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Global Information Society Watch 2015 Sexual Rights and the Internet Global InformatIon SocIety Watch 2015 Sexual rights and the internet AssociAtion for Progressive communicAtions (APc) And HumAnist institute for cooPerAtion witH develoPing countries (Hivos) Global Information Society Watch 2015 Sexual rights and the internet Steering committee Anriette Esterhuysen (APC) Will Janssen (Hivos) Coordinating committee Monique Doppert (Hivos) Valeria Betancourt (APC) Mallory Knodel (APC) Jac sm Kee (APC) Nadine Moawad (APC) Project coordinator Roxana Bassi (APC) Editor Alan Finlay Assistant editor, publication production Lori Nordstrom (APC) Proofreading Valerie Dee Stephanie Wildes Graphic design Monocromo [email protected] Phone: +598 2400 1685 Cover illustration Matías Bervejillo Financial support provided by Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos) APC and Hivos would like to thank the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) for its support for Global Information Society Watch 2015. Published by APC and Hivos 2015 Printed in USA Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Some rights reserved. ISBN 978-92-95102-41-5 APC-201510-CIPP-R-EN-P-232 Table of contents Preface ............................................................... 5 CounTrY rEPorTS Anriette Esterhuysen and Will Janssen “Be obedient, be normal, do not stand out...” .... 47 Alan Finlay ThEmATIC rEPorTS Albania ..............................................................49 Civil rights Defenders and one World Platform Kanaga’s choices: Queer and transgender Argentina .......................................................... 53 identity in the digital age .................................... 9 nodo TAu mark Gevisser Australia ........................................................... 58 The democratisation of authority Wombat Crossing Consulting in the Middle East and North Africa .................. 13 Bangladesh .......................................................62 Amina Wadud Bytes for All A policy landscape of sexual orientation, Bolivia ...............................................................66 rEDES Foundation gender identity and the internet ........................17 Sheherezade Kara Bosnia and Herzegovina ................................... 69 okvir and one World Platform Feminist autonomous infrastructures ............... 22 Brazil................................................................. 74 Sophie Toupin and Alexandra hache InternetLab – Law and Technology research Center Privatising censorship online ............................26 Bulgaria ............................................................ 79 Jillian York BlueLink Foundation Canada ..............................................................84 Problematising the dominant discourse Alternatives around children, youth and the internet ........... 30 mitali Thakor Chile ..................................................................88 Derechos Digitales Porn. Panic. Ban ................................................35 China................................................................. 92 Bishakha Datta Pink Space China Click “I agree”: Consent and feminism Colombia........................................................... 96 Colnodo in commercial pornography .............................. 40 Jiz Lee Costa Rica ........................................................ 101 Sulá Batsú Croatia .............................................................104 Prostor rodne i medijska culture K-zona, Vox Feminae and one World Platform Democratic Republic of Congo .........................109 Si Jeunesse Savait (SJS) Dominican Republic ......................................... 112 Laura Breton Ecuador ............................................................116 Nigeria ............................................................ 207 red Diversidad LGBTI Ecuador Fantsuam Foundation Egypt................................................................120 Palestine ..........................................................211 uprising of Women in the Arab World maan network Ethiopia ...........................................................126 Panama ............................................................215 EFoSSnET IPAnDETEC Gambia, The .....................................................130 Paraguay ..........................................................217 Front Page International Asociación Trinidad Iceland .............................................................134 Peru .................................................................221 Kvenréttindafélag Íslands/Icelandic Women’s rights Departamento de Comunicaciones, Association Pontificia universidad Católica del Perú India .................................................................138 Philippines ......................................................225 SPACE Foundation for media Alternatives (FmA) Indonesia .........................................................143 Romania ...........................................................231 Center for Civic Engagement Studies Strawberrynet Foundation and Sapientia hungarian university of Transylvania Iraq ..................................................................147 richmond, the American International Russia ............................................................. 235 university in London oliver Poole Italy ..................................................................152 Rwanda ...........................................................239 Eurovisioni Emmanuel habumuremyi and Sylvère ntirampeba Jamaica ............................................................156 Serbia ............................................................. 243 Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS), Share Foundation university of the West Indies (uWI), Caribbean Institute for media and Communication (CArImAC), uWI Seychelles ...................................................... 246 Janick Bru Japan ................................................................160 university of Sussex Spain .............................................................. 250 Cooperativa Eines Kazakhstan ......................................................164 KImEP university Sudan ............................................................. 254 Liemia Abubkr Kenya ...............................................................169 Tactical Technology Collective Switzerland ..................................................... 257 Comunica-ch Korea, Republic of ............................................174 Korean Progressive network Jinbonet Thailand ...........................................................261 Thai netizen network Kosovo .............................................................178 hana marku Turkey ............................................................. 264 hun Consulting Lebanon ...........................................................184 mireille raad Ukraine ........................................................... 268 maria m. Pasholok Macedonia .......................................................187 one World Platform Foundation United Kingdom .............................................. 272 open rights Group Malawi ............................................................. 191 Levi Kabwato Uruguay .......................................................... 278 observaTIC, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Montenegro .....................................................195 universidad de la república Queer montenegro and one World Platform Yemen ..............................................................281 Morocco ...........................................................199 Internet Society Yemen Chapter (ISoC-YE) Institut International de la recherche Scientifique Netherlands .................................................... 202 nETShEILA Preface When the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) first raised the issue of internet content regulation and how it impacts on sexuality, in internet governance and policy spaces, we focused on building understanding that sexuality is a critical component of freedom of expression. APC, along with Hivos and our respective partners, challenged the assumption that sex was always about porn, and that porn was always bad. We began digging deeper into what was understood as pornographic content in internet policy, legislation and use, and how this term was being used as a blunt instrument and moral trump card for demanding regulation of the internet. What we found was that the sophisticated analysis of the nuanced relationship between sexuality, sexual and reproductive health, sexual expression, discrimination and rights, already present in the sexual rights, women’s rights and feminist movements that APC and Hivos had been working with, was completely absent in internet policy and internet rights discourse. The connection between the internet and sexuality, sexual expression, sexual identity, sex education and sexual and reproductive health has only recently received the recognition it deserves. In the early days of the internet, sexual content was viewed largely with alarm. While the internet’s potential for free flow of information and worldwide connections between people, ideas and institutions was celebrated, the rapid increase in the use of the internet for exchanging pornographic content provoked anxiety among some of the early developers and adopters. In APC’s own history, in 1998 when APC members
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