(en) FTX: Safety Reboot

The FTX: Safety Reboot is a training curriculum made up of several modules for trainers who work with women’s rights and sexual rights activists to use the internet safely, creatively and strategically.

Introduction

Introduction

Welcome to the FTX: Safety reboot

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The FTX: Safety Reboot is a training curriculum made up of several modules for trainers who work with women’s rights and sexual rights activists to use the internet safely, creatively and strategically.

It is a feminist contribution to the global response to digital security capacity building and enables trainers to work with communities to engage technology with pleasure, creativity and curiosity.

BROWSE THE MODULES HERE

Who is it for?

The FTX: Safety Reboot is for trainers working with women’s rights and sexual rights activists on digital safety. Trainers should be familiar with the obstacles and challenges faced where misogyny, censorship and surveillance are restricting activists’ freedom of expression and ability to share information, create alternative economies, build communities of solidarity and express desires.

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Why the FTX: Safety Reboot?

The FTX: Safety Reboot explores how we occupy online spaces, how women are represented, how we can counter discourses and norms that contribute to discrimination and violence. It is about strategies of representation and expression and enabling more women’s rights and sexual rights activists to engage technology with pleasure, creativity and curiosity. It is a feminist contribution to the global response to digital security capacity building, bringing the APC Women’s Rights Programme’s unique methodology and approach, which we call Feminist Tech eXchanges (FTX).

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The APC Women’s Rights Programme (APC WRP) has developed the FTX: Safety Reboot as a contribution to existing training guides on digital security but rooted in a feminist approach to technology. The FTX: Safety Reboot is a work in progress to assist trainers to enable activists to use the internet as a transformative public and political space, to claim, construct, and express ourselves more safely.

Our political framing and tool for analysis are the Feminist Principles of the Internet (http://feministinternet.org), which shape and inform our work. The FPIs build our case for a safe, open, diverse and gender-just internet.

What does it do?

FTX creates safe spaces of exchange and experience where the politics and practice of technology are informed by local, concrete and contextual realities of women. These spaces aim to build collective knowledge and ownership. We are conscious of power relations which can be easily set up, particularly around technology, an area where women are historically excluded and their contributions invisibilised. We advocate for change through working towards consciously deconstructing these power relations.

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APC WRP capacity-building work bridges the gap between feminist movements and internet rights movements and looks at intersections and strategic opportunities to work together as allies and partners. APC WRP prioritises inter-movement building in order to bridge gaps and grow understanding and solidarity between movements.

What are the FTX core values?

FTX core values are: embedding a politics and practice of self and collective care, participatory and inclusive, secure, fun, grounded in women’s realities, transparent and open, creative and strategic. FTX emphasises the role of women in technology, prioritises appropriate and sustainable technologies, and is framed by the Feminist Principles of the Internet. FTX explores feminist practices and politics of technology and raises awareness on the critical role of communication rights in the struggle to advance women’s rights worldwide. Recognising the historical and current contributions of women in shaping technology, FTX grounds technology in women’s realities and lives. We emphasise local ownership of FTX and have seen the uptake of FTX by our members and partners over the years.


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Introduction

Training modules and getting started

What are the training modules?

The FTX: Safety Reboot currently contains the following five independent modules (with one in draft form) rooted in interactive learning activities to facilitate communities in sharing knowledge and values around representation and expression and to build confidence and skills to be safe and effective in online spaces.

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Online gender-based violence

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Creating safe online spaces

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Mobile safety

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Feminist principles of the internet (FPIs) 

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Risk assessment

What do the modules contain?

The modules listed above contain information and resources that can be used independently or in groupings as needed.

Learning Activities

The learning activities in each of the modules have been divided into three kinds:

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Starter Activities

Are meant to get the participants to start thinking about a topic and spark discussions. For the trainer/facilitator, these activities can be diagnostic tools to observe what levels of understanding the group has, and to adjust the workshop based on that.

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Deepening Activities

Are meant to expand and dig into the topics and themes.

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Tactical Activities

Are meant to respond to multiple learning objectives in practical ways. These include hands-on exercises and practical strategising activities.

Getting started

Get to know your participants

Use one of the Training Needs Assessment methods described here to learn more about your participants:

Plan your training

Design your agenda based on what you have learned about your participants, their needs and interests, and suggestions in the Learning Pathways suggested in each module. See also:

Localise your training

Activities reference real life examples and the more you can draw on local examples that are significant to the lives and work of participants, the more participants will be able to engage with the material and learning objectives.

We suggest familiarising yourself with examples that are relevant to your participants and prepare yourself to speak about these. If you are able to engage with participants before the training, ask your participants for significant incidents relating to the workshop you'll be facilitating, and research these more deeply so you understand the cases and can share them in the workshop.

Frame your training

To make your training a safe and inclusive space for discussion, you can refer to useful feminist frameworks/resources such as Intersectionality and Inclusivity and Notes for Holding up a Healthy Conversational Space. You can also refer to our Feminist Practices and Politics of Technology, our Feminist Principles of Participation and the Feminist Principles of the Internet.

Writers and Collaborators

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WRITERS

COLLABORATORS

visit TakeBacktheTech

FTX Safety Reboot Convening

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Introduction

Resources to prepare your training sessions

Get to know your participants

In order to be able to design appropriate and relevant training workshops, it is recommended that trainers/facilitators conduct a Training Needs Analysis with their participants. Through this process, the trainer/facilitator can begin learning about the contexts, the expectations, the technical baselines, and the current understanding of the relationships between feminism and technology of their intended/expected participants.

There are various ways to do this process, depending on the time available, access to participants, and resources on-hand. Here we provide guidelines for three different types of Training Needs Analysis:

  • Ideal Training Needs Analysis: There is ample planning and designing time. The trainer/facilitator has access to the participants.
  • Realistic Training Needs Analysis: The trainer/facilitator has limited time to plan and design the training workshop, and limited access to participants.
  • Base-Level Training Needs Analysis: There is limited time to plan and design the training. The trainer/facilitator has no access to participants.

Note: Conducting a pre-training needs analysis does not mean that the Expectations Check during the first session of the training workshop is no longer necessary. It is advised that any workshop should still include that session to confirm and reaffirm the pre-training needs analysis results.

Ideal training needs analysis

In this scenario, the trainer/facilitator has ample time to plan and design the training workshop, which means they have the time to connect with the participants, the participants have time to respond, and the trainer/facilitator has time to process the responses.

Given that there is proper lead time for the training planning and design, there are three methodologies in the ideal scenario:

Comprehensive Training Needs Analysis Questionnaire for Participants (see Annex 1 for the questionnaire). In this questionnaire, there are questions about the participants' use of technology and tools, as well as their understanding and knowledge of feminist tech concepts and online GBV, and their expectations for the training workshop. Using this questionnaire, the trainer/facilitator will be able to get a better picture of the needs and realities of the expected participants.

Follow-up Interviews with Participants. Based on the results of the questionnaire, the trainer/facilitator can get a sample of the expected participants to take part in an interview. Ideally, the sample should include all the participants, but a minimum of 50% (depending on the number of participants) should be met. Participants who had outlier/unique responses to specific questions (i.e. the ones with the most experience and the least experience in technology; or the ones with the most knowledge and the least knowledge about feminism and technology; or the ones who have very specific expectations from the training workshop) should be part of the interview process. Usually, these interviews with participants take 60 minutes maximum.

Consultation with Organisers. In this stage, the trainer/facilitator meets with the organisers to share the results of the questionnaire and the interviews, and the proposed training plan and design. Here, the trainer/facilitator also confirms that the design and plan meet the organisers' goals and agenda. It is assumed here that throughout the entire process, the trainer/facilitator has kept in touch with the organisers.

Realistic training needs analysis

This scenario is more common. More often than not, a trainer/facilitator has less than one month to plan and design a training workshop due to resource constraints.

Given the time constraints, the trainer/facilitator will need to short-cut the Training Needs Analysis process, and depending on an initial consultation with the organisers, choose between conducting the Comprehensive Training Needs Analysis Questionnaire, or interviewing 50% of the expected participants (see Annex 2 for Baseline Interview Questions).

Base-level training needs analysis

In this scenario, the trainer/facilitator has less than two weeks for planning and designing the training workshop. Here, the trainer/facilitator barely has time to get to know the participants before the training workshop and may distribute this questionnaire at the start of a workshop or as participants enter the workshop. While there are a few ways to make up for this lack of pre-training needs analysis during the workshop itself – Expectations Check, or running a Spectrum of Technology Use Exercise, or the Women's Wall of Technology Firsts, we still recommend trying to have the participants respond to a 10-Question Training Needs Analysis Survey (see Annex 3).

Resources

Annex 1: Comprehensive training needs analysis questionnaire for participants

linked here as an .odt document

Annex 2: Baseline interview questions

The purpose of this interview is to short-cut the Comprehensive Training Needs Analysis Questionnaire for Participants. So it will cover the general topics covered by the questionnaire, but with less detail. These interviews are supposed to be 60 minutes long. Each set of questions should roughly take about 10 minutes.

  1. Tell me about yourself. Your organisation, your role there. Where are you based? Which communities do you work with?
  2. What are the challenges you face in your work when it comes to using the internet? Is this a challenge that the communities that you work with face as well? In what way? How are you or your community members addressing these challenges?
  3. What internet applications do you use the most? Do you use them for work or for your personal life?
  4. Which device do you use the most? What kind of device is it? What operating system does it run on?
  5. What are your top concerns about using the internet and the applications that you use? Do you feel like those applications are secure?
  6. Can you tell me what your top three expectations are about the training workshop?

Annex 3: 10-Question training needs analysis

  1. Name, organisation, position, and description of the work that you do.
  2. What kind of communities do you work with, and what are their main issues?
  3. How long have you been using the internet?
  4. What operating system do you use the most?
  5. What kind of mobile phone do you have?
  6. What are the apps that you use the most?
  7. What are the top three concerns you have about your use of technology and the internet?
  8. What are the top three security tools/practices/tactics that you use?
  9. What do you think are the top three issues around feminism and technology?
  10. What do you want to learn from the training?

Evaluate your training: Training evaluation tools

Why evaluate?

Process

+/-/delta This is a simple method for participants and trainers to share input. We suggest doing this at the end of a workshop for single-day workshops, and at the end of each day for multi-day workshops. We suggest simple feedback methods for the end of workshops because people will tend to be fatigued, with attention wandering, by the end of a training period. A method like this can be quick and participants can choose to share details based on their preferences.

Ask each participant to consider and share things they think were good, things that were bad, and things that should change.

Depending on the time available and the resources you have on hand, participants can write their responses on pieces of paper and hand them to the facilitator, or you can go around and get each participant to say their responses out loud while a facilitator writes them down.

After everyone has shared, trainers/facilitators sit together, share their own +/-/delta reflections as facilitators, and review the participants' +/-/delta reflections. You can use these to:

One-week follow-up Follow up with hosts and participants to share any resources from the trainings you are able to share (facilitation guide, slides, handouts, etc.) and any reflections you may have about the workshop and next steps.

Three-month follow-up Follow up with the hosts and participants to ask about the impact of the workshop. This is a good time to ask people if they have implemented tools and tactics, revisited their own strategies, etc., as a result of your training.


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Intersectionality and inclusivity

“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live in single-issue lives.” – Audre Lorde

What is intersectionality?

intersectionality is a framework that recognizes the multiple aspects of identity (such as race, caste, gender) that enrich our lives and experiences and that compound and complicate oppressions and marginalizations.

Here is an example to understand intersectionality in context: Between 25% and 50% of women experience gender-based violence in their lifetime. But this aggregated number hides the ways that multiple oppressions compound such violence. Women of color are more likely to experience gender-based violence than White women and wealth privilege can help to insulate some women from some forms of violence. Bisexual women are far more likely to experience sexual violence than other women. Transgender people are also more likely to experience hate violence than cisgender people. In short, all women may be at risk for gendered violence, but some women are far more at risk.

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How do I practice intersectionality in conversations?

Those of us with identity privilege (example: white, straight, cis, able-bodied identities) can have a harder time including those who are oppressed in our feminism. That is why it is important to focus on creating inclusive, respectful spaces where the lived experiences of all women are valued and understood. Here are 5 quick pointers you can keep in mind to create intersectional and inclusive conversations.

  1. Self-reflect and recognize your privileges: Taking up the difficult work of investigating our own privilege is key to intersectional feminism. It is a good practice to look within ourselves and take upon the desire to learn about issues and identities that do not impact us personally. Being privileged doesn't necessarily imply that our existence oppresses another community. What it means is there are certain experiences we don't have to go through because of who we are.
  2. Decenter your perspective: It’s important to understand that feminism is about more than ending sexism — it’s also about ending all the interconnected systems of oppression that affect different women in different ways. There are things that our privileges allow us to take for granted - able bodied people don’t always notice ableism, and White people don’t always notice racism. So make an effort to avoid centering feminism around yourself or people of privilege.
  3. Listen to each other: On the feminist issues where we hold privilege, it's crucial to listen to the experiences of all women, including those women who don't to see the world through a more inclusive lens You can't walk the walk if you don’t know where the walk goes. So if you are a White feminist, be mindful that you are not talking over or for people of color.
  4. Think about the language you use: If you are a non-Muslim feminism, be wary of saying things like “It must feel hot outside in a veil”. Using terms such as #PussyPower can alienate transgender women who may not possess these body parts. These are two examples of the many ways in which the language we use can ostracize women. It is good practice to constantly check ourselves and how we talk about women who do not look like us, or who lead lives different from our own.
  5. Be willing to make mistakes and correct for them: Adopting an intersectional framework is not an easy process. So, sometimes despite our best efforts at being inclusive, we may slip up and get called out for our mistakes. Rather than becoming defensive, recognize that being called out is not really about your worth as a person, and that you can apologize and adjust your behavior to avoid repeating the same mistake.
  6. Recognize that everyone brings knowledge to the table: Recognizing that everyone brings knowledge to the table helps to lessen the distance between us and challenge the idea that some of us know more than others when really we all know some things more than others. Working together to learn from each other (as the activities in these modules are designed to achieve) helps everyone gain most from this experience.


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Additional resources

Notes for holding up a healthy conversational space

A conversation on gender-based violence can evoke different responses from different individuals based on their personal experiences and privileges. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind while talking about this sensitive issue.

1. All participants do not have the same level of privilege

While the included modules offer many activities and resources, many discussions are not just intellectual exercises for everyone ― people who face discrimination or have experienced violence are potentially dealing with a mental health issue.

2. Importance of trigger warnings

Trigger Warnings allow those who are sensitive to the subject of discrimination and violence to prepare themselves for discussing about them, and better manage their reactions. Remember, the key to an effective Trigger Warning is being specific - if a Trigger Warning is not specific enough, it could refer to anything from eating disorders to bullying. Thus, it’s a good idea to follow Trigger Warnings with specialized lists of content. For example, while discussing a case study on partner violence, you could specify beforehand, “A quick heads-up: This discussion contains instances of Rape, Abuse, and Partner Violence. If you feel triggered, please know there are resources to help you.”. For those who need the warning, this helps them prepare for the discussion, and for others, this helps sensitize them to the fact that those around them can find the discussion hard going.

3. Do not pressurize someone to talk about their experiences

Forcing someone to talk about a sensitive event is making someone re-live the experience and all of the negative emotions that come with it. Some people just aren’t ready to open that box of worms. Instead, give people room to explore the trauma and the the time to open up when they are ready.

How to help someone who feels triggered


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Even with the best of preparations, sometimes precautions don’t work because triggers are usually individual specific. Here are a few steps you can take to help someone who feels triggered by an ongoing discussion.

1. Recognize

Recognize that your content could be hurtful to someone.

2. Apologize

Apologize for saying something that hurt the person. Remember that the apology is about the person who has been hurt, and not about you. Avoid justifying or defending your words or actions and be sincere about your apology; it is not personal.

3. Empathize

Empathize by trying to understand why the person may be hurt. You can do this by actively listening to the person who is feeling triggered.

4. Rectify

Continue the discussion by avoiding a repetition of the said trigger. Remember that triggered reactions can temporarily render people unable to focus, regardless of their desire or determination to do so. Be open to participants leaving the conversation if they feel uncomfortable. Make sure they have access to help if they need it. It is advisable to have a mental health professional on board for such emergencies at events.

If a professional is not present at the venue, here are a few resources that can enable you to help someone who’s been triggered:

Feminist practices and politics of technology

FPT embodies both a critical perspective and analysis of technology. It poses questions and defines issues relating to technology from feminist perspectives, taking into account various women's realities, women's relationships with technologies, women's participation in technology development and policy-making, power dynamics in technologies and feminist analysis of the social effects of technologies.

FPT defines our approach to training. It defines the core values that comprise feminist technology training. It is based on the experiences of women and feminists in and with technology training.

FPT is a growing idea. How it has been defined so far can change and mutate through practice, discourse and experience, and because politics and contexts change.

FPT recognises and advocates that feminist practices of technology cannot be devoid of a feminist perspective and analysis of the politics of technology.

FPT views technologies in two ways: on one hand, technology has resulted in new issues for women and in new permutations of women's issues; on the other hand, technology provides new solutions and approaches to addressing women's issues. It grounds new technologies to women's issues, interrogating how women's realities influence how technologies are developed, used, appropriated and benefitted from as well as how technologies are changing women's realities. It also looks at technologies with a strategic and creative eye, assessing how they can be developed and appropriated to support and facilitate women's rights agendas.

As a perspective, it does not define what the conclusions and issues are. Rather, it poses questions and issues that would lead to exploring and interrogating technologies from feminist perspectives.

Some of the questions include:

  • How has user-generated content (as facilitated by the internet) changed women's representation in media?
  • What are the new ways of and spaces for women's building on the internet?
  • How have women's issues changed as a result of our increasingly technology-driven cultures?
  • Is online communications secure for women?
  • Who controls technologies?
  • How can women's rights activists benefit from new technologies?
  • What does 'control over technology' mean?

As an approach to training, FPT has core values that define 'feminist technology training'. It springs from the experiences of the FTX trainers as participants and facilitators of technology training. Most of these reflect the values that have already defined 'feminist training'. The difference is that these values are specifically relevant to technology training contexts.

The core values include:

Participatory / Inclusive

Feminist training recognises that the trainer has as much to learn from the learners as they do from her and from the other learners. As such, training will be designed in such a way that will facilitate exchange and discussion.

Feminist training allows for various ways of learning and communicating to accommodate different learning styles.

Feminist training allows for differences in opinions, in experiences and in contexts. It does not assume that all of the participants come from the same background, and it has to be flexible enough to accommodate differences.

Secure

Feminist training is a space where the participant feel safe in two ways: in their learning – that they can ask questions, raise issues, divulge information that will not be rejected, belittled and divulged without their consent in their understanding of technologies – that they are aware of the (possible) risks of certain technologies (i,e. Privacy in social networking sites, safety in using the internet to publish alternative content, etc.)

Grounded in women's realities

Feminist training should be based on the needs and realities of the participants. This means, that technologies that will be tackled will have to be appropriate and relevant to the participants. This also means that discussions on technologies must take into account the context of the participants.

Appropriate / sustainable technologies

Feminist training should prioritise technologies that the participants can apply, appropriate and use after the training for their work.

Free and Open Source software will be given priority, but only if the participants can sustain their use post-training.

Transparent / open

Feminist trainers are aware of that they have their own agenda for the training and they make their goals apparent to their participants. This means having processes where expectations from participants and trainers are negotiated and agreed upon.

Creative / strategic

Feminist training is an opportunity to look at technologies strategically and creatively to appropriate them in ways that are relevant to the participants' contexts.

Emphasising the role of women in technology

Feminist training highlights women's contribution to technology development, use and policymaking. Women like Ada Lovelace and others who have significantly contributed to technologies are great role models, specifically for learners who have fears regarding technologies.

Furthermore, this contributes to correcting the mis-representation of women in the history of technology.

Emphasising women's control of technology

Feminist training is not afraid to get into the deeper aspects of technologies (in development and in policy-making) and emphasis on 'control' and full understanding of how technologies work (and not just on use) must be made.

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Feminist training should be a space where women can have fun with technology to break down barriers that affect women's relationships and control over technologies.

Our feminist principles of participation

This document has been developed by WRP APC as a guide for ourselves and partners hosting learning and capacity building events, such as Take Back the Tech campaigns, Feminist Tech Exchanges and conversations around the Feminist Principles of the Internet. You can find a pdf version here. 

We have produced this in a spirit of collaboration and co-ownership to encourage creating spaces both online and onground, that are framed as feminist and facilitate safety and fun for all as well as promoting and upholding principles of diversity, creativity, inclusivity and pleasure. We come from many communities, cultures and faiths and embody a beautiful diversity of physical, social and psychic realities. Through creating safe, fun and caring spaces, we enable engaged participation, deeper learning and the possibility of growing dynamic, responsive and caring movements.

These are the framing principles we value and apply in the spaces and events we co-create.

The principles in action

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Create a safe space for all participants.

As far as possible, for example through an online survey, get to know your participants beforehand. Ask for specific needs they might have such as physical access, dietary requirements, particular travel fears or safety requirements. Ideally the venue should have light and air, be quiet and be free from surveillance and interference from non-participants. During the event, gently encourage participants to be open about subjects which might cause them distress and to take responsibility for alerting facilitators if they feel uncomfortable.

Be respectful.

Negotiate with participants at the start of the event about what is needed for a respectful and nurturing environment. Encourage deep listening – meaning that we give our full attention to each other. Acknowledge that there are things that our privileges allow us to take for granted – for example, able bodied people don’t always notice ableism, white people don’t always notice racism.

Be collaborative and participatory.

As trainers/facilitators be well prepared, open and aware of your own agenda for the event and make your goals apparent to the participants. Have processes where expectations from participants and trainers are negotiation and agreed upon -- for example, use smaller groups if some people are not comfortable speaking in plenary. Ground learning in women’s lived realities and use methodologies that prioritise participant voices and experiences. Recognise that everyone brings learnings to the table.

Recognise and value diversity.

Acknowledge differing levels of privilege in the room as well as our multiple identities. Ensure that intersectionality does not make people feel more excluded and ‘different but encourages the harnessing of diversity of identities and experiences as an opportunity for learning, exchange and enriching the space. Help people recognise that a discussion on ableism or racism is not necessarily targeting the able bodied or white people in the room as perpetrators of discrimination and encourage people to listen, think and explore systemic discrimination.

Respect the privacy of participants.

Be aware of language use and respect language diversity.

Acknowledge the languages of all participants and as far as possible offer interpretation/translation. As a rule, everyone should speak clearly and slowly, and feel comfortable asking about acronyms or terms that are not understood. Ask that people think about the language they use and not to use terms that might be oppressive or offensive to others. Request that people be open if they feel offended and use these as learning opportunities. Content may involve technological terms or language that is considered academic and that could be new to some participants. Challenge the tyranny of technological terms! Make content understandable and intriguing and emphasise taking control of and growing a full understanding of how technologies actually work.

Handle disagreement constructively.

Act fairly, honestly and in good faith with other participants. Encourage empathy and take the time to rectify any disagreements, any uncomfortable or hurtful words or behaviour that may occur. Create an atmosphere of openness and facilitate space for apologies and/or explanation if needed.

Embed politics and practice of self and collective care.

Acknowledge that self-care is different for different people and depends on who we are and where we are located in our lives and contexts. Self-care and collective care impact each other. So make time for people to breathe, connect with bodies and hearts, through ritual or embodied practice, to release any tension or anxiety. As holders of space, be mindful of and try and clear any stress in the room so that people can show up to the collective and participate fully. Invite participants to suggest self-care practices.

