14 Dec 2023 Young leaders adopt media monitoring as key tool against gender cyberviolence

A dynamic cohort of young church leaders have committed to tackling tech-facilitated gender-based violence following a digital gender-justice workshop led by staff from WACC and the World Council of Churches on December 11–14 at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey (Switzerland).

Technology-facilitated gender-based violence, or TFGBV, is “a real pandemic,” commented one participant as the group learned about the extent of online gender-based violence and gendered disinformation.

To respond to the wide-ranging problem, participants explored how to apply WACC’s social media monitoring as a tool to raise awareness and gather evidence of misogyny and microagressions. Such evidence can be used to educate other users and to advocate with policy makers at national and international levels.

The young church leaders from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific developed action plans that include media monitoring in at least three regions.

“With the help of the Thursdays in Black youth educators and the facilitators I feel very confident that the tools used can be adapted to my context,” one participant said.

WACC and WCC will continue to support the participants as part of their collaboration on Gender and Media and ending gender cyberviolence.

“We can work together to identify technology-facilitated gender-based violence and advocate to counter such violence,” affirmed one participant.

The workshop “Taking Action Against Online Sexual and Gender-Based Violence” was organized by WACC and the WCC, with financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office. WACC Deputy General Secretary Sara Speicher and Sarah Macharia, global coordinator of WACC’s Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), facilitate the workshop sessions.