Lucina Di Meco’s Post

Sadly, I saw this coming - and you should have too. Two years ago, in a blog post I wrote with Alcy Stiepock Mackay for ODI's Align platform, I explained how the design of #digitalplatforms doesn't only reflect pre-existing #sexism, but it increases it. Maria Ressa rightfully calls it a ‘behavior modification system’ as people are encouraged to do things they would normally not do. "Harmful narratives are boosted and amplified through algorithms that make such content sticky and often viral, serving companies’ commercial interests at the expense of women’s rights and societal progress towards gender equality." #Misogyny online isn't a women's issue or a private wrong. As IT for Change puts it, it's a public harm, affecting the entire society and must be stopped. Find out how on #ShePersisted's website, or read my post here: t.ly/ePgdX . #Grateful to The Guardian for this thoughtful piece and to the many allies working to change things, including Giovanna Lauro and Gary Barker, PhD at Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice! #genderequality #masculinity #genderequality #socialmedia #digitalharms

Those of you who know me personally probably can corroborate - I'm not a softie. And having worked in and around tech-facilitated gender-based violence for a while at #ShePersisted, I've had to hear some pretty horrific stories. Yet, this story truly shook me. I listened to it with my teen son and would recommend anyone who has young people in their lives to listen to it too, if possible with them. It could and -given the statistics, will - happen to you or someone you know. Olivia Carville at Bloomberg Businessweek did a great job at telling this story, and highlighting the responsibilities and failures of digital platforms in the face of these horrible scams. They have blood on their hands too. Flagging for the wonderful Andrea Powell, Cailin Crockett, Giovanna Lauro and Mary Anne Franks as this is right up their alleys. So far, this battle has been fought by women mostly. We need for more men to be enraged by this, and to fight with us for structural reform of the online infrastructures that are ultimately ruling our lives - and costing some children theirs, alongside organizations like the Social Media Victims Law Center - thank you for taking on this devastating and necessary work! Justin Fugle this might interest you too! #tfgbv #onlinescams #bigtech #mentalhealth #bigtech #sextortion #onlineviolence #gbv #onlinescams #masculinities #boys #socialmedia

#ShePersisted was proud to be one of the signatories of this urgent letter to Meta on addressing #disinformation - including gendered disinformation - and #hate in the upcoming Indian elections. As Dr. Ritumbra Manuvie brilliantly puts it: “This year’s elections in India are a formidable challenge to the very foundations of democracy, and social media corporations must treat them as such. Social media corporations must now demonstrate that they will radically depart from business as usual – in which profits are more important than people”. #Kudos to St. The London Story for spearheading this effort and particularly to Alena Kahle and team for her stellar campaigning and to The Real Facebook Oversight Board and Sabrina P. for sharing it broadly! #gendered #disinformation #IndiaElection #FixTheAlgorithm #Meta

Last year, #ShePersisted published a report of #gendered #disinformation in #India. Despite continuous demands from civil society, #BigTech has failed to put into the place the necessary improvements and women are being targeted both as candidates and as voters, as shown by the latest investigative reporting from Global Witness and Access Now. Unfortunately, our findings still hold. Read our #India case study: "The Digital Mob and its Enablers", here: https://lnkd.in/dvgPNcGn.

Policy work can is grinding and can feel like a thankless job for those heavily involved in it as improvements are incremental and never quite go as far as activists would like. And yet policy is essential and the only way we can ensure lasting change. Much, much #gratitude and big #kudos to Cailin Crockett at the The White House Gender Policy Council and Eleonora Esposito at the European Commission for their tireless work to make the #online space a #safer and more #empowering one for #women and #girls and to ensure #tech #accountability. The US-EU Joint Principles on Combatting Gender based Violence in the Digital Environment adopted last week are a step forward, and one that would not have happened without your leadership! #onlineviolence #womensrights #onlinesafety

It was such a pleasure to talk with fellow Italian expat Monica Ellena about my work on gendered disinformation! You can find my interview in the #Handbook that was just issued by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), which you can find here: https://lnkd.in/dNvwfYQ9. #StayTunes for exciting updates from #ShePersisted on #gendered #disinformation in #Moldova and #Brazil! PS: I love serendipitously meeting other #Italian expats working in the same field! Costanza Sciubba Caniglia, Giovanna Lauro, Maria Giovanna Sessa, PhD, Eleonora Esposito and Sabrina P. are some of my favorite ones, but happily the list keeps growing!

Last week, I had the privilege to attended the 2024 Conference of the Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse in #Nairobi. Reflecting back, I have two main takeaways. First of all, the good. This was the first meeting of the hashtag #GlobalPartnership focused on preventing and disrupting the spread of gendered disinformation in the context of electoral processes and democratic rollback. This framing is really important and a very positive evolution from #OGBV. Kristina Wilfore and I at #ShePersisted#ShePersisted have been advocating for the importance of understanding gendered disinformation not as a private harm resulting from misogynistic gender norms, but as a weapon used by authoritarian leaders and illiberal actors to weaken democracy and human rights. We’re thrilled to see how the field has come along and joined us in this framing! Here's a problem though. Too many in the field are still too focused on describing and defining the problem as opposed to proposing long-lasting solutions that address its root causes, or testing innovative, evidence-based rapid response mechanisms like the ones tried by the Council For Responsible Social Media in #Kenya or the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ)'s early warning system. As the brilliant Prof. Julie Posetti puts it, #BigTech has abundantly shown malign intent in the way they deal with researchers and they handle revelations from brave whistleblowers. In the face of this reality, civil society organizations must learn to be much more strategic in their interactions with platforms and resist the soft capture that often comes with funding, and be bolder in their demands of accountability. #StayTuned as we'll have some interesting updates from our work in #Brazil and #Moldova to share soon! #Thankyou to the organizers of the conference USAID, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Women, Association for Progressive Communications, FCDO Services, National Democratic Institute (NDI), the Government of Kenya and the #GlobalPartnership! Much appreciation for all the old and new friends that joined in this adventure, including Cailin Crockett, Rachel Grant, Luna Abadía, Sofia Brito Figueiredo, Jennifer Butler, Suki Capobianco, Chenai Chair, Elayne Deelen, Marwa Hanna, Caroline Hubbard, Paulina Ibarra, Joy Anne Icayan, Linda Alonda Kagota, Gladys Kiio, Paula Martins, Kalliopi Mingeirou, Mulle Musau, Irene M., Sandra Pepera, Prof. Julie Posetti, Theresa P., Jenny Schulz, Helena Schwertheim, Martha Nerima Selina Wako, Fernanda K. Martins and many more … and to lioness Nina (or one of her friends), who made my last day quite special! 😊 #GlobalPartnershipKenya2024

Very well said Kristina Wilfore! #BigTech has shown over and over again a total lack of good faith and no intent to change . Any time spent in non-strategic conversations, "educating" them about a problem they know very well - as they created it - is playing into their game. Anyone continuing down that route by now is either naive, or complicit. #onlinegbv #digitalharms #bigtech

"As I see it, Google and other search engines are recklessly directing traffic to porn sites with nonconsensual deepfakes. Google is essential to the business model of these malicious companies. In one search I did on Google, seven of the top 10 video results were explicit sex videos involving female celebrities. Using the same search terms on Microsoft’s Bing search engine, all 10 were. But this isn’t inevitable." #Kudos to Nick Kristof for writing about the online degradation of women and girls and for calling out #BigTech's shameful responsibility and #grateful to the powerhouse Andrea Powell for her leadership in this field! #deepfakes #BigTech

#genderjobs