We encourage people to read APC’s Sexual Harassment Policy can be found here:  APC_Sexual_Harassment_Policy_v5.1_June_2016.pdf


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FTX Safety reboot convening 2018 draft agenda

Overall design and activities

Goals of the convening

Day 1: Grounding ourselves and our work

The first day will be about talking about rooting the convening on three levels:

Proposed activities

Day 2: Challenging ourselves

The second day will be mostly about having facilitated sessions about the challenges we face as trainers, and different ways of doing the training work that we do. These suggestions are largely based on the responses to the survey that we sent to the participants. We can accommodate about 5, 1.5 sessions for this day.

Other possible topics.

Day 3: Exploring ways forward

This day will do focused work on the FTX modules. At the end of Day 2, it would be good to have teams of people who are looking at the parts of the FTX Safety Reboot that they want to work on more.

On Day 3, we give them time to look at the parts and to reflect on the following questions:

And in their teams, they can discuss suggestions for improvement.

(I really want to have time for folks to try out activities with each other, and perhaps with the TBTT folks. But that would take time. So any ideas around how we can do that would be welcome.)

Day 4: Working together?

For this day, maybe leftover work from Day 3. But also, have conversations about:

We will also be interfacing with the TBTT folks towards the end.

Visualising where we work in, who we work with and who we are as trainers

Activity 1

Here, we ask the participants to draw one our two typical folks that they work with in their trainings, with focus on the following parts:

This activity will allow for time for self-reflection, but the processing will happen in small group discussions.

Here, we aim to begin to start grounding the work in the realities and contexts of the people that our participants work with.

Activity 2

Using the same method as above, ask the participants to draw themselves.

Give them time to reflect on the the drawings that they have done.

Activity 3

In small groups, have time for to discuss the following questions:

Debrief

Then we come back to the big group and have a discussion about what the groups talked about.


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Online gender-based violence

Guide participants through the issues relating to online gender-based violence – its root causes, how violence plays out on the internet, the continuum of violence that women, women-identified and queer identities experience online and offline, and its impact. We **highly recommend** that you choose a Learning Path to travel, as these include activities with different levels of depth that should help participants obtain more insight into the covered subjects.

Online gender-based violence

Introduction and learning objectives

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Introduction

This module is about guiding participants through the issues relating to online gender-based violence – its root causes, how violence plays out on the internet, the continuum of violence that women, women-identified and queer identities experience online and offline, and its impact.

This module is based largely on the more than a decade of work that the APC Women´s Rights Programme (WRP) has done through the Take Back the Tech! campaign, the End violence: Women's rights and safety online project, MDG3: Take Back the Tech! to end violence against women project, and EROTICS (Exploratory Research on Sexuality and the Internet).

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, the participants will have:


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Online gender-based violence

Learning activities and learning paths

This page will guide you through the Module's correct use and understanding. Following the Learning Paths, with activities of varying depth, should allow participants to obtain a better grasp of the studied subjects.

Learning paths

How you can use the activities below – and combine them – will depend on:

These learning paths are recommendations for how you can mix and match the activities in this module to create a workshop on Online GBV.

We recommend beginning with Online GBV or not? to spark discussion, surface shared understandings of online GBV, and clarify key concepts. This activity would work if your workshop is more general awareness-raising.

Following that, depending on time and the context, you can work with participants using the Deconstructing online GBV or Story circle activities to deepen the group's understanding of online GBV, and to ground the conversation in experiences of people in the room (Story Circle) or case studies (Deconstructing Online GBV). Both deepening activities may cause participants distress, they require preparation.

For the Story Circle activity, specifically, facilitation will need a lot of care and consideration. We do not recommend this activity for solo facilitators, and for those who are just beginning to do these kinds of workshops.

There are Tactical activities that are meant for strategising on response to online GBV. The Take Back the Tech! Game  focuses on general approaches to addressing online GBV. If you have limited time, the tactical activity: Meme this! is shorter and faster. It could also be a light activity after a heavy one like the Story Circle on Online GBV. Planning response to online GBV activity aimed towards coming up with a more comprehensive response strategy to specific incidents.

The activity Mapping digital safety could be a standalone workshop with a focus on framing Online GBV with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Some suggested combinations:
If you have half a day for your workshop,
then Online GBV or not? followed by Meme this!
If your workshop is focused on strategising and you have limited time,
we recommend jumping straight into the Take Back the Tech! Game.
If your workshop is about having a comprehensive response to online GBV incidents,
then we suggest doing the Deconstructing online GBV,
followed the Tactical Activity: Planning response to online GBV.

Learning activities

Starter activities

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Deepening activities

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Tactical activities

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Online gender-based violence

Online GBV or not? [starter activity]

This activity is designed to spark debate and discussion, and give you, the trainer/facilitator an opportunity to clarify concepts relating to the experiences of women and gender diverse individuals on the internet and online gender-based violence (online GBV).

About this learning activity 

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This activity is designed to spark debate and discussion, and give you, the trainer/facilitator an opportunity to clarify concepts relating to the experiences of women and gender diverse individuals on the internet and online gender-based violence (online GBV). This is specifically aimed towards speaking about the less obvious forms of online GBV, and to discuss the participants' assumptions on how they define what GBV is.

The main methodology in this activity is to show examples of experiences of women and gender diverse individuals online (It would be good to have exagerrated examples to encourage debate or discussion) and memes, and have the participants react with online GBV or Not GBV upon reading/hearing/seeing the example meme. Then you can ask the participants to defend their initial position through a set of guide questions.

It is essential to frame this activity as a vacuum where ALL opinions and viewpoints are allowed (as long as they are expressed in a manner acceptable to the group, assuming Participant Guidelines are established earlier in the workshop), and that what the participants say during this activity will not be quoted/publicised/shared with others. It also a good idea, especially if the group has a lot of experienced feminists, to encourage others to play Devil's Advocate in order to enrich the discussion.

Facilitation Note: It would be ideal to have established and negotiated participant guidelines about respect before-hand, just in case the debate gets heated.

For the trainer/moderator, this activity can be used to learn more about the participants' level of understanding and appreciation of online GBV.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

Ideally, this activity is for participants who have an understanding of internet rights, sexual rights and WHRDs.

Time required

Depending on how many examples are shown, this activity can take from 30 minutes to 90 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

  1. Signs (not bigger than half a 4A sheet of paper) with Online GBV printed on one side and Not Online GBV! printed on the other. One per participant.
  2. A way to present the examples of women's experiences on the internet. It could be a poster of the printed memes or a projector to show the memes.


(See Resources for sample memes)

Mechanics

Show a meme or example of an experience that women and gender diverse individuals have had online.

Tip: Perhaps start with a glaringly obvious example of online GBV, then move to more nuanced examples.

After each example, you ask: Is this Online GBV or Not Online GBV?

The participants then raise their boards to show which they chose.

Once everyone has made a choice, you can then ask: Why do you consider this Not Online GBV/Online GBV? Then get an opinion from someone who had the opposite opinion, and allow the group to ask each other questions.

If there is not much disagreement among the group, then dig deep into the example through these guide questions:

You can end the discussion with a bit of synthesis, and then move on to the next example.

To synthesise each example, the trainer/facilitator can:

Intersectionality Note: It is also important to draw out how women and gender diverse individuals and communities would be impacted differently by the messages / memes.

You don´t have to do a synthesis for each example that you show. If a discussion on a specific example is similar to a previous one, then you can just point out the similarity.

Facilitation Note: It is important, while the activity is still happening, that you, as the trainer / facilitator, do not take a side in the discussion that the participants are having. Having a facilitator siding with a group of participants is an effective silencer of discussion and debate.

At the end of the entire exercise, you then do a bigger synthesis of the activity. In this synthesis, you can go back to the examples that got the most debate and discussion from the participants, summarise the discussion, and then share your own thoughts and opinions on the matter.

Key points to raise in the main synthesis:

Facilitator preparation notes

From the start, you need to decide if you are playing a trainer (one with the knowledge and experience to provide answers), or a facilitator (one who guides discussions, and keeps herself from sharing her own opinion) in this learning activity. Being both will not be conducive to a good discussion or a safe space for the participants. If you are being a facilitator, you wouldn't want to provide answers at the end of the discussion, and make participants defensive. If you are being a trainer, you wouldn't want to be so strict in your opinion on the matter that it silences the participants.

Another thing to prepare for is your own assumptions about what online GBV is. Take a refresher by reading Good Questions on Technology-related Violence.

Facilitation Note: This activity is not just to show examples of obvious cases of gender-based online violence, but to have a discussion with the participants about a nuanced understanding of what is online violence and what is not. So, in the examples, include examples of common experiences that women and gender diverse individuals have on the internet – and not just the ones that are glaringly violent.

There are sample Sample Memes found below, but it would be ideal to use examples that are context-specific to the participants in the workshop. It would be good to show a range of examples, including messages or memes:

The point here is to not be too obvious in your sample choices but to generate a discussion among the participants.

If you have time to prepare with the participants, ask them for examples of online harassment that they have witnessed (not necessarily targeted towards them) online, and show those examples in the activity.


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Additional resources

Sample Memes

Warning : This page contains racist, sexist, homophobic transphobic and rape apology material.

Facilitators Note: There are sample Sample Memes found below, but it would be ideal to use examples that are context-specific to the participants in the workshop. We encourage you as trainers to find your own memes so that they are relevant to the participants.

Intersectionality Note: In choosing sample memes, make sure that you include different race, class, religious backgrounds, sexual orientation and gender identities.

MemeCantTakeAJoke.jpg

MemeSpecialTreatment.jpg

MemeTransphobia.jpg

MemeRapeJokes.jpg

Woman.jpg
MemeJail.jpg
Kim Davis is the county clerk in Kentucky, who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses. For more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Davis_(county_clerk)

MemeBathroom.jpg

MemeLisaBiron.jpg
Lisa Biron is a lawyer who was a member of the anti-gay Alliance Defending Freedom, who was found out to be a child molester and pornographer. For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Biron

MemeMuslim.jpg

MemeFriendZone.jpg

MemeTransFatphobia.jpg

MemeTransfat.jpg
(perhaps a less triggering image than the previous one)
MemeButch.jpg

MemeGay.jpg

MemeWomensLogic.jpg

UpskirtVoyeurism.jpg

When a woman complains about the lack of women´s representation in video games, a sampling of the reactions she gets:GamerGate1.png


Gamergate_2.png

Gamergate_3.png

Gamergate_4.png

Gamergate_5.png
Gamergate_6.png

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Online gender-based violence

Deconstructing online GBV [deepening activity]

This activity takes the participants through a case study of an incident of online gender-based violence, and gets them to discuss the different aspects of the case study.

About this learning activity 

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This activity takes the participants through a case study of an incident of online gender-based violence, and gets them to discuss the different aspects of the case study.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

An important note, while this session will touch upon ideas for response, the main purpose of this activity will be to unpack an example of an online GBV incident.

Care Note: Unpacking a case study of an online GBV incident might cause participants distress.

This is not an activity to do when you do not know your participants and / or if you have not previously gained trust from the group.

In order to do this more responsibly, it is important that you are aware of the experiences of violence that your participants have (see more here: ­Get to know your participants), and to be observant as you run this activity about how the participants are reacting.

Encourage your participants to raise their hands if they need a break from the activity.

Knowing and having some experience in some debriefing exercises such as those found in the Capacitar Emergency Kit would be useful.

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be used with participants with different levels of experience in women's rights and technology.

Depending on the level of experience of the participants on the various aspects on relating to online GBV, the trainer / facilitator will need to prepare to intervene to clarify concepts around social media, the internet, and even national laws.

Time required

About 2 hours per case study

Resources needed for this activity

Alternatively, you can prepare slides with the case studies and the questions.

Mechanics

You begin by describing the incident to be deconstructed, writing down the following details on individual index cards and posting them on a wall (or if you have prepared a presentation, these could be the bullet points in your slides):

Then open it up for discussion by asking the participants the following questions:

Write down the responses on individual index cards and post them on the wall.

Then divulge more details of the case study, marking details that the participants have already guessed and writing down more details on individual index cards:

Then open the discussion up again by asking the following questions:

Write down the responses of the participants to each question on individual index cards and post them on the wall.

At the end of this, there will be a gallery on the wall that shows the different aspects to the case study of online GBV.

To synthesise, reinforce the following:

Facilitator preparation notes

In order to create a relevant case study that will encourage discussion and understanding of the complexity of online gender-based violence, the case study needs to resonate with the participants, which requires knowing where they are coming from and what their concerns are [Note: There is a section here about Getting to Know Your Participants.]

The Sample Case Study below would be useful in articulating the case study that you will share in this session. It outlines the Initial Presentation and the Escalation of the example to be deconstructed.

If you want to to create your own case study:

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Additional resources

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Sample case study: Selena's case

Initial presentation

Selena is in her final year of college. She attends college in Manila, Philippines, but she heads back to her province in Angeles every chance she gets to visit her parents and her younger siblings. In order to augment her limited funds for her studies, she is a part-time barista at a local coffee shop.

On one trip home, she finds her parents very upset. They accuse her of abusing her freedom in Manila and using her looks to meet foreign men. They slut-shame her, and threaten to cut off their support. They demand that she stop dating foreign men online and causing them problems.

Selena does not use any kind of dating app – she's too busy with school and work. And she already has a boyfriend.

After hours of her parents shouting at her, she finally gets a picture of what happened:

The day before, Heinz from Germany had knocked on her parents' door, demanding to see Selena. He brought with him copies of conversations that he has had with Selena, and the pictures that she has shared with him. Those conversations happened both on the dating app chat and on WhatsApp. He implied that he and Selena have engaged in cybersex. Apparently, he had sent Selena money so she could start applying for a German visa in order to visit him. When she did not get a visa, he had then sent her money to purchase a ticket so they could meet up in Bangkok, where they could be together without her conservative parents watching their every move. She did not show up. Heinz had tried getting in touch with her but she was unresponsive. So he felt he had no choice but to pay her parents a visit. They refused to let him in and threatened to call the authorities if he kept on insisting on seeing Selena.

Heinz had left, angry.

Sounds like a con gone wrong.

Problem: Selena is not aware of any of this. She has never talked to any Heinz. She has not received any money from him. She was not in a long-distance relationship with anyone.

It looks like Selena's pictures and identity were used to "catfish" Heinz.

(Catfishing is when someone takes screen-grabs of someone's photos online and creates accounts in their name in order to con other people. Sometimes, the real name of a person is attached to the fake account, but there have been cases where the photos are attached to fake names.)

Escalation

In response to the incident, Selena had removed all her photos from all her social media accounts, and had sent a message to the dating app and WhatsApp that the account with her pictures was a fake one that some people had used to swindle a German user.

She and her family have not heard back from Heinz. He seems to have left Angeles after her parents turned him away.

One day, at school, a few of her male classmates start heckling her, calling her a slut and a swindler, saying that it's a shame that a pretty girl like her would use her looks that way. One of Selena's friends show her a Facebook page called "Selena is a Slut Swindler". On that page, Heinz recounts what "Selena" had done to him – with screen grabs of their conversations, her pictures, and audio recordings of their cybersex sessions.

The page has trended, and has received a lot of likes and followers.

What can Selena do?

Sample case study: Dewi's case

Initial presentation

Dewi is based in Jakarta, Indonesia. She is a 30-something trans woman, working as a call centre agent for a large multi-national online retail company. With two of her closest friends, Citra and Indah, she has just recently started a small organisation to promote SOGIE equality in Indonesia.

Since they started the organisation, the three of them have been invited to local events around LGBTQI+ rights and have attended demonstrations to support their advocacy. She has been captured in the local news speaking out against toxic masculinity and religious fundamentalism.

One morning, as Dewa was getting ready to go to work, she receives a message on her Facebook Messenger. It´s from an account called, Mus: ¨You made me so happy last night. Do you want to make me happy again tonight?¨ She dismisses it as a wrongly-sent message, so she responds with: ¨I think this is not for me. Wrong send.¨

To which Mus replies, ¨It is meant for you, Ms. Dewi. I saw your pictures and I want to see you in person. So you can make me happy again.¨

Scared that Mus knows her name, she just messages back and says, ¨I don´t know you, please stop.¨ She then blocks Mus.

She casually shares the incident with Citra and Indah, and they all dismiss it as someone who saw a picture of Dewi in one of the public events and developed a crush on her. If Dewi was being honest with herself, it was a bit flattering.

Then more messages keep showing up from different users on her FB Messenger. The messages get progressively ruder and more explicit. She is also getting more friend requests on Facebook. She opts to block those users and tries to ignore them.

She keeps Citra and Indah updated on what is happening and her two friends are getting worried for Dewi.

To try to get to a reason as to why Dewi was being harassed, Citra Googles Dewi´s name. What they find are images in which Dewi´s face is edited on to naked transwomen´s bodies. The images are all labeled with Dewi´s name, and posted on DIY pornography sites.

Immediately, the three of them write to where the images are posted to request for the take down of the photos and of Dewi´s name on them. They all hoped that that was the end of that and the harassment would stop.

Escalation

One day, Dewi´s supervisor calls her in for a meeting. Then the supervisor shows her Twitter messages addressed to their company with a copy of the doctored images with the caption: Is this what your employees look like? What kind of morals does your company have? Fire HIM!¨

According to her supervisor, their company´s Twitter account was bombarded with the same messages from multiple accounts.

What can Dewi do?

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Online gender-based violence

Story circle on online GBV [deepening activity]

This activity allows participants to reflect upon and share experiences of online GBV.

About this learning activity

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This activity allows participants to reflect upon and share experiences of online GBV.

A safe space is the main prerequisite for this activity, and some quiet time for the participants to reflect.

This activity happens in two stages:

It is important to note here that this Story Circle is not for the purposes of therapy. Being able to tell your story, even anonymised, has some therapeutic effects, but it should be made clear that this is not the purpose of the Story Circle. If you are dealing with a group that you know has experienced online GBV, especially if there are people in the group who have very recent experiences, you can either make sure that there is someone in the facilitating team who can provide therapy, or skip this learning activity, if you don't think you can handle the participants being re-traumatised.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be carried out with participants with different levels of understanding and experience of online GBV.

It is important to know before doing this activity if there are participants whose experience of online GBV is current or fresh, as this activity might be a cause for stress for them. Knowing who your participants are, and also knowing what you as a trainer / facilitator can handle is important before considering this activity.

It is equally important for you, as a trainer / facilitator, to be honest about what you can and cannot hold. This activity is NOT recommended for situations where:

Based on the experience of story circle facilitators, it is ideal to have two facilitators for this activity.

Time required

Assuming that each participant will need about five minutes to tell their stories, and about 30 minutes will be needed to collectively reflect, plus some leeway to give instructions, then with a standard workshop size of 12, you will need a minimum of 100 minutes for this activity.

This suggested time for this activity does not include well-being activities that might be needed to address re-traumatisation of participants, or to take a break when needed. Ideally, for standard group size, holding this activity for half a day (4 hours, including breaks) would be sufficient to include well-being breaks and activities.

Resources needed for this activity


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Mechanics

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This activity has two stages:

During the Reflection Time stage, the participants are given 30 minutes to reflect upon a real-life example of online GBV. They can choose to tell their own experience or someone else's. Even if they are telling their own story, everyone is encouraged to anonymise their story. They should tell one story each.

In order to facilitate reflection, the participants may use the following guide questions to write down their story:

Facilitation Note: These are guide questions, and participants don't need to answer all of them. They are just there to help them articulate their stories.

Anonymising stories

Participants are encouraged to anonymise their stories, even if the story is theirs:

Once everyone has written down their stories, gather the participants in a circle.

Lay down the rules for this story circle. It would be good to also have these written down where everyone can see it and reiterate this message.

The point here is to create a safe space for people to share their stories.

Let everyone know that no one is being compelled to share their stories.

Open up the circle for stories.

Care Note: Think about ways in which to open and close the story circle that honours the stories shared. Some suggestions:
Open with a breathing exercise, close with a breathing exercise
Have a bowl of stones or shells that people can choose to hold, to close the story circle, have everyone put the stones or shells back in a bowl

Then close the circle once the stories have been told. In closing the circle, do something to acknowledge the stories shared and strength of the storytellers.

Depending on the type of participants, and what you are comfortable with, you can:

Note: It is essential to have a break for the participants to decompress on their own before summarising the activity.

Then the trainer/facilitator summarises the stories based on the following themes:

Facilitator preparation notes

This is not an activity for every trainer/facilitator. Or for every kind of participant.

If you don't think you can handle this, then choose another Learning Activity. Being able to admit what you can and cannot handle as a trainer/facilitator will only make you a better one – and capable of creating safe spaces for training.

This activity also requires a lot of trust between the facilitator and the participants. This requires mental and emotional preparation for the participants. This is not recommended as a starting activity, especially if the participants are not prepared for it.

Some guidelines to follow, if you do choose to use this learning activity:

Read the section on handling emotional situations in the Holistic Security Training Guide.

Facilitation Note: How do you keep to time and respect the storyteller?
Remember, that this activity is about opening up a space for participants to share and reflect upon experiences of online GBV towards understanding the issue a bit more. So while you might want to give the participants more time than 5 minutes to share their stories, you will also have to determine a time limit so that everyone can have the chance to share their stories (if they so choose), and equally important, to have space to reflect on each others stories. Time-keeping is essential to that. It is important that you let the participants know why you are time-keeping.

There are several tactics to gently remind people of that. Here are some:


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Online gender-based violence

Take Back the Tech! Game [tactical activity]

This role-playing game was developed in order to help participants decide how to take action in local scenarios of online gender-based violence (GBV). Each game takes on one specific scenario of an online GBV example.

About this learning activity

tactical_activ_circular_200px-withtext.png

This role-playing game was developed in order to help participants decide how to take action in local scenarios of online gender-based violence (GBV). Each game takes on one specific scenario of an online GBV example.

There are several different Scenarios to choose from, or you can make your own:

To play, one Game Facilitator and three teams are needed:

Each Survivor Team will develop a Survivor persona to address the Scenario and Challenges presented by the Game Facilitator and the Public.

Survivors will justify their chosen first step to the Public, arguing why it is the best option for their persona and local context. The Public can question each Survivor about their choice. The Public then presents a new challenge in the Scenario from the Challenge cards, and Survivor Teams develop and justify new strategies for two more rounds. As Survivor Teams strategise, so does the Public, exploring possible bystander responses.

The Scenario concludes with the Public presenting a plausible ending to the escalating attack. To finalise, the Game Facilitator debriefs how each player felt in their respective role, to tease out insights, including regarding the role of bystanders and the importance of solidarity. If ever facing such a scenario themselves, with a friend or as a bystander, participants will be better equipped to consider possible response and prevention strategies from many angles.

Learning objective this activity responds to

This responds to all the learning objectives in this module.

Although you can opt for Survivor Teams to “play to win”, the real goal of this role-playing discussion is to help participants:

Who is this activity for?

This game can be participated in by participants with any levels of familiarity on online GBV.

Time required

1.5 – 3 hours

You can play several Scenarios or just one. Each Scenario should be played 2-4 rounds before starting another Scenario. The game entails a lot of discussion around strategies to mitigate online GBV, and how people respond to actions. There must be sufficient time to orient role players, play out the Scenario as well as unpack how people felt in each role.

