The national capital witnessed the second edition of the Online Safety Summit for Women by SheThePeople.TV at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The summit in its second year discussed solutions for increasing online gendered abuse, sexual harassment of women through online portals and misinformation targeting women. It is supported by Facebook, Twitter, Colors, and UN Women.
The summit identified steps taken by various digital platforms to protect women from risks of identity exploitations, financial risks, emotional harassment, awareness, policy and law enforcement. It also helped to highlight the importance of digital literacy as more and more women get online. The summit which focuses on solutions to real-world problems was inaugurated by Shaili Chopra, Founder of SheThePeople.TV. Other key speakers at the event were: KG Suresh Director IIMC, Syed Nazakat Editor DataLEADS, Rahul Srivastava of UP Police, Mahima Kaul from Twitter, Anja Kovacs, Nazia Erum, Kalpana Vishwanath from Safetipin, Prasanto Roy IT Expert, Advocate Talish Ray, BBC’s Trushar Barot, Kunal Mazumder India Correspondent Committee to Protect Journalists and activist Gurmehar Kaur.
Speaking on the same Ms Shaili Chopra Founder Shethepeople.TV said, “Safety of women online today needs a holistic approach & we are proud that SheThePeople.TV with its workshops across the country, in-depth research papers and multi-city summit editions is leading with solutions. The patriarchal behaviour extends to the online world including a backward value system that believes access to data and the internet is ‘ruining’ the lives of women. We want to be the leaders which focus on a positive dialogue and puts the spotlight on solutions and safety tools available for women.” A second edition of the safety summit this year will be held later in September in Mumbai after the Delhi edition which concluded today.
Mr KG Suresh, Director IIMC said, “We need to educate and train young journalists to do more on ground reporting and to support that, we must have digital trust conversations and training.”
Ms Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director, India, South and Central Asia Facebook said, “Promoting safe spaces for women on Facebook is very important to us. Research shows us that in addition to normative barriers, concerns around online safety prevent more online participation by women. In order to address this dynamic, we work with a variety of non-profits, academics and our community in India to help develop products, tools, policies that are safety-centric. We also run public education programs to build awareness and community capacity.
Ms Mahima Kaul from Twitter said, “We are happy to be partnering with @SheThePeople to host this important discussion. Platforms like the #SafetySummit provide an important opportunity to learn and engage with our larger community and update them on the work Twitter on online safety, which is a priority area for us.”
