Feminist Digital Policy

Katrin Köppert takes a new look at the explainability of AI systems, through a queer perspective. Queersplaining means not only explaining AI, but also revealing the inherent contradictions and power structures. An explainability that does not support the illusion of a universal solution, but recognises the complexity and context dependency of AI.

In a blow to women across Europe, a crucial law to combat sexualized and digital violence was thwarted by Germany and France. With rape still not uniformly defined, and digital abuses narrowly defined, the fight for women's safety demands a stronger, unified front. Equal rights demand equal security.

The dossier focuses on the rapid developments in artificial intelligence technology and the new forms of human-machine interaction that are transforming the fields of work, industry, creativity and intimacy.

Katharina Klappheck examines AI’s intricate layers of power dynamics that leads to gender and racial invisibility, exclusion, and labour exploitation.

On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women Jacey Kan, Advocacy Officer at the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women (ACSVAW), talks in an interview about image-based sexual violence. 

In regulating online spaces, if we treat the problems of harmful content as separate from the problems of harmful systems, we risk not solving either. Addressing disinformation and online violence against women requires a holistic regulatory response. 

Gendered disinformation is a form of identity-based disinformation that threatens human rights worldwide. It undermines the digital and political rights, as well as the safety and security, of its targets. Ellen Judson from Demos explains what gendered disinformation is, how it impacts individuals and societies, and the challenges in combating it, drawing on case studies from Poland and the UK. It assesses how the UK and EU are responding to gendered disinformation, and sets out a plan of action for governments, platforms, media and civil society.

"Algorithmic misogynoir in content moderation practice" from Brandeis Marshall, offers an intersectional perspective by exploring the discrimination specifically faced by Black women in the United States.

"The state of content moderation for the LGBTIQA+ community and the role of the EU Digital Services Act" by researcher Christina Dinar, focuses on the challenges faced by the queer community in Europe and offers detailed recommendations for the forthcoming EU Digital Services Act.