Resources needed for this activity


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Mechanics 

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Players and cards

The participants will be split into three teams:

The Survivor Teams ideally would have 5 players per team. Each player has a role:

  1. Survivor: Ultimately decides what strategy to play
  2. Content Advisor: Provides advice to the Survivor about content-based strategies. The Content Advisor holds the Content Strategy Cards.
  3. Legal Advisor: Provides legal advice to the Survivor. The Legal Advisor holds the Legal Strategy Cards
  4. Solidarity Advisor: Provides advice to the Survivor relating to getting support from other people on the internet. The Solidarity Advisor holds the Solidarity Strategy Cards.
  5. Skills Advisor: Provides advice to the Survivor about what she can do online. The Skills Advisor holds the Skills Strategy Cards.


The Game facilitator is an individual role. They keep time, read the scenario out loud and keep the game running smoothly.

This game requires a minimum of 10 participants and can easily accommodate groups of 30, but to ensure the quality of discussion and time limitations, it is best played with groups of under 20 people. Team size is adjusted depending on the number of participants. See chart below.

TOTAL PLAYERS SURVIVORS ADVISORS PUBLIC FACILITATOR
10 2 2 for each team=4 3 1
12 2 3 for each team=6 3 1
14 2 4 for each team=8 3 1
16 2 4 for each team=8 5 1
20 2 4 for each team=8 9 1
30 2 4 for each team=8 18 2

Cards

There are


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Strategy cards

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All games, no matter the scenario will have these Strategy Cards.

Content advisor
  1. Publish a piece of writing about the experience. Note the title of the piece, where it is published and where it will be distributed.
  2. Contact the media about the experience. Note which media agencies you would contact and how you’d convince them to cover it.
  3. Ask feminist bloggers to write about the experience. Note which bloggers you’d suggest and why.
  4. Respond to attacks on social media. Explain the response, note what hashtag you will use and which communities will be your targets and allies.
  5. Come up with your own content strategy.
  1. Call a lawyer and ask them to file a lawsuit. Note which law/s you will cite.
  2. Go to the police and file a report. Explain why you think the police can help.
  3. Document the experience for later legal use. Note what you would document and how.
  4. Submit an abuse report to a social media platform. Note which platform(s) and the policies that were violated.
  5. Come up with your own legal strategy.

Solidarity advisor
  1. Ask people for support. Note what kind of support you want and who you will contact.
  2. Create a campaign to highlight the abuse. Note the name of the campaign, target(s), allies and at least one action.
  3. Ask your friends be your social media filter, documenting and deleting or hiding abusive comments from your view so you don’t have to see them.
  4. Ignore the attack and carry on as usual. Note why this could be effective.
  5. Come up with your own solidarity strategy.

Skills advisor
  1. Double check account privacy and security settings. Do you want to hide your friends and photos from public view on Facebook? Have you tried two-step verification for logging into your accounts? Note other steps you’d take.
  2. Search for information or pictures of yourself online. What terms would you search for?
  3. Go offline for a while. Under what conditions would this be a good strategy? What are the benefits?
  4. Report the abusive accounts/content. Note which platform(s) and the policies that were violated.
  5. Come up with your own skills strategy.

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Scenarios + challenge cards

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Generic challenge cards

There are specific Challenge Cards for each scenario.

1. Blackmailed to Go Back

This scenario is taken from here: https://www.takebackthetech.net/know-more/extortion

Scenario Card (printed on a card with copies given to all teams, or projected on the wall, or written on butcher paper)

Tbtt_game_blackmail.png

An ex-partner is threatening to expose your naked pictures on the internet if you don´t get back together with them. You are desperate for a solution.

Challenge cards for Blackmailed to Go Back
  1. There is no law in your country against blackmail and extortion online.
  2. Your family and friends are conservative, and will blame you for having nude pictures.
  3. Your Ex just messaged you. The phone with your pictures was stolen! They’ve lost control over your photos!
  4. Your photos are released on social media.
  5. Your Ex´s followers have created memes, using your pictures, to slut and body shame you.
  6. Blank Challenge: The Public decides what the Challenge is.

2. Trolled on Twitter

Scenario Card (printed on a card with copies given to all teams, or projected on the wall, or written on butcher paper)

You are a feminist activist. You are opposed to the misogynistic and bigoted statements that your current President has made. You appeared in a video that went viral, criticising the President. Now, there is a Twitter mob against you.

Challenge cards for Trolled on Twitter
  1. Twitter responds to your reports stating there is no violation of community standards.
  2. You are queer. But no one in your family and your work place knows about it. If this gets out, you´re in trouble.
  3. Your photos are made into memes with derogatory remarks that attack both your person and your values. They get circulated.
  4. A local celebrity just re-tweeted a meme against you.
  5. Someone posts private information about you: Your address, your location, your work place.
  6. Blank Challenge Card: The Public decides what the Challenge is.

3. Faked on Facebook

Scenario Card (printed on a card with copies given to all teams, or projected on the wall, or written on butcher paper)

Someone is screen-grabbing all of your photos on Facebook, and has created accounts using them, with your name. You don’t know how many accounts there are or why this is happening. And you don’t know how to make it stop.

Challenge cards for Faked on Facebook
  1. Some of the accounts using your name and photos are posting rude, misogynist, racist comments.
  2. One of your donors/clients followed a fake account because they thought it was you. Now your donor/client is emailing you demanding an explanation.
  3. The fake accounts in your name have real information about you.
  4. A fake account in your name and with your photos is posting obscene photos on your organisation’s Facebook wall.
  5. You have been locked out of Facebook. You’ve lost access to your Facebook account.
  6. Blank Challenge Card: The Public decides what the Challenge is.

4. Porn Pretender

Scenario Card (printed on a card with copies given to all teams, or projected on the wall, or written on butcher paper)

You’ve just been informed by a friend that a video with someone that looks a lot like you is circulating on a do-it-yourself porn site with your first name, city and profession, and the number of views is rising.

Challenge cards for Porn Pretender
  1. The video starts out with you, but the explicit scenes are with someone who only looks like you.
  2. The site Terms of Service say consent of all subjects must be obtained before uploading. You report the video and say it does not have your consent, but they still haven’t taken it down.
  3. The video is being picked up and promoted by other porn sites.
  4. Someone just tweeted your handle with a link to the video.
  5. Men on the street are leering at you and say they’ve seen your video.
  6. Blank Challenge Card: The Public decides what the Challenge is.

5. Disinformation to Discredit

Scenario Card (printed on a card with copies given to all teams, or projected on the wall, or written on butcher paper)

Your organisation is well known for using creative strategies to fight misogyny. It works with communities of all ages, including kids. Someone is trying to discredit your organisation and its director. Now if you search for your organisation, the top result is a warning to parents that your director is part of a ring of so-called "sexual deviants".

Challenge cards for Disinformation to Discredit
  1. Your organisation is known for it’s community trainings, but fewer people are signing up now.
  2. Someone has contacted your social media community one by one, sending each follower the link with false information.
  3. One of your donors contacts your organisation to say they are pulling your funding.
  4. Your director was just paid a visit by the police after they received an anonymous tip about her.
  5. The lies get picked up by local media.
  6. Blank Challenge Card: The Public decides what the Challenge is.

6. Watching and Waiting

Scenario Card (printed on a card with copies given to all teams, or projected on the wall, or written on butcher paper)

You are receiving anonymous messages on your phone and social networks. The messages are friendly greetings, but the sender won’t say who they are and seems to know a lot about what you are doing and where you are.

Challenge cards for Watching and Waiting
  1. Messages are becoming more and more frequent, from one or two a day to a dozen.
  2. You report the problem to the police, but they say they are only messages, friendly ones at that. If you don’t like them, don’t read them.
  3. Your office secretary says they talked with your boyfriend and he seemed really nice. You don´t have a boyfriend.
  4. One of the messages mentions a close family member (your child, sibling or parent).
  5. The tone of the messages is becoming more aggressive towards you.
  6. Blank Challenge Card: The Public decides what the Challenge is.

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Role instruction cards

Advisors instructions (1 for each team)

Given the Scenario, pick one strategy from your cards or create one of your own. You cannot propose a multi-step strategy. You can only show one option to your team’s Survivor and justify why you think it is a good choice. As a team, you have five minutes to discuss the presented options and help the Survivor make a decision. Your goal is not to have the Survivor pick your strategy, but for the Survivor to be able to argue their preferred choice well enough to get support from the Public.

The Public instructions (1 or 2 if it’s a large group)

Listen carefully to the Scenario and to the Survivor profiles. As Survivor teams decide on a strategy, discuss amongst yourselves who makes up the online public and how these bystanders might affect the Scenario. Once Survivors present their preferred strategy, you can ask them questions. Individually decide which Survivor has the best response to the Scenario and give them your support token (optional), explaining your choice. Then collectively choose a Challenge Card to begin the next round. In the final challenge round, discuss possible conclusions to the Scenario. After Survivors present their final strategies and tokens are counted to see who had more Public support, the Public will present their preferred ending to conclude the game.

Game Facilitator instructions (1)

Game facilitators must be familiar with all game instructions and get the game started by forming the two Survivor/Advisor teams, and the Public. Help the Public choose a good scenario for their context. Keep time: Teams will have 7-10 minutes to decide on a strategy and 5 minutes each to persuasively present their strategy and answer questions. Make sure Survivors are only presenting one strategy at a time. No round should last more than 20 minutes. The game concludes with the Public’s proposed closure to the Scenario, usually after three challenge rounds. End with a reflection on how each team felt during the process. The scenarios and challenges explored in this game could have been experienced by anyone, so it’s important for the Game Facilitator to keep a fun, light atmosphere as much as possible.


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Game Play

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Playing to “win”

This game is designed to have quick, strategic responses to very difficult and often triggering situations. It was purposefully designed in timed, competitive rounds and to be carried out in a light, swift way to encourage debate and discussion with a degree of distance. A gaming Scenario generates adrenalin and expectation around escalations, both a part of the online GBV experience. An atmosphere of game competition is one way to bring in these elements when strategising.

However, it is important to note that some groups are not comfortable with competition or able to assert that one Survivor Team strategy was better than the other presented, so using tokens as points and declaring a “winner” in your game is entirely optional. The Game Facilitator should decide if they want to introduce competition and tokens before beginning the role-play.

If using tokens, each member of the Public should receive four tokens (in the form of cut-up colored papers, poker chips, individually wrapped candies, stickers, etc.) at the beginning of game play. Each member of the Public will award one token per round to the Survivor Team whose strategy best fit the Survivor profile and context. At the end of three rounds the Public debates; if there is consensus, five extra points can be awarded to the Survivor who has chosen the best overall set of strategies. The total number of tokens will determine which Survivor Team “won” the scenario. The round ends when the Public provides closure to the Scenario with a plausible conclusion.

Facilitation note: When inviting people to play, the Game Facilitator should have alerted possible participants that this role-play will be talking about gender-based violence on the internet and distressing subject matter will come up, in case anyone wants to opt out beforehand. The Facilitator should remind participants of this before starting the game and encourage all participants to be sensitive to each other in the role-play process.

Game setup – 15 minutes

Game Facilitators must be familiar with the following game instructions and make sure teams understand their roles.

Get the game started by forming Survivor Teams A and B and the Public.

Give each Survivor Team flipchart paper, markers and the Survivor and Advisor Instructions.

While Survivor Teams do this, the Game Facilitator gives the Public their instruction cards and briefs them on their role:

The Game Facilitator or Public may choose a Scenario for the game. The available Scenarios are

Each Scenario has its own Challenge cards. Alternatively, the Game Facilitator or Public can create one based on their context.

TIP: If creating your own Scenario, keep in mind the Scenario should start at the point that the Survivor is concerned about what is happening, but not already facing a full-blown attack.

Round 1 – 20 minutes

  1. Survivors present their personas to the Public.
  2. The Game Facilitator reads the Scenario out loud.
  3. In their Survivor Teams, each Advisor has 2 minutes to pick one strategy from their deck to recommend to the Survivor. Multi-step strategies are not allowed. Show one option to your team’s Survivor and justify why you think it is a good choice.
  4. Each Team then has five minutes to discuss the available strategies and help the Survivor make a decision, based on the best option for their Survivor profile.
    1. The role of the Advisors here is not to get their strategy picked, but for their team to get support from the Public with a persuasive presentation of the strategy chosen by the Survivor.
    2. Survivors can only pick one strategy at a time, and it is their decision, not the Advisors’.
  5. While the Survivor Teams discuss for no more than 8-10 minutes, the Public should also be discussing the Scenario and what strategy they think the teams should take. The Public begins to imagine possible ways the Scenario will escalate, and examines Challenge cards.
  6. Each Survivor presents their first strategy to the Public, arguing why it is the best option for their profile. The Public can ask questions but each Team has a maximum of 5 minutes presentation time.
  7. The Public provides feedback on the choices. If using tokens, each member of the Public votes, explaining their choice.

Throughout, the Game Facilitator keeps time and tries to keep a fun, light atmosphere as the scenarios and challenges explored in this game could be upsetting for participants if explored too deeply.

Round 2 – 20 minutes

  1. The Public selects and presents the first Challenge.
  2. Survivor Teams proceed the same as Round 1.

Round 3 – 20 minutes

  1. For the Survivor Teams, same as Round 2.
  2. While the Survivor Teams debate, the Public is asked to come up with a closure to the Scenario. What kind of solution do they foresee as plausible, what strategies would they add? The Game Facilitator, while not encouraging a “happy ending” does ask the Public to look for feasible, and if possible positive solutions to this escalating violence.
  3. Survivors present their strategies.
  4. If using tokens, the Public makes a consensus decision as to which Survivor Team had the most coherent set of strategies and as a group awards 5 extra tokens. Each Survivor Team counts tokens to see who “won” the Scenario. If not using tokens the Public will provide feedback.
  5. The Public presents their proposed solution.

Wrap up – 15 minutes

The Game Facilitator leads a discussion about strategies learned and how participants felt given their assigned roles.


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Online gender-based violence

Planning response to online GBV [tactical activity]

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This activity is designed to unpack individual, community and movement response to incidents of online violence. For this activity to work, an example of a specific incident of online GBV is required.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

While is activity is can be used for participants who have basic understanding of online GBV, it is more useful for folks that play a role in responding to, or organising such responses, to incidents of online GBV.

Time required

This will require at least 4 hours.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

It would be important to have unpacked a specific online GBV scenario with the participants before doing this activity. It is recommended that you do this Tactical Activity after you have done the Deepening Activity: Deconstructing Online GBV. Depending on the size of the group, break them down into smaller groups to plan how to respond to an incident of online GBV.

Present the table to map the response to online GBV incidents. This is a way to prioritise and timeline a variety of responses to online GBV and to have a collective approach to it.

The map has the following elements:

From Time of Incident

In the template, this is broken down into responses in the first week, within the first month, and in 6 months. Depending on the severity and escalation of the incident, this can change with the exception of the responses within the first week since the time of the incident. Some responses go beyond 6 months, especially those where the survivor takes legal and / or advocacy actions. Some kinds of online GBV are resolved quicker than other, so tables for that would not take up to 6 months. The goal here is to timeline actions according to immediate, short-term and medium term.

Individual response

This has to do with the what actions the person experiencing online GBV should take.

Community response

This means the actions that the individual´s friends, organisations, networks and communities will take to help address the online GBV or provide support to the survivor. Some guide questions for this:

Movement response

This are the actions that the larger women´s rights and feminist movements can take in response to specific online GBV cases.

Digital security response

These are the actions that the individual and their community will take to safe-guard their online communications, and prevent any more breaches of privacy or escalate the harassment. This could include: securing online spaces and / or devices, reporting incidents to platforms, self-doxxing to know what information is available online about the survivor.

Physical security response

These are the actions that the individual and their community will take in order to safe-guard the individual´s security outside of the internet. This could be preventative tactics and strategies against escalation of online GBV incidents. Or, it cases where the offline GBV already has physical security impacts, this might be corrective tactics.

Well-being response

These are actions that can be taken to ensure that the individual is able to take care of themselves. These are also actions that the community and the movement can take to make sure that the individual under threat is supported.

Advocacy actions

These are actions that can be taken in order to seek redress about the incident beyond just stopping the online GBV. These could include legal actions against perpetrators and / or platforms, or campaigns against online GBV. At the very least, Advocacy Actions documents incidents so that others may learn from it.

Mapping responses to online GBV incidents (with guide questions)

From Time of Incident Individual response Community response Movement response
1st week Digital security response
What does the survivor need to be doing to secure their online communications in the 1st week since the time of the incident?
Where did the online GBV happen? What do the platforms allow its users to do to safe-guard their accounts?
What information about the individual is available on the internet, and what can they do to take that content down?		 Who can support the individual if they need technical assistance to carry out actions to protect their accounts and communications?
Who can support the individual in reporting the incident to the platform?		 Will there be a need for the larger movement to support the individual and their community to report the incident?
Physical security response
Is information about the individual available online? What can the individual do in order to protect themselves? What available safe spaces can the community offer?
Well-being response
Does the individual need to be offline?
Does this individual need a person(s) to support them in monitoring certain platforms?
Who provides support and safety for the individual? How will they stay connected to their support resources? What are the ways in which the survivor finds comfort and solace?		 Who in the community will be the support person(s)? Does the person want others in the movement to know about the incident?
Advocacy actions
What actions does the individual want to take in order to address the incident?
Note: If the individual decides to go the legal route, there needs to be understanding of the national laws / policies within the group, but also the advocacy actions will be far more complicated.		 Who can support the individual in documenting the incident? Will there be a call for the movement to respond to the incident as it happens?
Within 1 month Digital security response
What follow-up digital security tactics and action will the individual take?
What changes in practice does the individual need to do in order to further safe-guard themselves?		 What changes within the community´s communication practices need to change in order to protect themselves from further incidents?
Are skills and knowledge available within the community in order to implement such changes? If not, who can the community reach out to?
Physical security response
What does the individual need in order to have safer living and working conditions? What changes within the community´s practices need to change in order to protect themselves from further incidents?
Are skills and knowledge available within the community in order to implement such changes? If not, who can the community reach out to?
Well-being response
Does the individual need professional help in order to deal with the incident? Do the individual´s main supporters need professional help in order to under deal second-hand trauma?
Advocacy actions
For legal response: Has the the incident been reported to the proper authorities? What kind of documentation is required? What are the opportunities within the community to provide legal support for the individual?
6 months Digital security response
What needs constant monitoring in the individual´s online activities and communications?

Physical security response



Well-being response



Advocacy actions


Opportunities and spaces where the incident can be shared in order contribute to the larger documentation of online GBV?

Filling in the table or discussing actions to take at different times at by different actors will be an opportunity to discuss and share strategies and tactics among and with the participants.

If there are multiple groups working on their tables, it is important for the trainer / facilitator to go around to see if there questions and information that needs sharing.

Facilitation Note: It doesn´t have to be a matrix. If you are not spreadsheet type of trainer / facilitator, use another way for the groups to work out actions and strategies to respond to online GBV incidents. If your participants are also not comfortable with tables, then encourage them to strategise using a different methodology. You can use sticky notes to list down the different responses and cluster them into the different types (Digital Security, Well-being, Physical security, Advocacy Actions). The purpose of this activity is to strategise responses and to make sure that the participants are thinking about online GBV response in a more integrated way (rather than just focusing on the digital security actions) and in from a collective perspective (rather than putting all the onus of the response on the individual experiencing online GBV).

To synthesise the activity, focus on the following:

Facilitator preparation notes

In this session, the facilitator / trainer will need to have more direct interventions about the following:

Useful Resource: Hey! Is Your Friend Being Attacked Online?


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Online gender-based violence

Meme this! [tactical activity]

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This activity is to get participants to respond to more general forms of online misogyny, transphobia and homophobia in a way that uses humour and wit. This is by no means intended to make light of online GBV but rather allow an outlet for participants to collectively deal with trolls on the internet.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be carried out with participants with different levels of understanding and experience of online GBV

Resources needed for this activity

If you want to give the participant the option to create gifs: Internet connection and access to Giphy­

Time required

This activity will require about 2.5 hours.

Mechanics

This activity happens in three phases:

With everyone in the same room, ask each participant to share up to three misogynistic /transphobic / homophobic messages they have seen online. Ask them to write down the messages on post-its, one message per post-it.

Note: The message does not have to be blatantly -phobic or sexist, they could be common points that come up all the time (i.e., "you want censorship", "you are limiting my freedom of expression", "if it´s not physical, it´s not real violence" or victim-blaming messages.)

Then on the wall, cluster similar messages. This can be an opportunity to unpack the messages and discuss ways in which they are harmful to women and queer people online.

Once the messages are clustered, group the participants.

Note: Alternatively, if the workshop is pressed for time, you can prepare the messages to create counter messaging against. But this will require you to know what messages the participants encounter most during their time online.

The goal of each group is to create counter messages to the harmful messages. They can use different ways to respond: write Tweets, create posters, create memes, create gifs (depending on the skills in the room), have a hash-tag campaign.

In creating responses, ask the groups to consider the following:

After everyone is ready with their messages, everyone shares what they came up with. Just the messages they created. Collectively, discuss the effectivity of each counter-message based on the considerations above.

To synthesise, focus on the following:

Facilitator preparation notes

While this activity is a bit more light-hearted than some of the activities in this module, the facilitator / trainer should also prepare for possible moments of stress for the participants.


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Online gender-based violence

Mapping digital safety [tactical activity]

This activity is designed to introduce participants to respond to different forms of online GBV.

About this learning activity

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This activity is designed to introduce participants to respond to different forms of online GBV. The activity is carried out in three teams, and each team takes on one specific form of online GBV from among:

Each team consists of a facilitator who has a set of Scenario cards and team members who have a set of Rights cards each.

The game begins with the facilitator helping participants reflect on the specific form of online GBV and how it manifests.

After a basic understanding has been established, the facilitator then plays a scenario card, and facilitating a discussion among team members about the scenario. Team members then respond to the scenario collectively by playing one Rights card each to safeguard themselves in the scenario. Members then discuss how the Rights they have selected would be violated in that scenario. The facilitator then moves on to the next Scenario card. Two scenarios can be played out by each team.

If time is available at the end of the activity, teams can gather together to discuss their reflections about their specific forms of online GBV and the related rights that protect them.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be used with participants with different levels of understanding about online GBV and the rights stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Time required

This activity will require about 2-3 hours.

Resources needed for this activity


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Mechanics

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Players

The participants will be split into three teams:

Each team also has a Facilitator. It is suggested that each team be comprised of 6 members and 1 facilitator.

Cards

The members of all three teams have the same deck of printed Rights cards. Each card has the Right printed on the side facing up, and a brief description of the Right facing down. Please refer to the section on Rights for examples of Rights that can be included.

Each facilitator is given 3 sets of Scenario cards specific to the team’s form of online-GBV. Please refer to the section on Scenarios for sample scenarios per team.

Rights

Some of the Rights that can be added to the deck of Rights cards are as follows:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers."

"No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."

"States should condemn violence against women and should not invoke any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination. States should pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating violence against women... [This includes] any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life."

"Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author."

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment... (2) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection...

"Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits."

Other Rights from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights may also be added to the deck if deemed necessary.

Scenarios

Please refer to the cartoon strip and section on “How People Experience Blackmail” here for sample scenarios on Blackmail.

Please refer to the cartoon strip and section on “How People Experience Cyberstalking” here for sample scenarios on Cyberstalking.

Please refer to the cartoon strip and section on “How People Experience Hate Speech” here for sample scenarios on Hate Speech.

