic spaces that are increasingly dangerous.  Â
Social media spaces can be tools for doxing, outing, threatening, and blackmailing LGBTQI+ people, fostering TFGBV that places LGBTQI+ people on the radars of legal authorities as well as at risk for physical violence. The forms of TFGBV that the queer activists in Uganda experience are informed by their gender identities and sexual orientations, highlighting the importance of intersectionality in creating effective strategies addressing TFGBV.
Addressing Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence with Mandatory Accountability
Many speakers at the Symposium advocated for mandatory accountability measures to address TFGBV. Some analyses show that criminalisation, alone, is ineffective at preventing online harms so remedies of a holistic and multi-sectoral nature, involving industry, civil society, and cultural evolution, are preferable. Â
‘Smart regulation’ refers to a form of regulatory pluralism that embraces flexible and innovative forms of social control involving multiple actors to enhance the effectiveness of conventional government regulation. It may include platform accountability regulations, as well as law-making from an intersectional feminist-informed and human rights perspective.  Â
An Intersectional Approach to Addressing Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence
Most importantly, the development of strategies to combat TFGBV should account for a diverse range of lived experiences. Intersectionality must be at the forefront of any research seeking to understand TFGBV. The language of intersectionality must be normalised in relation to TFGBV advocacy and other forms of gender-based violence. Federal public policies and civil society initiatives addressing TFGBV should start by engaging with and elevating the input of those with diverse lived experiences to inform the development of effective solutions, encouraging the leadership of such persons and communities where possible. Â
Lastly, connecting and coordinating efforts to address TFGBV together across different sectors and continents is imperative. This year’s Symposium offered encouragement and a renewed sense of solidarity in advancing global action on TFGBV; onward and upward until next year.
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