Game play

Three teams are formed, one to discuss each form of online GBV from among Blackmail, Cyberstalking, and Hate Speech. Each team chooses one facilitator or a facilitator is assigned to them, and the teams with their respective facilitator move to different parts of the room. Each Facilitator is given a deck of Scenario cards specific to their team, and each team member is given a deck of Rights cards. The game is now played in 3 stages, with an optional 4th stage that can be incorporated depending on the availability of time.

Stage I: Brief reflection

The facilitator of each team can use resources from the following links to start a brief reflection session.

This is to establish a brief understanding of the specific form of online GBV before moving on to the next stage of the game involving scenarios. This reflection can be localized for the group, keeping in mind the different identities of members involved. This stage can be shortened or extended based on the experience level of the participants in the group.

Stage II: Scenarios

Once, the group is fairly comfortable with what entails the specific form of online GBV being discussed in the team, the scenario-playing can begin. The facilitator plays a Scenario card which describes a Scenario relating to the form of online-GBV being discussed in the team. The section on Scenarios links to possible sample scenarios for this purpose. The facilitator then asks some questions about this scenario.

For instance, suggested questions for Cyberstalking are:

The discussion around these questions can be localized to the group.

Stage III: Rights

Once a discussion of the scenarios is completed, the next stage of the game involves the Rights cards held by team members. Team members now collectively decide amongst themselves which Rights cards they want to play to safeguard themselves in the Scenario that has been played out. Each team member plays one Rights card. All the Rights cards played are placed on the table before the facilitator.(As mentioned earlier, it is suggested that this game be played with 6 members per team. However, depending on the actual number of members in the team, either the same card can be repeated by members or each member can play more than one card).

The facilitator now asks the team members details about how the Rights cards played by them would help safeguard themselves in the specific scenario.

This is a good time for the facilitator to ask team members about whether or not there are any local laws that relate to these rights and how they can be (or have been) used in similar scenarios. This discussion can also broaden into pros and cons of using the court system or law enforcement.

Some details of how the Rights relate to these specific forms of online-GBV can be found in the “Related Rights” section of the following links:

The facilitator then moves on to the next scenario card and the process is repeated. It is suggested that two scenarios be played out per team, but more can be added based on the availability of time.

Stage IV (Optional)

This stage is optional, and can be played if there is an availability of time. Once each team has played out Scenarios and Rights in their own groups, the teams can come together to discuss insights from each of their activities.

Some discussion points can include:

Facilitator preparation notes

Some guidelines to follow, if you do choose to use this learning activity:

Please read the notes on Holding up a Healthy Conversational Space and Intersectionality and Inclusivity to know more about creating safe, inclusive spaces of discussion.

Here are resources that can help you better prepare for this activity:

Take Back the Tech! has compiled a comprehensive set of resources on each of the forms of online-GBV discussed in this activity. These resources have been cited throughout the activity, and can be referenced here for further details:

Suggested tweaks

This activity is recommended to be carried out as a Tactical Activity. It can also be split into two activities – Stage I can be played separately as a Starter Activity, and Stage II and III together can be played as a Deepening Activity following the Starter Activity.


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Online gender-based violence

Resources | Links | Further reading

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Creating safe online spaces

Facilitate learning and building capacity on creating safe online spaces, specifically for at-risk groups and individuals. We **highly recommend** that you choose a Learning Path to travel, as these include activities with different levels of depth that should help participants obtain more insight into the covered subjects.

Creating safe online spaces

Introduction and learning objectives

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This module is about facilitating learning and building capacity on creating safe online spaces, specifically for at-risk groups and individuals. Through this module you can explore, through activities and discussions, the factors that affect the ability to create spaces where feminist and sexual rights activists and their communities can feel safe. We explore the meaning of such spaces for feminist and sexual rights activists.

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, the participants will:


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Creating safe online spaces

Learning activities, learning paths and further reading

This page will guide you through the Module's correct use and understanding. Following the Learning Paths, with activities of varying depth, should allow participants to obtain a better grasp of the studied subjects.

Learning paths

We suggest starting this module with one of the Starter Activities: Unpacking "safe", The bubble, or Develop your internet dream place - in order for the participants to start exploring the concepts. If you want to be more specific, there are starter activities about consent and privacy (Photo social network), cloud storage and data privacy (The Cloud), and consent and device permissions (Visioning + discussion: Settings + permissions). Depending on your group's goals, these will help ground your group in concepts of safety and privacy.

You can use the Develop your internet dream place to work with a group that needs to redesign an existing internet space or design a new one with values of safety and privacy.

Then enhance the group´s grasp of the concepts with the Deepening Activities:

The Tactical Activities are practical hands-on sessions.

Learning activities

Starter activities

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Deepening activities

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Tactical activities

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Resources | Links | Further reading

Jac's social media and security slide deck


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Creating safe online spaces

Unpacking "safe" - visioning exercise [starter activity]

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This is a visioning exercise. The main purpose of the exercise is for participants to express their own definitions of a safe space and look for shared understanding of a safe space. A group might use this as a first exercise in designing new online spaces together or in redesigning an existing one with shared values of safety in mind.

This activity would work well as an ice breaker and as a way of grounding our ideas about safe online spaces in our experience of safe physical spaces.

This activity has three stages:

It is highly suggested that this activity is followed by Input + Discussion: Privacy, Consent and Safety.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be used with participants with different levels of experience with both online spaces and creating safe spaces.

Time required

This activity will require about 40 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Individual visualisation: 10 minutes

Ask your participants to close their eyes and think about a specific place/time/circumstance in which they felt the safest. Encourage them to be specific in their visualisation – not in terms of the place/time/circumstance, but in thinking about the factors that made them feel safe. This could also be an imaginary place/time/circumstance.

Option: Drawing

This can also be a visualising exercise where you ask participants to draw the place/time/circumstance in which they feel the safest, including the elements and factors that made them feel safe.

Small group discussion: 15 minutes

In small groups of three to five people each, ask participants to share with one another what they have visualised.

Note: For a workshop with six or fewer participants, you can facilitate both discussion steps as a full group. The purpose of using small groups is to ensure that each participant has time to speak about what they have visualised.

Full group: 15 minutes

To process, write "SAFE" in the middle of a sheet of flip chart paper and "mind map" the question: "What was it about the place/time/circumstance that made you feel safe?"

At the end of the exercise, you will have come up with a list of words, phrases and concepts that define "safe".

Notes for the trainer/facilitator

Suggested tweak


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Creating safe online spaces

The bubble - visualisation exercise [starter activity]

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This is a visualising exercise. The purpose of this exercise is to facilitate discussion about privacy and for the trainer and participants to understand varying concerns about privacy in the room.

This activity is not meant to deepen awareness of privacy, but rather have the participants reflecting on their individual notions of privacy.

This activity should be paired with either Making Online Spaces Safer or Input + Discussion: Privacy, Consent and Safety.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be used with participants with different levels of experience with privacy issues online and offline.

Time required

This activity will require about 40 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

This is a visualising exercise. Participants will be given flip chart paper and markers to draw.

Individual visualisation - 30 minutes

If your are comfortable, close your eyes. Imagine a dot of bright light. Is it still, is it moving? How does it move? Now, imagine a circle around this dot. And now imagine both are moving, and the dot remains in the circle the whole time. You are both yourself, the dot, and your boundaries, the circle. How does it feel to be in this? This is a visualization of you inside of boundaries that are safe for you.

First, ask participants to draw an avatar of themselves in a circle in the centre of the paper.

The circle represents their individual bubble of privacy.

There are things inside and outside of the bubble.

On post-it notes, one concept per note, ask them to put the things that they keep most private and people they share the most private things with inside their bubble, and to place things they consider public outside of their bubble.

These things could include:

A sample of what this could look like:

CircleExample1.png


After they do the first circle, ask them to draw another circle, and then re-arrange the post-its according the levels of sharing of information that they want to have among different people.

This could look like this:

CircleExample2.png

The lastly, ask them to draw another circle, closer to their avatar and think about the things that they would never share with anyone, and put those in that circle.

CircleExample3.png

Full Group Debrief - 25 minutes

To process, ask the participants about the exercise and the reflections/insights that they had as they were drawing.

Ask them how they decided who was inside and outside their bubbles, and about the proximity of those outside the bubble to their bubbles.

Reflect on how their individual bubbles relate to creating safe spaces for themselves – online and offline.

Some guide questions for the debrief:

Facilitation Note: Do not comment on the participants' bubbles and where their information/feelings/thoughts in. Do not encourage that kind of behaviour among the rest of the participants as well. Little things like gasping in surprise, raising an eyebrow, or laughing when some is sharing their bubble does not create a safe environment for the participants.


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Creating safe online spaces

Develop your internet dream place [starter activity]

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In this activity, participants consider elements of an online space where their community can thrive. Depending on the goals of the group and workshop, facilitators can prompt participants to consider possible activities and ways of being in online spaces.

This is a visioning exercise and can lead into a discussion about the online spaces where participants are most often and the possibilities and limitations of using these platforms in alignment with the ideal space they have envisioned.

Learning objective this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity is for people who participate in online spaces. It may be a good activity for a group to address redesigning a space that is not currently serving the group, or for a group who is establishing new online spaces together.

Time required

Total suggested time for a standard workshop with 12-15 participants: 2.5 hours

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Discussion: Why are we online? Why is it important to us?

Because we will be looking at the many ways that the internet is not designed for our safety or privacy, ground this conversation in the reasons participants are online. If you are familiar with the group already, you may be able to give examples of the work they are doing online. If you are less familiar with the group, ask the participants for examples of things they are doing online that are significant to them.

Make space for discussion about different facets of people's lives.

Some guide questions for this discussion:

Facilitation Note: It is a good idea to stress the point that the internet dream space is for personal and political / activist work. So, depending on how the participants are responding to the guide questions, challenge them to think about their personal and their activist work and their use of the internet.

Write down the highlights of the discussion.

Small group activity

With the discussion in mind, form small groups (3–5 participants) to develop their internet dream place.

During the small group discussion, ask them to reflect upon and answer the following questions:

Have the groups draw out this space as creatively as possible, and get them to prepare a creative presentation for the rest of the group.

Shareback

To process the presentations, have the other participants ask clarification questions after the presentations, and list down more strategic/ethical/substantive questions, and hold those off until after all the groups have presented their ideas.

Debrief

To end this learning activity, discuss the following:

Notes for the facilitator
  1. Ask questions around other considerations in creating safe online spaces:
    1. Who are the ones that will threaten the safety of this space? Internally and externally? How can they protect the space?
    2. Where are the spaces hosted (i.e. national laws have an impact on whether or not these spaces can even exist, as well as redress if the space is abused)?
    3. Are there legal considerations in creating such a space for the target group?
    4. What are the responsibilities and liabilities of social media platforms when things go wrong? What are they in reality? And what should they be? You might want to read up on the Manila Principles on Intermediary Liability.
    5. What are the international and national human rights standards on privacy? What are the legal privacy considerations?
  2. This could directly lead to an input/lecture on the principles of online safety, or a lecture on the privacy issues in social media.

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Creating safe online spaces

Photo-social-network [starter activity]

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This is a visualization activity. The purpose of this activity is to get participants thinking about online consent and data privacy through the medium of permissions and terms of services on the apps they use.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be used with participants with different levels of experience with consent and privacy issues online and offline, preferably with access to a device with which they connect to the internet.

Time required

45 minutes, including set up and debrief.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

This is a visualising exercise. Participants will be given post-its and markers to write.

Individual visualization - 15 minutes

First, read out the scenario from the flipchart as follows:

"Say you were the inventor / owner of a popular new photo-based social network (like Instagram). You make money by offering users the ability to advertise their posts to targeted users based on age, location, interest. To operate, you need access to the users' photo gallery. What permissions would you ask for, and what terms of service would you provide information about?"

You could ask the participants to reflect on the following aspects:

Full Group Debrief - 25 minutes

To process, ask them about the exercise and reflections/insights that they have as they were writing.

Some guide questions for the debrief:

You can then reflect upon their responses and discuss them with the group.


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Creating safe online spaces

The cloud [starter activity]

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This is a visualization activity. The purpose of this activity is to facilitate discussion about cloud storage and data privacy. This activity is not meant to deepen awareness of privacy, but rather have the participants reflecting on their individual notions of privacy on the cloud.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be used with participants with different levels of experience with privacy issues relating to the cloud.

Time required

45 minutes

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

This is a visualization exercise on how the cloud works. Participants will be given paper and markers to draw.

Individual visualization - 15 minutes

Ask the participants to visualize the cloud as a physical space and draw the space on their papers. You could ask them to reflect on the following:

Full Group Debrief - 25 minutes

To process, ask them about the exercise and reflections/insights that they had as they were drawing.

Some guide questions for the debrief are:

You can then reflect upon their responses and discuss them with the group.


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Creating safe online spaces

Visioning + discussion: Settings + permissions [starter activity]

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This is a visualising and discussion exercise. The purpose of this exercise is to facilitate discussion about online consent, device settings, and permissions. It can also help participants to understand varying concerns about consent on their personal devices.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be used with participants with different levels of experience with consent and privacy issues online and offline, preferably with access to a device with which they connect to the internet.

Time required

This activity will require about 1.5 hours

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

This is a visualizing and discussion exercise. Participants will be given post-its and markers to write and draw.

Individual Visualization - 30 minutes

First, ask participants which device they use to access the internet (mobiles, tablets, personal computers, desktop at work/home/other public spaces etc.). Then tell your participants to think of and write down on post-its the first three activities they consented on their mobile, regardless for which apps.

Following this, on sheets of blank paper, ask them to draw their mobile. Then ask them to identify which operative system their device uses. Finally, ask them to write down (in the drawing of the mobile outline) 5 apps they use the most, verify permissions granted to those apps, and write them down next to each of the applications.

Full Group Discussion - 1 hour

Once all participants have visualized these details, ask them to share with one another what they have visualized. Some apps (such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps etc.) are commonly used by many people, so you may find commonalities in the responses. Look for commonalities in participant's responses but also interrogate differences in their responses.

Note: If there are more than 6 participants, you can optionally make smaller groups of 6 each to ensure that each participant has time to speak about what they have visualized.

You can then facilitate the discussion with some questions such as:

Before going into questions on settings and permissions, you can explain:

"Since smartphones offer even more functionality and options than feature phones, the amount of information that can be observed and logged is far greater. In addition, smartphone users are sharing that very detailed identifying information about themselves and their usage to far more companies than just their mobile network operator - every app you choose to install can also send selected data about your usage, call times, contacts, and data use to whomever makes that app.

What an app can see and log is often set by the app designer, but there are very few laws and regulations constraining what they can design their app for. Similarly, the operating system and manufacturer of a smartphone has implications on where your data goes and who can see it aside from your mobile network operator." Source

Once this basic understanding has been established, you can lead to more detailed discussion on device settings and permissions. Some guide questions for the discussion:

You can refer to the following for some basic information to guide the discussion:

"Android devices share a massive amount of user data with Google, since their operating system is deeply entwined with a user’s Google account. If you use Google services and apps as well as an Android-powered smartphone, Google knows an overwhelming amount of information about you – possibly more than you’d realize about yourself, since they log and analyze that data.

Similarly, iPhones (using iOS as their operating system) provide a similar amount of information about users to Apple, which can be combined with a user’s data if they use other Apple products and services. In addition, iPhone and Apple are highly proprietary and their software and hardware are closed source. This includes the iPhone itself, as well as the Apple apps that run on it; in comparison, Android is open source, which allows everyone to review their code and know what the Android does.

Smartphones are able to use GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites in addition to the approximate location triangulation of mobile network towers can provide. This gives far more detailed location data to operators and to any apps who have access to that information. This more precise location can be attached, along with the date and other information, to any pieces of data that the phone collects to post online or store on its memory." Source


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Creating safe online spaces

Input + discussion: Privacy, consent and safety [deepening activity]

This learning activity is about the trainer/facilitator giving input and facilitating a discussion on the issues relating to privacy, consent and safety.

About this learning activity

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This learning activity is about the trainer/facilitator giving input and facilitating a discussion on the issues relating to privacy, consent and safety.

We suggest that you use this learning activity to cap the other learning activities such as: Unpacking "Safe" or The Bubble.

Learning objective this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be used with participants with different levels of experience with both online space and creating safe spaces. Of course, if the participants have only a very basic understanding of feminist concepts such as agency and consent, then the trainer/facilitator will need to clarify those terms at the beginning of the input and discussion.

Time required

Minimum of 40 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

The trainer/facilitator can also opt to use a presentation for this activity.

Mechanics

If Unpacking "safe" or The bubble have already been done, use the insights from those activities to launch into defining privacy. Specifically:


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Key points to be raised in this input and discussion.

Unpacking "consent"

We tend to think of consent as a one-off thing. Like signing a piece of paper once and then it is set. However, from experience we know that consent is simple yet complex at the same time. Simple in its principle yet complex in its implications. Here are some things to discuss:

Watch the video Tea and Consent.

Show this graphic:

Everydayfeminism-consent.png

The facilitator can focus a few scenarios to highlight the points:

Unpacking "privacy"

Key points for this input can include:

The different dimensions of privacy:

Territorial/spatial
Relational
Embodied
Data privacy
Defining privacy

Discussion questions

Facilitator preparation notes

While this learning activity has the trainer/facilitator doing most of the speaking, it is also important to reiterate the safe, open and interactive space that all FTX workshops try to create. This can be done by framing this activity with guidelines that allow participants to raise their hands to ask questions or to argue or to stress or clarify a point being made in the presentation. The other way to encourage interactivity during presentation-style learning activities is to "popcorn" topics – ask a question to the group to start a topic, and then use their answers to launch a presentation/input.

In order to prepare for this learning activity, the trainer/facilitator will need to brush up on the following:

Additional resources


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Creating safe online spaces

Input + activity: Online safety "rules" [deepening activity]

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This learning activity is about sharing basic principles of online safety, and having the participants articulate personal or organisational policies to safeguard their online safety.

This activity can be done after Input + discussion: Privacy, consent and safety or Develop your internet dream place, and be the basis for Making online spaces safer.

There are three main parts to this learning activity:

Learning objective this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

Participants with differing levels of experience. However, note that participants with more experience with digital security might find this too basic.

Time required

105 minutes total (1 hour, 45 minutes):

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Start with listing down the Basic Principles of Online Safety (see Additional Resources)

Note: It would be good to refer to examples that were shared in previous learning activities as you expound the principles.

Then move on to having the participants reflect on their communication practices by having them individually fill in this form (filled out a sample). To frame this, and to not conflate this activity, ask the participants to think about the last 24 hours and who they communicated with and what they communicated about.

Who do you communicate with What topics you communicate about Is the communication private? Communication channels
Mother My current trip Yes Facebook messenger
Kartika Details of current work Yes Email, Telegram, Facebook messenger
Lisa Event with them next month Yes Email
Marina Dinner with him next week Yes SMS

About how Trump sucks No Facebook group

Feminist principles of technology No Personal blog

Intersectionality Note: The names on the table are suggested names. You can change those names to fit in more common names in your country or context.

The starting point can be the people they communicated with, or the topics they communicated about in the last 24 hours.

After getting the participants to fill in their individual forms, have them reflect on the following questions:

Then move on to presenting the Areas to consider in online safety (see Additional Resources).

After, ask the participants to reflect on the areas to consider and write down their personal "online safety rules" based on this template:

Note: These rules are draft rules and are personal to each participant. It is important to frame this activity this way, and keep on reiterating the Basic Principles of Online Safety.

After the participants have written down their "online safety rules", debrief on the activity:

It is suggested that you then move on to Making online spaces safer.

Facilitator preparation notes

You might want to read this piece from Level Up: Roles and responsibilities of a digital security trainer to mentally prepare for this activity.

Additional resources

Basic principles of online safety

Facilitation Note: These may seem sanctimonious and might cause participants to feel paranoid about their safety. One way to go about this, as a feminist trainer, is to give examples that are personal to you and your experience. This way, the participants will not see you as someone who will judge them for their communication and digital security choices.

Areas to consider in online safety

These are areas the participants should be considering when they think about their online safety.

Who you communicate with and what you communicate with them about

What you use to communicate

Your specific context, capacity and risk


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Creating safe online spaces

Making online spaces safer [tactical activity]

The goal of this activity is to go through the privacy options for accounts and groups of the agreed-upon (i.e. commonly used in the group) social media sites.

If you want to get hands-on with online services, this activity provides guidance for analyzing the settings, policies, and norms of online spaces.

About this learning activity

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The goal of this activity is to go through the privacy options for accounts and groups of the agreed-upon (i.e. commonly used in the group) social media sites. For groups who have gone through the exercise Develop Your Internet Dream Place, this is an activity to make the dream places real, including addressing challenges of current design and policy of online spaces being at odds with the dream space visions. For groups who already have online spaces and want to alter them to make them feel more safe, you can also use this activity.

If you want to get hands-on with online services, this activity provides guidance for analysing the settings, policies and norms of online spaces. It is not a step-by-step guide to adjusting settings, as they change too frequently.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be used with participants with different levels of experience with both online spaces and creating safe spaces. Participants will be asked to explore and set privacy settings in the tools they are using.

Time required

This activity will require about 3 hours.

Resources needed for this activity


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Mechanics

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1. Map your space

Developing new spaces: If you have done Develop Your Internet Dream Place, you can use the work from that exercise as your map.

Redesigning existing spaces: If your group would rather redesign an existing online space, identify a space that the group already participates in or ask the participants to form groups based on spaces they participate in and facilitate the group(s) to answer the questions from Develop Your Internet Dream Place, about these existing spaces:

Have the groups draw out this space as creatively as possible, and get them to prepare a creative presentation for the rest of the group.

2. Choosing spaces: Spaces that work and assessing safety

If you have done Input + activity: Online safety "rules", you may have already had a conversation about choosing spaces and assessing risks of online communications.

Choosing spaces for functionality

How do you choose platforms and assess risks to yourselves on those platforms? Choose spaces that help us reach our communication goals and try to participate in these spaces in ways that do not expose us to risks we do not wish to take.

Look at the map you have made. Can you identify a platform already that will allow you to create the space you have mapped? Which of the components of your space will be easy to create? Which will be difficult? Are there alternative spaces where pieces will be easier or harder?

Choosing spaces strategically

Does the space you chose match your strategy? Is this a good space for: organising, mobilising, for announcements/influencing discourse?

Facilitator: Introduce how these different activities bring with them different levels of risk.

Suggested questions to ask

This discussion leads into the next discussion section looking at risks people are most concerned with.

Note to facilitator: This section may be very quick, with everyone agreeing that they need to be on a single platform right now, for instance, Facebook. You may, however, get to talk about a variety of tools and platforms.

Discussion OR Input: Assessing dimensions of safety and the internet: What are the current issues?

Ask the group: What safety risks are you concerned about in online spaces? Facilitate this discussion to include concerns about actions that individuals can take in these spaces as well as actions taken by the software companies who own the spaces.

If you have already done Input + activity: Online safety "rules", you may reference that discussion and abbreviate this section.

Otherwise, facilitate discussion about safety risks in online spaces. Draw from the experiences of the participants but also prepare some examples of stories where privacy was breached through online spaces and that impact that had on individuals.

Discussion: Ask participants what safety concerns they have in online spaces. Are there any specific incidents or risks people are concerned about and want to address in their Dream Space or redesigned space?

Input: We suggest familiarising yourself with 2-3 case studies and sharing them here. To share these with the least amount of time, present them as a lecture. If you have more time, or want to facilitate deeper conversation and engagement with the issues, find some media like articles, short videos, interviews, regarding a case and share them with the group. Ask group members to discuss them together in pairs or small groups.

Facilitator: ask participants to consider why the platforms we are on are not safer by design.

3. Make a plan: Address the risks of the spaces that you are using

Using the Dream Spaces or Redesigned Spaces as examples, have the participants make plans for implementing this space online.

This would be most useful if they have active spaces they want to secure and safeguard.

Issues to consider here:

Consideration Platform or Space How will you address this
Who can see what Twitter (this is an example) Review my privacy settings; consider content that I post, respond to, like, and the default privacy settings on different types of content; reduce the number people I'm linked to; prohibit tagging
Do you know everyone you're linked to
review my connections; remove connections to people I do not know;
Do you want to use your real name; anonymity and how hard it is
use a pseudonym; prevent others from naming you with your real name
Do you want to share your location
No, I do not want to automatically share my location; turn off location services; limit photo posts showing my location

Authorisation

Consideration Platform or Space How will you address this
Ensuring that I am logging out f-book do not save password in browser; review setting on f-book for automatic logout
2-factor on accounts and devices
set up 2-factor to be more certain that only I am logging in
Shared accounts
review who has access to shared accounts; review password policies on these accounts

Devices

Consideration Platform or Space How will you address this
Device-level safety Twitter or any app do not automatically log in to any apps or through browsers
Do I want notifications to show on my devices
turn off audio and visual notifications

Group Administration

If you are working with a group to implement a space online, use the following table of questions and work through the answers, finding the appropriate settings on the platform you are using to implement the group's preferences.


Example design/implementation table:

Well-being Note: Bringing up risk and technology concepts might cause participants stress. Be aware of this. Pause for a breathing exercise. Or allow participants to take a walk around the venue to decompress when they need to.

Additional resources


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Creating safe online spaces

Alternative tools for networking and communications [tactical activity]

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This learning activity is mostly guided hands-on for individuals and groups to start using alternative tools to "free" proprietary services.

This activity is most effective when the participants are part of the network so they are able to start developing new ways of communicating among each other.

This activity will focus on three communication tools that are commonly used: Email, chat apps, and alternatives to Google docs.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This can be run with participants with varying skill levels in using online tools.

Time required

To complete this, you will probably need at least 5 hours.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

The point of this activity is to encourage your participants to be less reliant on commercial services that breach users privacy and security.

Protonmail hands-on

Why Protonmail?

Protonmail limitations

To sign up for a Protonmail account: https://protonmail.com/

Notes: If you all using the same internet connection (as we do in training workshops), Protonmail might not allow multiple sign-ups on the same IP address. This might cause delay in the activity. Having multiple access points (with different IP addresses) will mitigate this issue.

Jargon Watch: This has a lot of jargon. Please make sure that you have established a way for the participants to pause and clarify concepts they don´t understand as you do your training. It could be as simple as reminding them that they can raise their hands any time when they don´t understand something, and you asking them directly if they don´t understand a technical term.

Signal hands-on

Why Signal?

Signal limitations

Signal can be downloaded on the Google Play Store and on App Store.

Tasks for the Signal hands-on

Riseup Pad / Ethercalc hands-on

Why?

Limitations

Set up a pad: https://pad.riseup.net/

Set up a spreadsheet: https://ethercalc.org

Safety considerations in using pads

Jit.si hands-on

Why Jitsi?

Limitations

Tasks for Jitsi hands-on

Trainers notes: Before you begin, practice setting up the services/tools just in case how to do tasks have changed.

Additional resources

Alternative To is a website crowd-sources lists and ratings for alternative tools (platforms, software, apps). They have notes / tags that mention security functionalities of the listed tools. This is a good resource to find alternatives to popular tools.

After finding an alternative tool, confirm its security and privacy features by doing a search with the following terms:


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Mobile safety

Work with participants to share strategies and tactics for using their mobile phones more safely in situations and contexts where they live. We **highly recommended** that you choose a Learning Path to travel, as these include activities with different levels of depth that should help participants obtain more insight into the covered subjects.

Mobile safety

Introduction and learning objectives

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In this module, we work with participants to share strategies and tactics for using their mobile phones more safely in situations and contexts where they live.

This module offers guides for facilitating conversations about how women's rights and sexual rights activists experience their access to mobile technology and communications differently based on their genders and sexual identities. We'll talk about how we are using our mobile phones for personal and private communications, for public and movement communications, and strategies and tools we are using to managing our mobile communications more safely.

This module includes: group activities for and examining our use of mobiles and how this relates to our genders and sexual identities; hands-on activities for exploring and understanding how mobile phones and mobile communications work; group activities for sharing and practicing safety strategies and tactics in the context of our lives; facilitation guides for trainers to bridge issues of feminist safety and technical security.

Common questions we hear and are trying to address in this module:

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, the participants would have:


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Mobile safety

Learning activities, learning paths and further reading

This page will guide you through the Module's correct use and understanding. Following the Learning Paths, with activities of varying depth, should allow participants to obtain a better grasp of the studied subjects.

Learning paths

For trainers/facilitators who are interested in any specific activity, you can use one or a few in combination. We recommend beginning with a starter activity to open discussion and sharing by participants about their mobile phone experience and how gender, sexuality, race, class, ability, are related to and impact their experiences.

Some specific recommendations: For groups who are considering how to use mobiles for documenting violence we recommend the deepening activity Documenting violence to open space for debate and discussion about challenges and opportunities of documenting violence and the tactical activity Using mobiles for documenting violence: Planning and practicing.

For groups who want to use mobiles for communications for actions and organizing we recommend the tactical activities including Planning mobile comms and Back it up, lock it, delete it.

For participants using mobiles for online dating and sexting, we recommend starter activity Collecting phones and tactical activities Reboot your online dating safety and Safer sexting.

Learning activities

Starter activities

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Deepening activities

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Tactical activities

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External and tool-based activities

Where modules include practice and use of specific tools and software, we have linked to external resources. We do this for a few reasons: tool designs and features and security issues change frequently and so it is best for us to link out to resources that are updated frequently.

Special note for mobile safety training

It is very rare that all the participants in your workshop would have the same kind of mobile phone. It is a good idea to do hands-on in smaller groups: for iPhone users, for different versions of Android, and/or for feature phone users.

Resources | Links | Further reading


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Mobile safety

Mobiles, intimacy, gendered access and safety [starter activity]

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This is an introductory discussion about the ways that participants are using their mobile devices. Facilitators can use this exercise to introduce concepts about gendered access, to highlight how we manifest many of our identities in this mobile space and how this presents unique possibilities and risks for participants.

We recommend doing this at the start of a workshop about mobile safety.

This activity has 3 stages:

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This can work for anyone who uses a mobile phone or has used one.

Time required

This activity will require about 30 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Our mobile phones are spaces of intimate interactions. We connect with loved ones, lovers, friends, share calls, messages, images, videos, private conversations and images. And insodoing, we know our mobile phones as personal intimate objects, but they are also a part of a larger context, linked to mobile phone providers, regulated by government policies, subject to getting taken, viewed without our consent.

Mobile phone access varies by gender and mobile phone use by women represents a challenge to power – people may enact violence on women using mobile phones; in another context, women may use mobile phones to report abuse.

Pair Discussions - 15 minutes

In pairs to facilitate personal sharing. Ask one partner to share first and the other to listen. Then prompt partners to swap listening and speaking roles. Each person should have about 5-7 minutes to speak. This will depend on how long it takes for pairs to form.

Questions

Write these somewhere visible to everyone or on pieces of paper that the pairs can take with them to their discussions.

Full Group Shareback - 15 minutes

Facilitator make notes and synthesize. Are there any strategies in specific that you want to address, situations, scenarios?


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Mobile safety

Making a mobile timeline [starter activity]

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This is an introductory activity participants share personal experiences with mobile phones and engages people through body movement and storytelling. You can expect participants to speak and hear about each other’s attitudes towards mobile phones and to share ways that they are using and accessing phones that are personal and meaningful to them.

This is similar to the activity, Women's wall of internet firsts, inviting participants to share their experiences of mobile technologies and to relate them to one another along a timeline. Through this activity, the trainer(s) can also become more familiar with the participants' experiences and relationships to mobiles.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This can work for anyone who uses a mobile phone or has used one.

Time required

This activity will require about 30 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Labels to mark a time line with dates in 5-year segments, 1990-2019. This can be numbers written on paper and laid on the ground (ex. 1990, 1995, 2000... etc).

Mechanics

Prepare a timeline in your room. Participants will stand along the timeline at specific dates in response to questions you ask. In a large group, ask participants to move to a time along the timeline in response to the following questions. When the timeline is created, ask what the first and last dates are, if there are clusters of people at certain areas of the timeline, ask them where they are.

Depending on your group size and how much time you have, choose 2 or more questions.

Ask 1-2 participants to respond to the specific questions, for example, "What was it like?"

Questions

Debrief - 5-10 minutes

Ask participants if they have any comments or observations to share. Facilitator, debrief and connect what people have shared to intimacy and gendered access - consider what people have said about their attitudes towards their phones and the ways that they like to use their phones.

Intersectionality Flag: How is mobile access and privacy varying among participants based on their gender, sexuality, race, class?


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Mobile safety

Himalaya trekking [starter activity]

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This is an introductory activity to raise participants' awareness about mobile security and for both participants and facilitators to assess the kinds of safety measures participants are taking and the vulnerabilities that might be the largest priorities to address. We recommend doing this at the start of a workshop about mobile safety.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This can work for anyone who uses a mobile phone or has used one.

Time required

This activity will require about 30 minutes.

Mechanics

Facilitator ask the participants to stand in a line shoulder to shoulder. Ask questions about mobile security of the participants. Instruct participants to take a step forward if their answer to the question is yes, a step backwards if their answer is no.

Example questions

Debrief - 5-10 minutes

Ask participants if they have any comments or observations to share. Facilitator, debrief and connect participants' trekking to the agenda for the day or series of sessions you will be together.


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Mobile safety

Collecting phones [starter activity]

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This is an introductory activity to raise participants' feelings about their mobile devices and other people accessing the devices and contents.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity works particularly well in the context because their workshop participants experience this often. We recommend this exercise if your participants are experiencing device seizure and want to discuss the impacts on them and their emotional responses.

Care note: We recommend doing this with great care. Get participants' clear and emphatic consent. This will likely work best in a context where you and your participants have already built deep trust with one another.

A note about learning pathways: This is a great starter activity to prepare for discussions and tactical activities around preparing for high-risk situations in which phones may be taken or lost.

Time required

This activity will require about 30 minutes.

Mechanics

Activity: Collect participants' mobile and discuss – 15 minutes

Collect participants mobiles in the very beginning, getting their clear and emphatic consent, but without explaining why you are collecting them.

Discussion

Ask:

Activity: Return mobiles and debrief - 5-10 minutes

Return the mobile which was collected from the participant in the very beginning.

Discussion

Ask:


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Mobile safety

Me and my mobile [starter activity]

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This is an introductory discussion. This is designed as a very short activity, to facilitate participants' thinking about how they are using their mobiles in intimate ways and to begin to share practices and concerns around surveillance and privacy related to these.

We recommend doing this at the start of a workshop about mobile safety.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This can work for anyone who uses a mobile phone or has used one.

Time required

This activity will require about 30 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Pair discussions - 15 minutes

In pairs to facilitate personal sharing. Ask one partner to share first and the other to listen. Then prompt partners to swap listening and speaking roles. Each person should have about 5-7 minutes to speak. This will depend on how long it takes for pairs to form.

Question 1: What are the most personal and private things you do on your mobile phone?

Question 2: What do you do to take care of these interactions, media, these experiences?

Facilitator, give an example or two of what you would share in a pair. For example, nudes that you are taking for your own pleasure and expression of self, sexting or intimate conversations you are having with others.

Intersectionality Flag: How is mobile access and privacy varying among participants based on their gender, sexuality, race, class, disability?

Full group shareback - 15 minutes

Facilitator make notes and synthesize. Ask people to share what they spoke about. Draw out common threads from the conversation. How are people using their phones and in what ways are these uses intimate? How have participants shared that their gender relates to their access to mobile phones, to their privacy? What are people doing to care for their intimate interactions and mobile media? What are people concerned about and how are they relating privacy and gender, sexuality, race, class, disability, age, etc?


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Mobile safety

Mobile power - device, account, service, state, policy [deepening activity]

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This is a collaborative mind-mapping activity. Through a facilitated conversation, the group will discuss how they relate to their phone devices, service accounts, mobile phone providers and a small amount about how corporate and government policies come into play.

We suggest doing this activity at the start of a mobile workshop.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This can work for anyone who uses a mobile phone or has used one.

Time required

This activity will require about 45 minutes as written. If you want to cover this content faster, you could ask the participants fewer questions and instead share a slide or example mindmap.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Ask your participants a series of questions and mind-map their responses. The goal is to try to map the ways participants related to their mobile phones. Participants will discuss mobile power, control and agency as they discuss how they relate to their mobile devices, service accounts, mobile phone providers and corporate and government policies.

Suggestions for preparation

Draw a mind map in a visible space so people can see as you ask the following guiding questions.

example mindmap. click to view it larger.

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Questions to ask

Ask/discuss

The relationship between ourselves and our mobile providers. Did you sign terms of service? What did you agree to when you signed your contract? What did you provider agree to?

Note to facilitators: If you know of particular concerns with local carriers, try to find and bring examples of terms of service and/or case studies where people/consumers have engaged with the carrier around safety.

Ask/discuss

The relationship between the mobile providers and the state. Are these state run? Are they international, local, regional companies?

Note to facilitators: You may want to research in advance, state regulations or influences on mobile use. Have there been any recent state shutdowns of service? Are participants familiar with targeted shutting down of individual's lines? Do security forces seize devices?

Additional resources

Case studies: as WRP continues to use this activity, add links to relevant case studies here


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Mobile safety

What is a phone? How does mobile communication work? [deepening activity]

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The purpose of this activity is to deepen knowledge of how mobile communications works in to support participant's ability to assess and plan for risks of mobile communications. Facilitators should include this in any mobile workshop or confirm that all participants are already familiar with the information in this activity. It is the basis of assessing technical mobile risks.

This activity has 2 stages:

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity is for anyone participating in a mobile workshop.

Time required

This activity will require about 45 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Mention or discuss, depending on time, that we will talk about mobile technologies – considering devices that are easily portable in a hand or pocket and have communication capabilities from voice calls and sms to web and data services. Some of this section will apply also to tablets.

Inside our phones - 5 minutes

Take this phone apart. Your phone is a tiny computer. Everyone take your out and locate:

Device and SIM identity - 5 minutes

Your phone has all these pieces and it has a few identifying features, in addition to the make, model and OS, it has 2 names - a Device Identifier and a SIM Card identifier. These are important to know about because you can be identified by either one and your phone communicates this information often, especially the IMSI.

International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Equipment_Identity

International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_mobile_subscriber_identity

Our phones in communication - 35 minutes

We use our phones to communicate with people: SMS, Messaging, Social Media, Apps, Calls. Our mobiles are also communicating information about our phones and ourselves - not just our messages but metadata, our location, etc, and this can be linked to other information about us like our social networks, our organizing networks, our habits and places of work.

It's good to be aware of these, mostly so that we can understand how our mobile phones use can act as a tracking device in the moment and as a historical record of our activities afterwards.

1. Your phone is chatty

Your phone is calling out to different types of networks and via different types of communication to announce it is near and to connect or check if anyone wants to connect.

Mobile carriers 

Mobile carriers have towers and antennae that your phone communicates with. Each antenna can reach a specific area. Your phone checks in with whichever tower(s) you're nearest. It shares at least your IMSI to announce which mobile carrier you are using and your number so you can receive messages, calls, and communications to your device. Every time you are near a tower, it is like dropping a pin on a mapped timeline where you are. You mark where you are, when you are there, and what you are doing in that location in terms of using your phone.

GPS

If your GPS feature is on, your phone is communicating with GPS satellites, similarly checking in, which is like dropping pins on a mapped timeline.

Wifi

If your wifi is on, as you pass through Wifi networks, your device may both attempt to connect to those networks, leaving a pin with the wifi network, and also make a record of the network name in your phone.

Bluetooth/NFC

If these are turned on, other devices using Bluetooth and NFC may be able to communicate with your device, attempt to connect, share files. Etc.

Facilitate discussion: Which things you need to have on when? Are records of where you are a risk for you or not?

2. You are chatty

We use our phones to communicate. Different types of communication appear differently while you are communicating and once the messages have been sent.

SMS

Text messages and metadata - in communication and once stored on your device and with your carriers, are sent in cleartext. A useful analogy is that an SMS is like a post card. If someone intercepts it, they could read the entire contents as well as metadata (ex. sender, recipient, time, date).

MMS

Media messages and metadata - in communication, this may or may not be encrypted, so if someone is trying to intercept your communications, it will vary if they can see it. Once it's sent, you and your recipient's mobile providers and devices have a record of the message and so investigation into either might reveal metadata (ex. sender, recipient, time, date) and content.

Calls

Call content and metadata - similarly - calls should be encrypted as they are in progress, but your provider and your recipient's provider will store metadata about the call (ex. sender, recipient, time, date) and if your opponent has access to your providers, they may have access to listen into calls or to record them.

For more information about Apps and Messaging Apps, see:

A note about state surveillance: From country to country, state surveillance varies. In some places, governments will have access to any and all data that carriers have -- so with these, you should consider all of your metadata and contents of unencrypted services accessible to governments both in real-time and after the fact if there is an investigation for these records.

Your best defense against surveillance is End-to-End Encryption.

3. A phone is a small computer

Software bug - A phone is a computer and can be infected with malware just like a desktop or a laptop. Individuals and governments alike use software to bug other people's mobile devices. This kind of software often uses parts of the phone to act as a bug or a tracking device, listening in with the microphone or sending location data.

4. The cloud is a file cabinet

Some data that my phone accessess is not on my phone at all, it's on the cloud. The "cloud" is just a term that means "the internet" -- data that is stored somewhere physically on a device that is connected to the internet. Your apps may accessing data that is in the cloud and not actually on your device.

Considerations: Is my data encrypted in transit between myself and the service? Is it encrypted when it's stored by the service? Do I know of any instances when opponents have been able to get access to this information - when, how?

Note to facilitator: As you speak, participants may ask questions about parts of phones or risks associated with communication methods you mention. Take the time to answer questions. If you can, keep a running list of issues and topics that people ask for additional information about -- a running list on a white board will do. Also keep a running list of issues and topics you will not get to this workshop so that you address it later in the workshop or suggest as follow up after the workshop.

Additional resources

Tactical Tech's My Shadow site has a number of great training guides to facilitate learning about mobile tech.

Some videos:


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Mobile safety

Debate: Documentation of violence [deepening activity]

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This is a deepening discussion activity to facilitate discussion around using mobiles to document violence and how this relates to perpetuating violence. This exercise can be used to discuss case studies specifically of activist media aimed at reducing violence to ways in which the same channels and media have been used to perpetuate violence.

Participants will share examples of how they are using mobiles to document violence and will engage in debates around the impacts of sharing documentation of violence online.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

Groups who are currently or considering using mobiles to document violence.

Time required

This activity will require about 60 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

In plenary - 10 minutes

Ask participants to share ways they are using mobile phones to document violence.

Care Note: People may share incidents that are activating for themselves and others in the room. When you ask for examples, acknowledge any agreements and norms of your space regarding speaking about violence. You may want to acknowledge that the exercise will discuss acts of violence and that people who are sharing are invited to share and to take care of themselves, to share in a way that they do not exceed their own capacity, to ask people to care for themselves if they are feeling activated to stop sharing or to care for themselves how they need.

Ask:

Facilitators, you may want to prepare examples of recent and local movements using mobiles to document violence and ask participants to share examples of how they are using mobiles to document violence or to share documentation. Examples may include: documenting state violence, forwarding videos of violent acts, live streaming violence, the implications of having possession of this kind of media.

Some examples are linked in the "Additional resources" section below. You may choose to use these for your small group case studies or to select examples that are more current or appropriate for your participants.

Explain that this activity is to facilitate space of discussion and debate around this use.

Small group - case studies - 20 minutes

Give each small group a case study to read and discuss. You can find case studies below – choose from and edit case scenarios, blog posts and articles from the news, or choose or write examples that are more relevant for your participants.

Scenarios

These scenarios are examples of one way to write scenarios for your workshop participants. By writing more than 1, you can raise multiple issues that you know participants will want to discuss. The examples here are designed to spark conversations around linking documentation to movement, consent, impact and perpetuation of violence.

Scenario 1

Your community has been facing violence and harassment. You and others have organized to document specific acts and to share some of these on social media platforms with subtitles and text to explain the incidents and the ongoing violence. You link these to resources including a list of demands of your community is making and support resources for people who are experiencing similar violence.

Scenario 2

You witness an act of violence on the street and begin live streaming it to your social media channel where you have thousands of followers. You do not know the people you are filming and you do not know the context.

Scenario 3

You and your community have been livestreaming footage from demonstrations in order to both show the power of the demonstrations and to document incidences of violence and harm done to demonstrators. You become aware that the footage is being used by local police and by opposition groups to target demonstrators and edited together to create oppositional media about demonstrators that is also being shared on social media.

In plenary - shareback - 30 minutes

The full group shareback is an opportunity for each group to share their case study and to have a full group discussion about current challenges with documenting violence and sharing this documentation online. Allow for ample time for groups to share and for others to engage.

Facilitator, as participants shareback, draw out common themes. What are your participants concerned about most in their work – some issues that may come up and that you can facilitate sessions on more specifically later may include tactical issues of how to document, store, share; issues of verification of media, deep fakes; use media to incite violence and the possibility of sharing documentation of violence as perpetuating violence and harm.

Additional resources

Case studies and blog posts about the impacts of documenting violence

Examples of how people are using mobiles in organizing - we suggest gathering local or relevant current examples of how organizers are using mobiles and asking your participants and hosts for examples in preparation for the workshop.

Live streaming violent acts Case Study: The Ethical Challenges of Live Internet Broadcasting, Irie Crenshaw and Justin Pehoski https://mediaengagement.org/research/matters-of-facebook-live-or-death/

The world is turning against live streaming, In the aftermath of the Christchurch shooting, Australia is leading the charge against raw, unfiltered video, Casey Newton, April 4, 2019 https://www.theverge.com/interface/2019/4/4/18294951/australia-live-streaming-law-facebook-twitter-periscope

Dispatch from Brazil: If killed by police, guilty by default unless there's video?, Priscila Neri https://lab.witness.org/dispatch-from-brazil-if-killed-by-police-guilty-by-default-unless-theres-video/

WhatsApp will drastically limit forwarding across the globe to stop the spread of fake news, following violence in India and Myanmar, Kurt Wagner Jul 19, 2018 https://www.vox.com/2018/7/19/17594156/whatsapp-limit-forwarding-fake-news-violence-india-myanmar

C-SPAN's viral video moment, Hadas Gold, 6/22/2016 https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/cspan-house-sitin-democrats-224696 US Congress members livestream a sit-in demanding a vote on gun-control legislation.


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Mobile safety

Planning mobile communications for actions/organising [tactical activity]

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The following are guiding considerations for groups who are organizing and participating in actions and relying on Messaging Apps. Using this guide, you can facilitate discussions to support groups in considering the kinds of communications they are having and to design group management, message and device protocols that meet the safety needs for that communication.

This activity has 3 stages:

If groups have not yet chosen the messaging app they want to use, you may want to do the activity Discussion, input + hands-on: Choosing mobile apps

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity is for participants with varied levels of experience in using mobile phones. If participants include individuals who will be group admins for messaging groups, plan to implement the designs in the workshop.

Time required

This activity will require about 60 minutes to map and design and up to 3 hours if you will be installing messaging apps, mapping and designing, and implementing.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Mapping communications and assessing risk

Consideration: Privacy

Consider that you may have different types of messages to communicate via signal and that some messages can be more public than others. Map the kinds of communications you have and design groups to match your privacy considerations.

What kinds of communication are you doing and what considerations do you have around who has access to communication? Suggest that participants consider these different groups. Ask them if they have more types of information -- for example, is there information that only 2 people should know, that only one person should know and document and not share?

WHO EXAMPLE COMMUNICATIONS
1 needs to be kept among a very small circle of people who know each other location of lead organizers
2 is vital for volunteers to know or for small groups to coordinate around changes in crowd location
3 can be shared openly rally start time, groups who endorse this action publicly

PLAN: Design groups and settings

Work with participants to design groups to correspond with the different types of communication.

Guiding suggestions around group design: We suggest starting from these design questions. We have included example suggestions for group management and settings for some common types of groups. Ask the participants what about this will work and what will not, facilitate the group in modifying the designs to respond to parts that do not work.

Membership

VERIFICATION: Know who you are talking with 

For a type of communication, how will you verify who you are talking to?

Message security - settings

Discuss, based on the sensitivity of the information you are communicating, what agreements do you want to make about how people are using message settings?

Common group design templates

1. Small very strictly verified groups for sensitive information

Consideration/Risk: That people will join groups who you don't know and don't want to have access to information that is not okay going public.

2. Pods - small groups

Consideration/Risk: That people will join the group and send information that is not useful or intentionally incorrect.

3. Open group, public Information

Consider information on this channel to be public information in real-time. While information from any of the other groups could be leaked or shared outside of the group, this is a group that you automatically consider to be public.

Device security

If your device is taken, prevent others from pretending to be you and reading your information like signal messages, contact book, email etc. For more detailed facilitation guidance around device security, see the activity: Back it up! Lock it! Delete it! a.k.a. Someone took my mobile: Border crossings, arrests, seizure, theft

Power and service

What if people can't use SIGNAL or your chosen App, Phones, Internet, for any reason - power, busy network, shutdown etc. Do you have backup or redundant internet access - a portable wifi hotspot for instance (if it uses cellular data that would also go down)? Is there an offline plan? Will your hub have a power-charging station for volunteers?

Additional resources


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Mobile safety

Back it up! Lock it! Delete it! a.k.a. Someone took my mobile: Border crossings, arrests, seizure, theft [tactical activity]

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In this activity, we plan and prepare for situations where participants and their phones may be at physical risk. Scenarios may include:

This activity has 4 stages with optional hands-on activities with installing and preparing devices. The stages include:

Optionally, follow this activity with hands-on exercises to practice the strategies and tactics.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity is for participants with varied levels of experience in using mobile phones to practice tactical safety with a focus on care and mobile phones.

Time required

This activity will require about 80 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

This exercise is designed to support activists who are planning to engage in risky situations with their mobile phones. In the end, they will have a map of tools and tactics they can use.

Current practices in caring for ourselves – 20 minutes

Care note: This activity is a tactical activity to plan and prepare for using mobile phones in situations where people and their devices are at risk. Begin by acknowledging that to prepare for a risky situation, we need to consider first how we care for ourselves before, during and after.

Begin with grounding and discussion about how people care for themselves in high risk situations.

Ask each individual to begin by working on their own. Hand out paper and ask them to consider these questions and to write their answers:

Ask participants to divide their paper in 3 sections: before, during and after. Their paper will look something like this:

Participants' Paper Example
BEFORE
 DURING
 AFTER












As a full group, invite participants to share their practices. Write these on a white board or piece of paper visible to the full group. Leave this up in a place that is visible. Ask people to share practices they do as individuals and with others.

Participants will continue to use this simple method for organizing practices in the next part of the workshop.

Planning and preparing our devices - 45 minutes

If you are working with participants to prepare for a specific event, it is best to work with the actual event. The following are scenarios that you might use in case workshop participants are not preparing for a specific event or your group needs more grounding for any reason. These are examples and we invite you to take these and make them your own.

Scenario 1: Safety when participating in protests

You are about to attend a mass protest. You need to be able to keep the data in your phone safe and to keep yourself from being tracked in the protest, but also be able to use your phone to contact allies for emergency purposes. You are also thinking of using your phone to document the protest and any possible human rights violations that will happen there.

Scenario 2: Safety at (unsafe) border crossings

You are in transit, and are about to cross a border into an unsafe location. You want to be able to use your phone to keep contact with your allies, but not as a personal tracking device. Ask people what their strategies are when they know someone else may have access to their phone. Examples of situations might include border crossings, flight boarding, going to a street protest.

Scenario 3: Safety when there is threat of arrest or seizure

You have heard from a reliable contact that you are being targeted by the state for arrest and seizure of devices because of your activism.

Scenario 4: Safety when there is risk of theft and harassment

You are concerned that someone may steal your phone and use the content to harass you.

Ask participants to document their discussions on paper and to divide their paper in 3 sections: before, during and after. Their paper will look something like this:

Participants' Paper Example
BEFORE
 DURING
 AFTER












In small groups, facilitate participants to work through the following sets of questions.

How are people impacted: In this scenario/the event or experience you are preparing for, what are the risks? Who is impacted by this? Consider yourself, people who are on your phone in some way, your organizing/the issue you are working on (if applicable).

You can use the following questions as guiding questions for groups to consider how to reduce the impacts on people from a tactical perspective.

Before: Think about what you will do to prepare your mobile phone for this scenario.

During: Think about how you will use your phone during the scenario.

After: Think about what you will do after the scenario.

Give the groups a minimum of 30 minutes to a maximum of 45 minutes to come up with plans, strategies and tactics.

At the end of the group discussion, ask the groups to talk about their plans, strategies and tactics.

Use the results of the report-back to plan your hands-on for mobile safety.

Input (optional) - 15 minutes

Notes for trainer/facilitator Depending on your style and your participants, you may want to deepen and add inputs as groups debrief or as a planned input section. The following are notes that we believe may be useful as you plan this.

Before

During

After your phone has been out of your control

Additional resources


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Mobile safety

Discussion, input + hands-on: Choosing mobile apps [tactical activity]

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This is discussion and input activity that will focus on enabling the participants to choose mobile apps for themselves, especially after the workshop.

This activity has 3 stages:

Learning objective this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This session may apply to anyone who has ever used a mobile phone, and wants to have a better handle on how to choose apps.

Intersectionality flag: this activity is designed as practice with assessing safety of mobile apps, specifically messaging apps. Other types of apps that may be more relevant for your participants might include the following:

Time required

This requires about 60 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Discussion: What are you using and why? - 10 minutes

In plenary, ask: What are 5 apps you use the most? What do you use them for? Get everyone to contribute to the discussion.

Then ask: How did you choose them?

To synthesise, summarise the reasons and go into the input.

Input: Best practices for choosing apps - 5 minutes

Hands-on activity: Assessing popular apps - 15 minutes

Go into the app store and try to find an app that does something common in the context. In an urban setting, maybe a taxi-hailing app, subway system map etc.

How do you choose? Look into (1) what permissions does it ask for (2) who is distributing the app and who manages and owns the service. There are a lot of apps out there that are copies of popular apps, made to look like something you want like a game or a subway map and they are actually designed to do other things like send your location to someone else. The developer or company that is distributing the app will be named in the app store. Share what you know about who owns the app/runs the service and research to assess ways in which the values may be similar and different from yours and how that may impact your privacy and safety while using the app. If you are choosing between multiple apps that appear the same, look elsewhere online for more information about the app and who is the developer or company distributing it and double check that you are downloading this one.

Activity: Assessing messaging apps - 30 minutes

Break into small groups. In small groups:

In plenary: Share back, each group share one app until you have shared all of them.

Guiding questions:

List of messaging apps and considerations

SMS
Calls
Facebook Messenger
GoogleTalk
Signal (recommended app)
Telegram
WhatsApp
Wire

Additional resources


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Mobile safety

Using mobiles for documenting violence: Planning and practicing [tactical activity]

This is a tactical activity for activists intending to use their mobile phones to document violence.

About this learning activity

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This is a tactical activity for activists intending to use their mobile phones to document violence. Participants will practice doing a safety assessment and making a documentation plan. Participants will then work hands-on with their mobile phones to practice documenting using their apps and tools of choice.

Care note: Facilitators, this is a long activity and may take most of a day. Be sure to take breaks as you go through this. Acknowledge that the act of documenting is stressful and encourage your participants to share exercises that they find helpful when they are documenting for example breathing and motion exercises.

This activity has 2 parts:

Part 1: Assess and plan

Participants will first plan their work, assessing safety issues and the wellbeing of those involved and will make safety plans and decisions about managing mobile phones and media based on this assessment.

Part 2: Setup and practice

Following this, participants will practice tactics for documenting violence using mobile phones.

We recommend also using the Deepening discussion about mobiles for documenting violence and tactical Back it up, lock it, delete it.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

Groups who are currently or considering using mobiles to document violence.

Time required

This activity will require about 1 hour 45 min.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Introduction - 5 minutes

Share some recent examples of movements using mobiles to document violence and ask participants to share examples of how they are using mobiles to document violence or to share documentation. Examples may include: documenting state violence, forwarding videos of violent acts, the implications of having possession of this kind of media.

Part 1: Assess and plan – 30 minutes

Facilitate participants to make small groups based on common situations in which they are documenting violence.

Care note: Facilitators, encourage participants to assess and plan for their own care needs. Documenting acts of violence can be activating and stressful for the documenters. Encourage participants to share how they are self-resourcing, how they are working with other activists to address the impacts of documenting.

see also Back it up, lock it, delete it

Purpose and planning: Discuss the purpose of the documentation

Assessing risks and taking care: Discuss known and likely safety issues for the people documenting and being documented

Know your rights

Preparing your device

Discussion: Why or why not, do you use your personal mobile for documenting violence?

Input

Use information from What is a phone? to explain how mobile phones are linked to the people using them, how identification works with real-time surveillance, how metadata about phone usage and media EXIF data can be used to identify you.

After
Discussion

What else do you want to do after documenting?


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Part 2: Setup and practice - 60 minutes

Depending on the time available, you can do these activities together or break into smaller groups and participants join whichever groups suit their needs the most.

Recording tips and tricks

How to use photo, video, and/or audio recording to document violence

Recording phone calls

Input: This has proven useful for sex workers who were being threatened by authorities.

Using an app

You can install and use an app that allows you to record. This will require data for downloading, data for conducting the call as the app will use data and not the phone line and will take some planning ahead.

Using a recorder

If you are unable to or choose not to use an app for any reason, you could work with another person, using your phone on speakerphone and using a recording device or their phone to record from the call using their phone as a voice recorder. Some phones have a built in voice recording feature.

Screenshots

You can take screenshots of your phone to document textual harassment and violence.

Notice, you will not be able to screenshot all apps. Some apps, like Signal, have a security setting that allows a user to prevent others from screenshotting specific conversations.

Documenting the events for internal records

As an incident is occurring, whether it is brief, long, one time or repeated, it is important to document information about the event. Whereas many of the other tactics are around documentation for public and social sharing, this may be mostly useful as an internal practice. Where is the event occurring, when, who is involved, what is happening. Keeping track of this information can be useful in reconstructing events, assessing and planning responses.

Live Streaming

Adapted from the WITNESS resource: Livestreaming Protests, written for activists in the USA

You are livestreaming at an event like a protest, rally, etc. Definitely use the Planning activities and Prepare activities. This may be a great way to show events that are unfolding and to engage people who are watching in supporting. There are also some elevated risks as there may be police presence and there may be police watching now or later to target activists.

Shareback - 10 minutes

Additional resources


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Mobile safety

Reboot your online dating safety [tactical activity]

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This is a tactical activity in which participants share safety tips and tricks for online dating. Participants will work in small groups or pairs to update their own online dating profiles and practices. Participants will share their different needs and preferences around dating apps, privacy and security. Participants will share and practice different tactics for increasing the privacy of their dating app use.

Intersectionality note: Facilitators, make space for people to share how their online dating considerations and practices relate to their gender and sexuality. Among your participants, how do gender and sexuality related to the apps people are using to date? How do they relate to concerns about privacy and safety?

This activity has 2 parts:

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

People who are using dating apps and want to use them more safely.

Time required

This activity will require about 2-2.5 hours.

Facilitator note: The exercises take about 2.5 hours and we recommend taking a few breaks as you work.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Sharing online dating and safety tips and tricks

Ice breaker - 5 minutes

Safer dating – 30 minutes

Before getting into the apps and hands-on with devices, facilitate sharing of dating safety tips between participants.

Ask:

Write this on a flipchart or somewhere visible for participants.

Share the following additional safety tips and ask participants to share and add:

Dating app (safety tips)

New models for dating

Are there any features you especially like about existing dating apps that you can look for in newer apps?

What possibilities and features do newer apps offer? (i.e., red-flagging users with bad reputation, documenting scammers, sharing tips about selecting matches).

In what ways are you already connecting with your trusted friends and community members around online dating?

Hands-on: Reboot your online dating safety - 60-90 minutes

Start with lightly Doxxing Yourself – see what information is available about your name in your dating apps. Using the information on your dating app profile, look for yourself on other platforms. Try searching for your username or information you share in your profile. Reflect on what information about you that is available outside the dating you don´t want to the dating app folks to know. Based on that, re-do your profile.

In pairs, go through the Safety Tips and update your profile. Share with each other and support your partner to point out if there is identifying information or if they can change more elements to be less identifiable and meet their own safety goals.

Reboot your pix

Check and replace any images including your profile and other account photos if they do not meet the safety tips you want to follow. Consider removing identifying metadata and removing identifying information about other people in the images.

Reboot your text

Check and rewrite your text if you are revealing more information that you would like to, considering your safety. Work with a partner to rewrite this if you want!

Set up a secure separate email address.

Shareback - 10 minutes

How was that? What was surprising? What was easy? What was hard? What are you doing to do next?

Facilitators: Are participants interested in sexting? Check out the safer sexting module.

Additional resources

Privacidad y seguridad en contextos conservadores: las apps de citas para mujeres de la diversidad sexual. Steffania Paola: https://www.genderit.org/es/articles/edicion-especial-privacidad-y-seguridad-en-contextos-conservadores-las-apps-de-citas-para

Self-Doxxing: https://gendersec.tacticaltech.org/wiki/index.php/Step_1#Self-Doxing

Dating App Safety Resources


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Mobile safety

Safer sexting [tactical activity]

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This is a tactical activity in which participants share and practice safer sexting tactics.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

People who are sexting or interested in sexting and who want to discuss and practice safer sexting.

Time required

This activity will require about 2 hours.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

In pairs, discuss - 10 minutes

Full group shareback and strategy share - 35 minutes

Facilitate participants sharing of what is fun and pleasurable about sexting with phones.

Intersectionality flag: Is there social stigma around sexting and how do participants of different genders, sexualities, races, classes, ages, experience this stigma differently? How do participants address social disapproval?

Discussion questions you might ask:

Strategy share

Facilitator, prepare large pieces of paper with the following titles:

Facilitate a conversation with the guiding questions below. Make notes on the large paper with strategies shared by participants.

Cumming to agreements

The love we make, the data we share

– information that goes with our photos and the stories it tells:

Apps and basic safety/device considerations

Hands-on: Safer apps and image editing

Discussion about choosing sexting apps

What apps are participants using for sexting and why? What safety concerns do you have choosing an app and what safety features do you like about your app? What are you concerned about?

Use apps that are:

Assessing SMS and MMS. SMS and MMS do not offer any of these features. See Activity: What is a phone? How does mobile communication work? For more information SMS and MMS and surveillance.

Hands-on activities

Facilitator, this activity is an opportunity for participants to practice safety strategies recommended by contributing trainers to the FTX Safety Reboot. Select whatever activities are most appropriate for your context. Some others to consider:

Share this list of tasks with participants and instruct them to practice these tips in small groups, using each other and the internet to answer questions.

Hands-on with images

Hands-on with devices and apps

Shareback - 10 minutes

How was that for you?

Additional resources

Luchadoras' Sexting Workshop – moments of sexting like lead up, during, after. Storage and sharing, Shifting consent and consent in all these moment.

Trainers Notes As deleting images from apps and devices is a bit more complicated, here are some specific instructions to support participants to “Know how to delete images from your device” (last updated May 2019): Knowing how to delete images from your device requires understanding how to do this in your app memory and also knowing the location of where your images are stored in your mobile phone. On IoS devices this more opaque as you don't have access to files aside from the apps where the files are created. This also depends on whether or not you are using the chat apps to take photos, or you are preparing photos in advance (using the mobile phone's camera app).

For Telegram users, click on the header of a conversation, then look for Photos and Videos, you can delete images from there. This will delete the images from the Telegram app but if you had saved those images on another folder in your device, you will have to use a File Manager to do delete those. You can also look at and explore shared files with a specific user or a group.

On Signal, click on the header of a conversation. You will see thumbnails of Shared media. You can delete from there. Again, this will only delete the images / shared media on Signal, and if you had saved it elsewhere on your device, there will be a copy there. This also applies to who are sexting with.

For Android users, using a File Manager Removing media and images on Telegram: go to Internal Storage, and look for the Telegram folder >> Telegram Images / Telegram Video / Telegram Documents / Telegram Audio. Then delete the files in those folders. For Signal, if you save an image / media to away from Signal you can choose where to save it. Other places where your pictures / media could be: Internal Storage >> Pictures. You will generally get a directories (folders) that store your photos. By default, saved images from Signal get saved here.


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Feminist principles of the internet

Conduct activities to introduce and enhance feminists' appreciation of the Feminist Principles of the Internet. Have interactive exercises that will open up the space for feminists to look at the internet as a political space as well as connect the FPIs to their specific areas of concern. We **highly recommended** that you choose a Learning Path to travel, as these include activities with different levels of depth that should help participants obtain more insight into the covered subjects.

Feminist principles of the internet

Introduction, learning objectives, learning activities and further reading

This page will guide you through the Module's correct use and understanding. Following the Learning Paths, with activities of varying depth, should allow participants to obtain a better grasp of the studied subjects.

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Introduction

This learning module aims to conduct activities to introduce and enhance feminists appreciation of the Feminist Principles of the Internet. It is designed to have interactive exercises that will open up the space for feminists to look at the internet as a political space as well as connect the FPIs to their specific areas of concern.

Who is the FPIs learning module for?

The commonality among these different groups is that they are all feminists, and most likely, they have not had the time to look at the internet from the lens of feminism and as a political space.

These groups will benefit from this learning module by understanding the internet – a space and tool that they use for their work – from a feminist perspective in order to make decisions about their use of the internet with more control and knowledge.

Learning objectives

Participants will:

Learning activities

The learning activities for this module are organised as Starter Activities – exercises that begin exploring the issues of the internet as a political space; and Deepening Activities – those that focus on specific aspects of the FPIs.

Depending on time, having a combination of a Starter Activity and Deepening Activities would be ideal to have a more comprehensive session on FPIs.

Starter activities

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Deepening activities

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Resources | Links | Further reading


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Feminist principles of the internet

Introductions of internet love [starter activity]

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This activity is aimed towards encouraging the participants to think about how beneficial the internet has been -- personally, professionally, in movement building and networking. This activity is especially useful for the beginning of a workshop and / or for participants who have a lot of negative sentiments for the internet.

Participants introduce each other with their name, organisation, country and one thing they love about the internet - personally, for their activism or in general. They cannot repeat what anyone else has said. This can be done standing in a circle to see each other clearly and encourage short interventions. To make sure no participant takes up too much time, one option is to have each participant light a match and finish before it burns down (have a container for the hot matches on hand.)

Resources needed for this activity

Time required

10-15 minutes depending on the number of participants, approximately 40 seconds each.


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Feminist principles of the internet

Imagining a feminist internet (3 options) [starter activity]

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Option 1

People work individually for 10 minutes to write down their definition/idea of a feminist internet. (Alternatively, to complete one of these sentences “In a feminist internet….” “A feminist internet is…”) It is time for them to explore and dream. It may be necessary to “warm up” the idea by asking for some basic ideas of what a feminist internet would look like. Each participant then reads their definition out loud to the whole group. As they read, the facilitator notes key words from their definitions on a flip chart. Their definition is taped to a wall for others to see, but their is no discussion on individual definitions.

Facilitators briefly summarise keywords that emerge and are recurring, aware of how these connect to concepts in the feminist principles of the internet and clusters. The discussion can deepen with participants defining what they found most important overall or simply provide an entry point to open a presentation or further exercise on the FPI.

Resources needed

Markers, paper, butcher paper, coloured post-it notes or colored paper cut in half sheets, blue tack or masking tape.

Time required

30-40 minutes total: 10 minutes to introduce and carry out individual work. 20-30 minutes to read out and analyse definition results, depending on the number of participants.

Option 2 - Imagine a feminist internet: Group work

The exercise is the same as above but designed for groups of 4. More time is necessary for group debate than report back.

Time required

35 minutes total - 20 minutes for group work, 15 minutes for report back.

Option 3 - Develop your internet dream space

(adapted from FTX: Safety reboot, creating safe online spaces)

Briefly ask participants in plenary: Why are we online? Why is it important to us? Ask participants for examples of things they are doing online that are significant to them, in different facets of their lives.

Ask them to imagine building their dream space on the internet, based on their answers to the two questions above. Invite them into small groups of 3-5 to imagine this space together.

Have the groups draw out this space as creatively as possible, and get them to prepare a creative presentation for the rest of the group. To add a more playful element, challenge the participants to try to convince the rest how great their space is – like a pitching an idea.

In plenary, as groups share back, the facilitator should write down key elements of all the spaces, aware of the feminist principles of the internet and connections.

These can serve as an input of elements to highlight when presenting the principles in the next exercise and to provide closure of common elements and key insights emerging from the groups.

Resources needed

Butcher paper, crayons or markers of many colors for each group, masking or blue tack

Time required

1 hour: 5 minutes in plenary, 25 minutes in group work, 30 minutes shareback and facilitator sumary.


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Feminist principles of the internet

The internet race [starter activity]

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The aim of this activity is to illustrate the privilege that different people have when it comes to technology and the internet, and to show that there are sectors of society that are privileged on the internet. This activity could be used to start a discussion on the inequalities of different users based on technical, gender, language, age and race privilege.

Mechanics

Invite the participants to stand in one line, side-by-side. Where that line is will be the starting line, the facilitator moves across the room from that line. Let the participants know that the point of the game is to get to the finish line – where the facilitator is standing – based on the facilitator´s instructions.

The main point here is to show the inequalities among the participants when it comes to technology and the internet, specifically to challenge the very notion that technology and the internet are neutral.

Suggestions for instructions based on themes:

Note: These are suggestions only. Each context will have a different way of defining what being privileged on the the internet means. If a suggestion doesn't work in your context, think of another one that would. Remember, this also reflects the trainer / facilitators own biases and values around what privilege means.

Technical privilege

Language privilege

Race and geo-political privilege

Gender privilege

Economic privilege

Experience-age privilege

Based on your context you can create new instructions, or mix and match the one above.

Debriefing on the activity

After the race is over (either someone reaches the finish line, or you´ve exhausted the instructions), ask everyone to stay where they are and process the activity:

Once that has been processed, deepen the discussion with the following guide questions:

Write down keywords from the discussion on flip chart paper.


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Feminist principles of the internet

Women's wall of internet firsts [starter activity]

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This activity is aimed towards acknowledging the various ways that women have interacted with the internet.

Resources needed for this activity

A big wall that you can stick paper to, sticky notes. You can also prepare a linear timeline indicating years and people place their sticky notes on the timeline.

Time required

Depending on number of participants and number of firsts, an hour.

Mechanics

In this interactive session, participants will discuss questions and share milestones in their use of technology, such as:

Everyone will write down their short answers (date and / or topic) on sticky notes and pin them to the wall as they share. At the end of this activity, there will be a big wall of the first experiences the participants have had on the internet.


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Feminist principles of the internet

How the internet works: The basics [starter activity]

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This starter activity is aimed towards getting the participants to understand the basic concepts and requirements for the internet.

Resources needed for this activity

Sheets of paper with the concepts

Time required

1.5 hours, minimum

Mechanics

Embodying the internet

Depending on the scenario that you want the participants to grasp, there will be some basic concepts required to be either illicited from the group or handed out on separate sheets of paper.

For the scenario, "How do you connect to <insert popular website>?", these are the basic concepts:

For the scenario, "How does Person A send an email to Person B?", the basic concepts are:

For the scenario, "How do you send someone a chat message?", the basic concepts are:

Assign the different concepts to individual participants by making them stand in the centre of the room. Then ask them to do show the scenario.

Alternatively, you can group the participants according to the scenario, ask them to assign each concept to each member of the team and then role-play how the scenario would work in front of the bigger group. This option requires that there are participants that have some basic understanding of Internet 101.

This exercise can be expanded to illustrate HTTPS and PGP

For HTTPS, you will need an envelope provided by the web service to show the certification needed to encrypt data in transit. This could be used for both the scenario about connecting to websites, and sending emails.

For PGP, you will need envelopes that Person A and Person B would exchange with one another to signify the key exchange.

Interactive input on the how the internet works

This input will include the history of the internet as well as the history of the women´s movements on the internet (To be added).

This could also be a great exercise in data, corporate ownership, points of interception and surveillance.


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Feminist principles of the internet

Social movements: What’s in a tool? What’s in a space? [deepening activity]

Note: This is from the Movement Building module that the APC WRP developed.

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Activity 1: What's in a tool? - 15 minutes

Participants are asked to think of their favourite tool. This can be a pen, a knife, a blender, anything. Have them write it down. Ask them 2 questions:

Facilitators guide

Draw out the idea that tools are designed with values embedded within them. They are not neutral, and that the design to some extent, affects/directs its utility.

Similarly, the tools that we use online, is designed with an end-user in mind. They can be gendered, heteronormative etc. Use some examples to draw this out. For example, dating sites are usually designed for heteronormative couples (also porn sites are designed for the male gaze), FB took a long time to allow for genders other than women and men to be included.

Open up a discussion to find participants' examples of how they see technology design as being embedded with values and assumptions, and how they may affect its utility.

Activity 2: What's in a space?

Resources needed

open space, quarter slips of paper and markers to write tool down.

Time required

45 minutes

Mechanics

Ask participants to remember their tools. Give them a challenge that they would have to solve:

Ask them to find others and work together. Think of how they can use their tools in creative ways for which the tool is not designed and collectively solve this problem. They can think out of the box, be as outrageous as possible. Share their solutions.

Hold a discussion on their thoughts about the exercise:

Close the discussion with a brief input. Giving the #FBrape campaign as an example.

The Day the Everyday Sexism Project Won and Facebook Changed

Facilitators guide

In the discussion, make the connection between how the tool, the space and their actions connect and affect each other.

Talk about how the way a room is structured affects how we interact with each other. How the tables and chairs are placed together. Are they nailed to the floor? How much freedom can we have to move things around? Importantly, move from the idea of the internet as a tool to a space that also regulates our ability to interact with each other. That the design of this space also has particular assumptions embedded within them. E.g. that it's for a lecturer speaking to a classroom, or a workshop kind of space where you can move around more.

In other words, internet tools and platforms are not inert tools that we hold in our hands, but also a space that affects and structures our interactions.

Talk about how the internet is a space with many spaces within them. Like land where people build houses, but fantastical houses that shape-shift depending on how we occupy the space.

Also bring in the idea of different kinds of ways to access the houses. Some people only can enter through a small window (mobiles), and how this restricts to some extent your ability to move around in the house, what you can do to change it.

However, the more well resourced the house, the stronger it is. Harder to break the infrastructure. Like Facebook – harder to negotiate its values and how it is built, although not impossible. Bring the example of the #Fbrape campaign.

The #Fbrape campaign: details. Managed to change the policy of FB to look at rape pages more carefully. How this also had a knock-on effect on Twitter, and the norms that makes other house-builders/platform builders change the logic/values of house-building

Lesson

Users can change the norms and values of a space online. Norms and values that affects and regulates our interaction.

Activity 3: Social movements and the internet

This exercise is useful to orient participants into positive thinking of the internet as a space of activism and action, rather than a space of aggression and a reactive feminist response.

Resources needed

flipchart paper, markers and masking tape

Time required

60 minutes: 15 mins for the 1st activity, 20 minutes of group discussion, 10 minutes of gallery walk, and 15 minutes of plenary discussion.

Mechanics

Ask the participants to reflect on one tool that they use for activism by processing these questions:

Divide the room into pairs (or groups of 4 depending on size of workshop). Decide on the movement/struggle that they are currently part of, or identify one significant and recent social movement in their own contexts.

Draw a mindmap of this movement and the different components. Ask: How has the internet transformed power relations in the following components:

Participants walk around the gallery of the mindmaps.

Hold a plenary discussion to close this activity:


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Feminist principles of the internet

FPI presentation + discussion [deepening activity]

This section is under construction.

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Here is a FPIs presentation that you can use : FPIsand5LayersofPower_2020_by_hvale.pdf


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Risk assessment

Introduce participants to the concepts that underlie risk assessment, and how to apply risk assessment frameworks to their personal and/or organizational security. We **highly recommended** that you choose a Learning Path to travel, as these include activities with different levels of depth that should help participants obtain more insight into the covered subjects.

Risk assessment

Learning objectives and learning activities

This page will guide you through the Module's correct use and understanding. Following the Learning Paths, with activities of varying depth, should allow participants to obtain a better grasp of the studied subjects.

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Learning objectives

By the end of this module, the participants will be able to:

Learning activities

Starter activities

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Deepening activities

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Tactical activities

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Foundational materials


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Risk assessment

Introduction to risk assessment [starter activity]


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This activity is designed to introduce and exercise a framework for doing risk assessment.

Learning objectives

Learning objectives this activity responds to:

Who is this activity for?

This activity is designed for participants who have basic or no experience of risk assessment. It is also designed for a workshop with participants from different organisations.

Time required

Realistically, this activity requires a day (eight hours, minimum) to do properly.

Resources

Mechanics

For this activity, create a scenario of an individual or group that the participants can practice doing a risk assessment on.

Depending on your participants, some options can be:

Break the participants down into groups. They can work on the same kind of organisation/group or work on different kinds of organisation.

Facilitation note: It is important here that the scenario resonates with the participants and that it is close to their experience.

Once everyone is in their groups, present the Basic risk assessment presentation. 

Group work 1: Flesh out context and scenario

Before the groups can begin filling out the Risk assessment template, they should flesh out their chosen scenario.

For a group scenario:

For an individual scenario:

Give each group an hour to do this.

Afterwards, have each group present their scenarios quickly.

Then present the Risk assessment template.

Some notes about the table:

Group work 2: Risk assessment

Using the risk assessment template, each group analyses the risks in their scenario. The task here is to identify different risks, and analyse each one.

Facilitation note: Give each group a soft copy of the risk assessment template so they can document their discussions directly on it.

This group work will take at least two hours, with the trainer-facilitator consulting with each group throughout.

At the end of this, debrief with the groups by asking process questions rather than getting them to report back on their templates:

Mitigation tactics input and discussion

Using the text for a presentation on mitigation tactics (see the Presentation section), present the main points and have a discussion with the participants.

Group work 3: Mitigation planning

Ask each group to identify a risk that is high probability and high impact. Then ask them to create a mitigation plan for this risk.

Guide questions

Preventive strategies
Incident response

This group work will take about 45 minutes to an hour.

Afterwards, debrief by asking about the process and questions they have about the activities they have gone through.

To synthesise this learning activity, reiterate some lessons:

Presentation

There are three things to present in this activity:

Text for presentation on mitigation tactics

There are five general ways to mitigate risks:

Accept the risk and make contingency plans

Contingency planning is about imagining the risk and the worst case impact happening, and taking steps to deal with it.

Avoid the risk

Decrease your vulnerabilities. What skills will you need? What behavioural changes will you have to undertake to avoid the risk?

Control the risk

Decrease the severity of the impact. Focus on the impact and not the threat, and work towards minimising the impact. What skills will you need to address the impact?

Transfer the risk

Get an outside resource to assume the risk and its impact.

Monitor the risk for changes in probability and impact

This is generally for low-probability risks.

There are two ways to look at dealing with risks

Preventive strategies

Incident response

Adjustments for an organisational workshop

This activity can be used in a workshop context where the risk assessment is being done by an organisation, and the role of the trainer-facilitator is to guide the organisation through the process.

In order to do this, instead of fleshing out the scenario, have a discussion on the general threats that the organisation is facing. This could be a change in law or government that has implications on the organisation’s ability to continue its work. It could also be a specific incident when the people in the organisation felt that they were at risk (for example, a partner organisation discovering they are being surveilled, or the organisation itself being monitored). Follow that up with a discussion on what capacities the organisation already has – resources, connections, supporters and allies, and skills. Grounding a risk assessment activity by building common knowledge about the threats the organisation is facing and its capacities will be important for the rest of the process.

Break the participants up by team/unit as they go through the risk assessment template.
In this context, the mitigation planning is as important as the risk assessment template, so both areas will have to have equal time.

For an organisational context, this activity may take up to two days, depending on the size of the organisation and its operations.

Further reading (optional)


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Risk assessment

Assessing communication practices [starter activity]

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This activity is designed to enable the participants to look at their communication practices (the topics that they communicate about, who they communicate with, their channels of communication) and assess where their risks are.

This activity is meant to be a diagnostic tool that can be used to prioritise training topics, and / or for the participants to use in assessing their communication practices.

Learning objectives 

This addresses the understanding the concepts that underlie risk assessment.

Who is this activity for?

This is for participants that are beginners and intermediate.

Time required

Introduction to the activity: 15 mins

Individual time to assess: 15 mins

Group work: 30 mins

Plenum wrap-up: 30

Total: 1.5 hours

Resources

Mechanics

Ask the participants to fill in the table below.

Topic of communication Who do you communicate with about this topic Is it sensitive?(Y/N) Who will target you for this communication? Communication channel


(Y/N?)



(Y/N?)



(Y/N?)



(Y/N?)



(Y/N?)

After each participant has done their table, ask them to share their results with each other in groups.

At the end of the group work, ask each group to discuss with the bigger group the following questions:

This activity can then be used to prioritise which communication channels to focus on for the rest of the workshop, or to present alternatives to less private communication platforms.


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Risk assessment

Daily pie chart and risk [starter activity]

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The purpose of this activity is to get the participants to assess what their daily or weekly tasks are, and analyse how much of their working time are spent on each task. There are two parts to this exercise, the creation of the pie charts of their weekly or daily tasks, which ends in a small sharing session of their results. And the second part is figuring out where in their tasks they feel most at risk. It is important for the facilitator to not bring up the idea of risk until the second part of the activity.

This is a very basic way to do risk assessment that focuses on the tasks that they do and known risks that they commonly face at work. This activity should be done with a deeper risk assessment activity.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

Time required

1.5 hours, minimum

Resources

Mechanics

First part: Draw your pie chart

Each participant will be given a piece of paper where they would be asked to draw a circle, and divide the circle with their daily or weekly tasks in the organisation. The divisions should reflect the time they spend per task.

For the facilitator: Encourage the participants to be as specific as possible in listing down their tasks.

At the end of the drawing period, the group comes back together and discusses the following questions:

  1. Which tasks do each of them spend time in the most?
  2. Which tasks do the different participants share?
  3. Which of the tasks they are not spending that much time on do they wish they could have more time for? And why?

Basically, just have an open discussion to process their pie charts.

Second part: Identifying work risks

Ask the participants to reflect on their pie charts and answer the following questions:

  1. Of the tasks you do for your organisation, which do you feel has the most risk? What kind of risk? And why?
  2. How are you able to address the risks that you have in that task? Describe your strategies.

Then come back to the big group and have a discussion.


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Risk assessment

The street at night [starter activity]

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This activity is about bringing out how we practise assessing risks in order to live and survive. In this activity, a dark street at night will be shown to the participants so that they answer the question, “What would you do in order to navigate this street alone safely?”

The exercise is meant to bring out ways that we automatically assess threats and mitigate them in this specific situation.

Learning objectives

By the end of this activity, the participants will:

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be done with participants who have no experience with risk assessment as well as those who have done risk assessments in the past.

Facilitator’s note: It is important for the trainer-facilitator to be familiar with the group, as this activity might activate past trauma about navigating streets at night among some participants.

Time required

45 minutes

Resources

Mechanics

Introduce the exercise by showing a picture of a street at night. It is also good to remind the participants that there are no right or wrong answers.

There are some examples provided here, but you can also take your own picture that will fit into your context.

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Photo: Yuma Yanagisawa, Small Station at night, on Flickr.

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Photo: Andy Worthington, Deptford High Street at night, on Flickr

Give the participants time to reflect on answering the question: “How would you navigate this street alone at night?”

Intersectional note: You do not want to assume that everyone has the same physical capacities and abilities. This is why we are using navigate instead of walk.

Ask them to write down their responses for themselves .

This should take no more than five minutes. You do not want the participants to over-think their answers.

Then spend some time getting the participants to answer the question one at a time. At this point, as a facilitator-trainer, you are just writing down the participants’ answers on the board or the flip chart paper as they speak them out.

Once you see some trends in their responses – common responses as well as responses that are unique – begin asking the participants for the reason why they responded that way.

At this stage, we are somewhat reverse-engineering the process. We started with the how’s, now we are getting to the why’s. Here, we are looking for the threats – the causes of danger – that they have assumed in their answers to the how’s.

Note down the threats as well.

It is also a good idea to look at the photo again to see elements in it that could pose a threat, or that could be seen as opportunities to allow a person alone to navigate it more safely.

For example, in the first photo:

In the second photo:

If you are planning to do your own night-time street photo, consider having the following elements in it:

After spending a bit of time on the why’s of the safety tactics and the threats, ask the participants the question: “What other things do you need to know about this street in order to make better decisions about how to navigate it safely?”

Allow them time to reflect on their responses.

Then gather their responses, and write them down on the board.

Synthesise the session. Highlight some key points:

Facilitator’s notes

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Photo: Carl Campbell, El Chopo Saturday Market crowds, on Flickr.

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Photo: Waychen C, Shilin Night Market, on Flickr.


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Risk assessment

Re-thinking risk and the five layers of risk [deepening activity]

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At the moment, what we have is a some ideas about how to re-think risk. This has not been converted into a learning module.

Re-thinking risk and assessing risk

Realistically understanding risk

One of the challenges in risk assessment as we know it is the breadth of what we mean when we say ¨risk¨. To think about risk with a holistic approach even further widens what we mean by it (rightly so). The purpose of assessing risk is for an person to be able to come up with strategies and tactics to mitigate the risks that she faces, and to be able to make more informed decisions.

Often ¨Risk¨ is seen as anything that can go wrong in a situation without nuancing what risks one can focus on.

Another way of having a more nuanced assessment of risk is to think about it from three different angles:

Another way to start thinking about risks is to consider these following layers: Layersofrisk.png

Infrastructure / space layer

This layer is the space in which we move, communicate and interact. These are the offline and online spaces where we practice our activism. Wherever it is that we are located, there are parameters and those parameters may be sources of risks.

For example, the one known fact about the internet is that nothing in it can be permanently deleted. What kind of risks does this post for activists on the internet? How can this fact contribute to an escalation of threats?

Movement (counter-movement)

The next level is confronting the movements that we belong to, and who our opponents are. What are our movements´ capacities? And what are our opponents´? What are the risks that we face by default as part of feminist movements? Who are our allies? Who are our enemies? And what threats do they pose to us?

Thinking about risks in movement terms will also expand our understanding of the impacts of realised threats? What are the consequences, beyond the individual or organisational, of the gender-based harassment on the internet? How does it affect the way our movements are able to use the internet for our advocacies?

Relational / interpersonal layer

One of the assumptions that many activists do not confront is that the distrust and mistrust that exists within activist communities. It is important to build relationships of trust, yes. It is equally important to determine the levels of trust that exist between and among feminist activists.

Individual behaviour / practices

How do each of communicate? How do we get on the internet? What are the pre-existing realities that we individually exist in during our moments of interaction? What kind of equipment do we have access to? What kind of tools do we use? What skills do we have? The individual behaviour / practices answers these questions.

In order to understand risk deeper, it is important to interrogate these layers.

Continuum of behaviour / practice and threats

In this framework, we start with a known threat (or the ones that our participants will have had experience in) and interrogate the behaviour / practices that make the threat real and how the threat can escalate as well as the further behaviour / practices that allow the threat to escalate.

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The second level for this framework would be identifying mitigation and responsive strategies at every point in the image.


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Risk assessment

The data life cycle as a way to understand risk [deepening activity]

Look at risk assessment from the perspective of the data life cycle. Activists, organisations and movements all deal with data – from gathering/creating/collecting data to publishing information based on data.

Introduction and mechanics for a general workshop

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This learning activity is about looking at risk assessment from the perspective of the data life cycle. Activists, organisations and movements all deal with data – from gathering/creating/collecting data to publishing information based on data.

There are two main approaches to the mechanics of this activity:

The learning objectives and the general topics/themes covered in both approaches are the same, but the facilitation methodologies and techniques will need to be adjusted for two different kinds of workshop scenarios.

Learning objectives

Through this activity, the participants will be able to:

Who is this activity for?

This activity is meant to be for individual activists (in a general risk assessment or digital security workshop), or for a group (an organisation, network, collective) undergoing a risk assessment process. There are two mechanics and approaches for this activity, depending on whether it is a general workshop or a workshop for a specific group.

It can also be used as a diagnostic activity in order to prioritise which practices or tools to focus on for the rest of a digital security workshop.

Time required

This depends on the number of participants and the size of the group. In general, this activity takes a minimum of four hours.

Resources

Mechanics 

(This is for a general risk assessment or digital security workshop, where activists from different contexts come together in a training. The learning objectives remain the same but some of the training and facilitation tactics would differ from a workshop for a more established group of people.)

Phase 1: What do you publish?

In this part of the activity, the participants are asked: What do you publish as part of your work as an activist?

The point here is to start with the most obvious part of the data life cycle – processed data that is shared as information. This could be research reports, articles, blog posts, guides, books, websites, social media posts, etc.

This could be done in plenary, popcorn style. This is when the facilitator posts a question and asks for short and brief answers from the participants – like corn popping in a pan!

Phase 2: Presentation of the data life cycle and security considerations

The presentation is aimed at reminding the participants about the data management cycle. The key points for the presentation can be found here (see cycle-basics-presentation.odp).

Phase 3: Reflection time about personal data life cycles

Group the participants according to what they publish. Ask them to choose a specific example of something that they have published (an article, a research report, a book, etc.), and ask them to form groups based on similar work.

Here, there will be time for each of them to track the data life cycle of that published output, and then time as a group to share their reflections.

Reflection time should be about 15 minutes. Then group discussion would take about 45 minutes.

The guide questions for individual reflection time will be the considerations in the presentation.

For the group work, each group member will share the data life cycle of their published work.

Phase 4: Share-back and security considerations

Instead of having each group report back, the trainer-facilitator asks each group questions that will surface what was discussed in the groups.

Here are some questions you may use to debrief on the reflection time and the group discussion:

Synthesise the activity

At the end of the group presentations and sharing, the trainer-facilitator can synthesise the activity by:


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Mechanics for an organisational workshop

This is for a workshop for an organisation and its staff.

Phase 1: What information does each unit/programme/team of the organisation share?

Based on the configuration and structure of the organisation, ask each unit or team for an example of one thing that they share – within the organisation or outside the organisation.

Some examples to encourage response:

Facilitation note: This question is much easier to answer for teams that have outward-looking objectives, for example, the communications unit, or a programme that publishes reports and research. For more inward-looking units, like finance and administration or human resources, the trainer-facilitator may need to spend time on examples of what information they share.

The goal in this phase is to get the different teams to acknowledge that they all share information – within the organisation or outside of it. This is important because each team should be able to identify one or two types of information that they share when they assess risk in their data management practice.

Phase 2: Presentation of the data life cycle and security considerations

The presentation is about reminding the participants about the data management cycle. The key points for the presentation can be found here (see file cycle-basics-presentation.odp).

Phase 3: Group work

Within teams, ask each group to identify one to two types of information that they share/publish.

In order to prioritise, encourage the teams to think about the information that they want to secure the most, or information that they share that is sensitive.

Then, for each type of shared or published information, ask the teams to backtrack and look at its data life cycle. Use the presentation below to ask key questions about the data management practice for each piece of published or shared data.

At the end of this process, each team should be able to share with the rest the results of their discussions.

In general, the group work will take about an hour.

Phase 4: Group presentations and reflecting about safety

Depending on the size of the organisation and the work that each unit has done, give them time to present the results of their discussion to their co-workers. Encourage each team to think about creative presentations and highlights of their discussions. They do not need to share everything.

Encourage the listeners to take notes about what is being shared with them, as there will be time to share comments and give feedback after each presentation.

Realistically, this will take about 10 minutes/group.

The role of the trainer-facilitator here, aside from timekeeping and managing feedback, is to also provide feedback to each presentation. This is the time to put on your security practitioner hat.

Some areas to consider asking about:

As a trainer-facilitator, you can also use this opportunity to share some recommendations and suggestions to make the organisation’s data management practices safer.

Facilitator’s note: There is a resource called Alternative Tools in Networking and Communications in the FTX: Safety Reboot that you might want to have a look at to guide this activity.

Phase 5: Back to the groups: security improvements

After all of the teams have presented, they return to their teams for further discussion and reflection on how they can better secure their data management processes and data.

The goal here for each group is to plan ways to be safer in all of the phases of their data life cycle.

By the end of this discussion, each team should have some plans as to how to be more secure in their data practice.

Note: The assumption here is that the group has undergone some basic security training in order to do this. Alternatively, the trainer-facilitator can use Phase 4 as an opportunity to provide some suggestions for more secure alternative tools, options and processes for the group’s data management practice.

Guide questions for group discussion

Phase 6: Final presentation of plans

Here, each team will be given time to present the ways that they will secure their data management practice.

This is an opportunity for the entire organisation to share strategies and tactics, and learn from each other.

Synthesising the activity

At the end of the group presentations and sharing, the trainer-facilitator can synthesise the activity by:
• Pointing to key points made.
• Asking participants for key insights from the activity.
• Agreeing on next steps to operationalise the plans.

Presentation

Another way to understand risks in increments is to look at an organisation’s data practice. Every organisation deals with data, and each unit within an organisation does as well.

Here, there are some security and safety considerations for each phase of the data life cycle.

Creating/gathering/collecting data

Data storage

Data processing

Publishing/sharing information from the processed data

Archiving

Deletion

Facilitator’s notes

Further reading (optional)


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Risk assessment

Organising protests and risk assessment [tactical activity]

Guide a group of people who are planning a protest into reflecting about and addressing the risks and threats that they may face. This activity can be applied for protests that are offline or online as well as protests that have offline and online components.

Introduction

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This activity is about guiding a group of people who are planning a protest into reflecting about and addressing the risks and threats that they may face. This activity can be applied for protests that are offline or online as well as protests that have offline and online components.

This is not a protest planning activity but rather a risk assessment activity for a protest. It is assumed that before this activity is held, the group has already done some initial planning for what the protest will be about and its main strategies, tactics and activities.

Learning objectives

Through this activity, participants will learn to:

This activity is useful for a group of people (organisation, network, collective) who have agreed to plan a protest together.

The group should have had initial planning about their protest, so the main strategies, tactics and activities have been discussed and agreed upon prior to this activity.

Time required

This activity will take a minimum of four hours.

Resources

Mechanics for a workshop for a group planning a shared protest

This activity has three main phases:

Phase 1: Assessing where risks can come from

This phase has a few levels of participation and interaction in order to assess where the risks for the protest may be coming from. To make the mechanics clearer, the different levels have been marked as “exercises”.

Prepare a sheet of flip chart paper for each of the following:

Exercise 1: Naming the who and what of the protest

Give the participants time and space to fill in each of these sheets of flip chart paper with sticky notes with their responses. Alternatively, they can also just write directly on the flip chart paper.

Facilitation note: To do this in a more organised way, especially if the group is made up of more than seven people, break the participants into four groups. Each group will work on one sheet of flip chart paper first. One can start with “Organisers of the protest”, and another group can start with “Supporters of the protest”, and so on. Give them time to fill in their answers for their sheet of flip chart paper, then ask them to move to the next sheet until all groups have had time with each one. This is usually called the World Cafe methodology.

Exercise 2: Unpacking organisers, supporters and adversaries

After all the sheets of flip chart paper are filled with answers, get the participants to break out into two groups:

The flip chart paper on Activities will be left in the common area for everyone’s reference.

Each group will have their own set of guide questions to start unpacking where the risks are in their focus areas.

For organisers and supporters, the guide questions are:

For adversaries, the guide questions are:

Facilitation note: Most protests these days will have online and offline components. The questions above are applicable to both online and offline scenarios, protests and contexts. But, if you observe that the participants are focusing too much on offline contexts, then perhaps prompt them with questions about the online contexts of their organisers, supporters, and adversaries. If they are tending to focus on the online factors, then prompt them with questions about offline contexts. Prompt them on how the online activities or events can impact on offline activities or events, and vice versa.

The group discussion should take about 45 minutes to one hour.

At the end of the group discussion, each group will share back their discussion results. For the share-back, each group should focus on the following questions:

For the organisers/supporters group:

For the group that worked on adversaries:

It is also a good idea to ask the groups to be as specific in their share-backs as they can be.

Exercise 3: Reflecting on possible failure

This exercise is about surfacing some of the possible ways that the protest can fail.

After this, all the participants will be given some time to reflect on this question: What do you NOT want to happen in this protest?

To further unpack this big question, you might want to raise these questions to prompt the group:

Ask them to reflect on the discussions they’ve had and the share-backs they’ve listened to. Ask them to write down their answers on separate sticky notes and then have them post them up on the wall after a few minutes of reflection.

Cluster the responses to come up with general themes to discuss further.


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Phase 2: Planning mitigation strategies and tactics

Exercise 1: Group work to mitigate possible vulnerabilities and failure

Based on the clusters from Exercise 3 of Phase 1, divide the participants into groups.

Each group will discuss the following questions:

By the end of the discussion, each group should have a list of approaches and strategies as well as security protocols (rules) in relation to the negative outcome. These should be listed down on flip chart paper and/or documented electronically. Organise these according to the different stages of the protest: before, during and after. Each group will present their lists to the rest for discussion.

The role here of the trainer-facilitator is to provide feedback on the approaches and strategies, suggest improvements (if needed), and find common strategies among the groups.

Exercise 2: Discussion about roles

In the big group, have a discussion on the roles necessary to mitigate negative outcomes, adhere to security protocols, and manage secure communications – before, during and after protest activities. It would be important for the group to finalise these roles and who will fill them.

Phase 3: Communicating securely

Here, the trainer-facilitator can present options for secure communications for the group as they carry out the protest.

Then, the group can spend time installing and making sure that they are able to communicate with each other through the chosen channel.

To help you plan this, read Alternative Tools for Networking and Communications and the Mobile Safety module.

Security note: One of the ways that you can exercise these tools is to make sure that the people who are documenting are able to share copies of their notes and documentation via secure communication channels.

Adjustments for a general workshop

In general, risk assessment activities are more effective when they are done with groups that have common goals, contexts and risk scenarios (i.e. organisational risk assessment interventions, or risk assessment for a network of organisations). Therefore, this activity was designed for a group of participants who are already planning to carry out a protest together and have done some initial planning about their shared protest. But the activity can be adjusted for a more general digital security scenario of individuals from different contexts who are thinking about organising their own protests with their groups.

In order to adjust this activity for more general use, having a sample protest will be a good way to get the participants to practice this activity, and learn lessons that they can bring back to their groups/networks/collectives so that they can assess the risk of their actual protests.

Some guidelines about creating a sample protest:

The key in creating a sample protest is to try to simulate as much as you can a real protest scenario. Again, risk assessment activities are most effective with specifics.

You will also need to find ways and adjust your timing so that the participants can learn and absorb the sample protest. You can share the sample protest details before the training, but don’t assume that everyone has had time to read before the workshop. You can present the sample protest at the start of the workshop and give the participants hand-outs so that each group will have the information available to them as they go through the phases and exercises of this activity.




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Risk assessment

Risk assessment basics [foundational material]

Introduction

We assess our risk all the time. This is how we survive. It is a process that is not unique to digital and/or information security.

When take a walk at night on a quiet street, we make decisions about which side of the street to walk on, how to behave, what to prepare, how to walk, based on our understanding of the situation: Is this street known for being a dangerous one? Is the community where this street is a dangerous one? Do I know anyone on this street who could come to my aid? Can I run fast, if something happens? Am I carrying anything of value that I can bargain with? Am I carrying anything that can put me in greater harm? Which part of this street can I walk on to avoid possible harm?

When our organisations plan a new project, we consider the ways in which it could fail. We make design decisions based on what we know of the context and the factors in it that would lead to the project not achieving its goals.

When we organise protests, we look at ways to keep the protest and those in it safe. We organise buddy systems. We make sure there is immediate legal support in case of arrests. We instruct those attending about how to behave to avoid being harassed by authorities. We strategise ways in which to conduct a protest peacefully in order to lessen the risk to those participating. We have people in the protest whose responsibility is to maintain its safety.

While assessing our own risks may be a practice that we do instinctively, risk assessment is a specific process we undergo – usually as a collective – in order to know how we can avoid threats and/or respond to those threats.

Risk assessment: Online and offline

Assessing our risks online is not as instinctive, for various reasons. Many of us do not understand how the internet works and where its threats and risks are – and these continue to evolve and grow. Some have the attitude of perceiving online activities, actions and behaviour as not being “real”, with less serious effects than what happens to us physically. At the other end of the spectrum, those that know of or have experienced incidents where a person’s “real” life was affected by their online activities (people being scammed on dating sites, people whose taboo internet interactions were made public, or activists being arrested for saying something against their government) tend to have a paranoid view of the internet.

The reality is that for many activists, the online/offline binary is false. The use of digital devices (mobile phones, laptops, tablets, computers, etc.) and internet-based services, apps and platforms (Google, Facebook, Viber, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.) is commonplace in the work of many activists – in organising and in advocacy work. How we organise and do our work as activists has evolved as technology has advanced and developed – and will continue to do so. The internet and digital technologies are a critical part of our organising infrastructure. We use them in communicating, organising activities, building our community, and also as a site of our activities. In-person gatherings and advocacy events are often accompanied by online engagement, especially on social media and through hashtags. In recent protest movements, there is often a seamless flow between online and offline mobilising, organising and gatherings.

Instead of perceiving what happens on the internet as something separate from our physical realities, think of offline <-> online realities as interconnected and porous. We exist in both, most of the time, at the same time. What is happening in one affects how we are in the other one

This also means that the risks and threats move from online to offline and vice versa. For example, advanced state surveillance strategies against activists and their movements exploit un-secure use of technologies (i.e. clicking on unverified links, or downloading and opening unverified files) in order to be able to gather more information about activists and their groups and movements that may eventually lead to physical surveillance. Anyone who has experienced online gender-based violence (OGBV) knows the psycho-social effects of such attacks and harassment. There have also been cases where OGBV has escalated to affecting the physical security of those who have been targeted. Different forms of OGBV (stalking, doxxing, harassment) have been tactics used against feminist and queer activists in order to threaten them into silence and compliance.

Thinking about the porous online <-> offline nature of threats and risks can be overwhelming – where do we begin assessing and knowing what the threats are and where they are coming from, and strategising what to do about them?

What is risk assessment?

Risk assessment is the beginning of a process to become more resilient in responding to changing contexts and threats. The purpose of assessing risk is to be able to come up with strategies and tactics to mitigate the risks, and to be able to make more informed decisions.

In general terms, risk is the exposure to the possibility of harm, injury or loss.

In risk assessment, it is the capacity (or lack thereof) of an individual/organisation/collective to respond to the impact(s) of a realised threat, or the capacity of an individual/organisation/collective avoid a threat from being realised.

There is a known formula for risk assessment:

Risk = threat x probability x impact/capacity

Wherein:


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Case study - threats and mitigation

Case study: Deya

To illustrate this, let’s use the fictional but fairly common experience of Deya. Deya is a feminist activist who uses her Twitter account to call out those who promote rape culture. As a result of this, Deya has been been harassed and threatened online.

The threat she is most concerned with are the people that promise to find out where she lives and share that information on the internet to invite others to cause her physical harm. In this case, the impact is clear – physical harm towards Deya. There are other threats such as harassing her employers to fire her from her job, and to harass her known friends online.

To do risk assessment, Deya will have to go through these threats and analyse them to assess their probability and impact – in order to plan how she can mitigate her risks.

Threat 1: To find out where she lives and share that information online

Most of the threats come from accounts online – most of whom she does not know, and cannot verify if they are actual people or fake accounts. She recognises a handful of those participating in these online threats as known actors who often take part in attacking women online. Based on her knowledge of their previous attacks, she knows that personal details have sometimes been published online, and this has created a real sense of fear for her personal safety.

Is there are a way for her to prevent this from happening? How likely is it that her harassers and attackers will find out where she lives? She needs to figure out how likely it is that her address is either already available on the internet or can be made available by one of her attackers.

In order to assess this, Deya can begin by doing a search for herself and the information that is available about her online – to see if there are physical spaces that are associated with her, and if these will point to her actual physical location. If she discovers that her home address is available on the internet, is there something she can do about it? If she discovers that her address is currently searchable on the internet, then what can she do to avoid having it publicly available?

Deya can also assess how vulnerable and/or secure her home is. Does she live in a building with guards and protocols for non-tenant access? Does she live in an apartment that she has to secure on her own? Does she live alone? What are the vulnerabilities in her home?

Deya will also have to assess her own existing capacities and resources to protect herself. If her home address is made public on the internet, can she move locations? Who is available to offer her support during this time? Are there authorities that she can call on for protection?

Threat 2: To harass her employers to get Deya fired from her job

Deya works for a human rights NGO so there is no threat of her being fired from her job. But the organisation’s office address is publicly known in her city and available on their website.

For Deya, the threat of being fired from her job is low. But the publicly available information about her NGO may be a vulnerability to Deya and the staff’s physical security.

In this scenario, the organisation must do their own risk assessment as a result of the threats being faced by one of their staff.

What to do with risks? General mitigation tactics

Beyond identifying and analysing threats, probability, impact and capacities, risk assessment also deals with making a mitigation plan for all the risks identified and analysed.

There are five general ways to mitigate risks:

Accept the risk and make contingency plans

Some risks are unavoidable. Or some goals are worth the risk. But it does not mean that they can be dismissed. Contingency planning is about imagining the risk and the worst case impact happening, and taking steps to deal with it.

Avoid the risk

This means decreasing the probability of a threat happening. This may mean implementing security policies to keep the group more secure. This could also mean behavioural changes that will increase the chances of avoiding a specific risk.

Control the risk

Sometimes, a group may decide on focusing on the impact of a threat and not on the threat itself. Controlling the risk means decreasing the severity of the impact.

Transfer the risk

Get an outside resource to assume the risk and its impact.

Monitor the risk for changes in probability and impact

This is usually the mitigation tactic for low-level risks.

Case study: Deya

To use Deya’s example again, she has options about what to do with the risks she is facing based on her analysis of each threat, the probability of each threat happening, the impact of each threat, and her own existing capacities to handle the threat and/or the impacts of the threat.

In a scenario where Deya’s home address is already searchable on the internet, the risk will have to be accepted and Deya can focus on making contingency plans. These plans can range from improving the security of her home to moving homes. What is possible will depend on Deya’s existing realities and contexts.

The other option for Deya in this scenario is to ask where her address is publicly available to take down that content. But this is not a foolproof tactic. It will help her avoid the risk if none of her harassers have seen it. But if some have seen it and taken a screenshot of that information, then there is very little that Deya can do to stop the information from spreading.

In a scenario where Deya’s address is not publicly known and available on the internet, there is more breathing room to avoid the risk. What can Deya then do to prevent her home address from being discovered by her harassers? Here, she can take down posts that are geo-tagged that are close to her home, and stop posting live geo-tagged posts.

In both scenarios (about her address being publicly available or not), Deya can also take steps to control the risk by focusing on protecting her home.

Good risk mitigation strategies will involve thinking about preventive strategies and incident response – assessing what can be done in order to avoid a threat, and what can be done when the threat is realised.

Preventive strategies

• What capacities do you already have in order to prevent this threat from being realised?
• What actions will you take in order to prevent this threat from being realised? How will you change the processes in the network in order to prevent this threat from happening?
• Are there policies and procedures you need to create in order to do this?
• What skills will you need in order to prevent this threat?

Incident response

• What will you do when this threat is realised? What are the steps that you will take when this threat happens?
• How will you minimise the severity of the impact of this threat?
• What skills do you need in order to take the steps necessary to respond to this threat?


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Reminders

Risk assessments are time-bound

They happen within a specific time period – usually when a new threat emerges (e.g. change in government, change in laws, changes in platform security policies, for example), a threat becomes known (e.g. online harassment of activists, reports about activists’ accounts being compromised), or there is a change within a collective (e.g. a new project, new leadership). It is important, therefore, that risk assessments be revisited, because risk changes as threats emerge and disappear, and as the ability of a group and individuals within that group to respond to and recover from the impact of a threat changes.

Risk assessment is not an exact science

Each person who is part of a group that is undergoing a risk assessment process comes from a perspective and a position that affects their ability to know the likelihood of a threat to be realised, as well as their own capacities to either avoid a threat or respond to the impact of it. The point of risk assessment is to collectively understand these different perspectives within the group, and have a shared understanding of the risks they face. Risk assessments are relative. Different groups of people may face the same risk and threats, but their ability to avoid those threats and/or their ability to respond to the consequences of the threats differ.

Risk assessment will not ensure 100% safety, but it can prepare a group for threats

As there is no such thing as 100% safety and security, risk assessments cannot promise to guarantee that. What they can do is to enable an individual or a group to assess the threats and risks that can potentially affect them.

Risk assessment is about being able to analyse risks that are known and are emerging, in order to figure out which risks are impossible to predict

There are different types of risks:
• Known risks: Threats that have already been realised within the community. What are their causes? What are their impacts?
• Emerging risks: Threats that have occurred but not within the community that the person belongs to. These could be threats that result from from current political climates, technological developments, and/or changes within the broader activist communities.
• Unknowable risks: These are threats that are unforeseeable and there is no way of knowing if and when they will emerge.

Risk assessments are important in planning

They allow an individual or group to look at what will cause them harm, the consequences of those harms, and their capacities to be able to mitigate the harms and their consequences. Undergoing a risk assessment process allows groups to make realistic decisions about the risks they are facing. It allows them to prepare for threats.

Risk assessment is way to manage anxiety and fear

It is a good process to go through to unpack what people in a group fear – to create a balance between paranoia and complete lack of fear (pronoia), so that, as a group, they can make decisions about which risks to plan for.


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Risk assessment

Risk assessment in movement organising [foundational material]

Overview

When thinking about risk assessment at the level of movement organising, it means expanding the scope of consideration to also include shared spaces, processes, resources or activities that are helmed collectively – formally or informally.

Movements are larger than an organisation, and made up of relationships of shared political commitment and action between different actors. Movement actors can be comprised of individuals, organisations, collectives, community members or groups, and bring different knowledge, skills, contexts and priorities into a movement. How movement actors organise themselves, figure out roles and areas of responsibilities and come to agreements are important dimensions of movement organising, where risk assessment can also play a part in surfacing potential points of stress.

Risk assessment from a movement perspective

It's often easier to identify movements from hindsight, as they grow organically through time and in response to concerns of specific contexts and moments. Sometimes, we think of movements as protests, since that is often the site where many movements are visible and grow. But not all movements end (or begin) in protest. For example, many LGBTIQ++ movements in places where visibility carries a high cost organise and take action in less visible ways, such as creating closed community spaces online, where individuals can convene, converse, provide support and strategise for different kinds of interventions.

A movement is made up of many different moments or stages, such as community outreach, building evidence, deepening understanding, consensus building, taking action, holding space for collective care, distribution of resources and so on.

Each of these moments or stages can be specific times in which collective risk assessment can be undertaken by those who are holding space or process. It might be useful to think about movement security as having the conditions in which the many stages or components of movement work can take place and thrive.

Layers of risk

One way to begin the process of risk assessment from the perspective of movements is to unpack the different layers that need consideration. There are three components that interplay with each other.

1. Relationships and protocols
2. Spaces and infrastructure
3. Data and information

The next sections describe what each layer is about, and some of the components within them, including questions for discussion that can help to unpack, analyse and understand the risks, towards coming up with a plan.

1. Relationships/protocols

At the heart of strong movements are strong relationships which are built on the basis of trust. This is particularly important as movements are less about form than about the strength and tenacity of their relationships at different levels.

Risk assessment can take place at the level of the individual, organisation or informal groups. When approached from a movement building perspective, it means paying attention to the relationships between those levels.

For example, if an individual is undergoing a lot of stress because they are working from pay check to pay check, this can affect their ability to participate fully, which in turn can impact on the organising work as a whole. Or if an organisation is under attack by the government, its affiliation to other organisations or individuals in the movement can also render them open for similar attacks. Or if there is abuse between members of a collective, this can weaken the movement as a whole from both external as well as internal stresses.

In other words, risk from a movement perspective is something that is taken on collectively, and is affected by the practices and well-being of the different nodes/actors who are part of movement organising.

To manage risks at the level of relationships, the following three areas can be looked at:

a) Collective care

Collective care is both an individual responsibility and a matter of collective accountability to each other. This means that assessing and planning for risks needs to take into consideration different individuals’ state of well-being, as well as in relation to each other in terms of shared spaces, platforms, resources and processes.

b) Inclusion and representation

This is in terms of processes and criteria for including people into different layers of organising spaces. Sometimes this is only considered when a security breach has happened, such as information about an event being leaked to hostile parties because everything happens in one WhatsApp or Facebook group. Thinking about inclusion mechanisms can help in being more purposeful in developing different security levels of information sharing and communication channels. Thinking about representation in movement activities can help to also surface particular risks to individuals or groups of people, and how to mitigate, distribute or prepare for this risk.

c) Managing conflict

This is often an area that is least addressed within movements, as we assume shared politics, values and interest. However, it’s important to allow for these to be surfaced, discussed and planned for, as they can serve to support the overall justice mission of the movement, as well as ensure that internal vulnerabilities or power differences are addressed.

A plan doesn’t have to be complex, but it can begin with a frank and carefully held discussion, surfacing shared values and coming to agreements, and then making a plan around this including who should be involved, what measures can be taken, and how shared values can be collectively enacted.

2. Spaces/infrastructure

The digital layer is an increasingly critical component for organising and movement building in current times. Because movements are not located within an institutional space, digital infrastructure and platforms become an important shared space for coming together, coordinating and planning activities, documenting decisions/transparency, as well as the living archive of collective history, etc. It's a critical part of the ecosystem of movements today.

Often, digital infrastructure of movements is a combination of different platforms, tools and accounts that are employed or emerge across time in evolution with the movement as it grows. Unlike within an organisation, there may be several people taking care of different kinds of spaces for different purposes, which may also serve different communities. Some of these could be personal accounts, some could be temporary accounts set up for an activity or event, and some can be subscriptions and spaces created specifically for a coming together of different information, content and community streams. Taking a moment to understand this as an ecosystem – interconnecting components of a shared movement infrastructure – and to assess potential risks can help to surface collective responsibility, care and stewardship over these spaces, as well as to develop safety plans around potential compromises.

The following areas can be discussed when thinking about risk assessment on spaces and infrastructure, with some questions that can be considered:

a) Platform/tool/hosting decisions

Movement and organising work relies heavily on information sharing and effective communication. As such, thinking through risks related to which platform or tool to use for organising, and where they will be stored, can have a large implication on the safety and security of the people, groups and work of the movement. In assessing risks related to vulnerability to breaches and attacks, it may be useful to consider if there are feminist/activist-developed or hosted solutions for that specific need, as they generally pay greater attention to issues of privacy and security.

It’s also important to consider accessibility, usability, ease and likelihood of effective adoption by larger movement members. It’s not always useful to choose the most technically secure solution, when it requires a lot of investment in time and energy to learn how to use it, which may not always be possible or preferable.

b) Ownership and resourcing

Ownership and management of shared digital infrastructure is both responsibility as well as power and potential gatekeeping. The more a movement is able to surface this as a political conversation around shared values and understanding on governance, economy and community building, the more sustainable some of the shared technology practices can be.

c) Administration and protocols

In the context of movement organising, thinking about infrastructure as shared space means that having clarity around how these spaces are managed and by whom can help to surface not only collective care, but also potential risks related to access to, care of and potential loss of information and community space.


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3. Data/information

Data and information are being produced and generated all the time while organising. This can be in the form of formal or informal, deliberate or shadow forms of data. Another way to understand risks in increments is to look at the data practice of a specific activity or strategy of a movement. Think about this from either a specific working group within a movement that is responsible for carrying out specific tasks or strategies, or from the perspective of an activity. This can also be used at the level of an organisation, as every organisation deals with data, and each unit within an organisation does as well.

Here, there are some security and safety considerations for each phase of the data life cycle. There is an activity called “Data life cycle to as a way to understand risk” that operationalises this section.

a) Creation/gathering/collection of data

b) Data storage

c) Data processing

d) Publishing/sharing of information from the processed data

e) Archiving

f) Deletion

Conclusion

This background document aims to help provide you with a conceptual overview of how to think about risk assessment from the perspective of movement organising. Often, risk assessment is done at the level of an individual, or an organisation. Thinking about this at the level of movements means asking participants to situate themselves as significant, yet partial, parts of a larger community of organisers.

This can be helpful as a common ground for groups of people who are organised differently to come together and think through a common plan, when a shared context, aim or activity is identified. It can also help to facilitate processes for collective thinking around sustainability and organising by anticipating and planning for risks related to group and relational dynamics, and where information and communications technologies play a critical role as movement infrastructure.

You can share this as an additional resource for background reading with participants, or choose specific layers to further deepen as a group exercise or discussion.

Further reading

More broadly on understanding movement building and collective organising, as well as on digital realities:


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