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| Brave Women. Invigorated to continue fighting for safety and security of women online and offline by the presence of these two courageous ladies - Jessica, a fellow resource person for the Senate Committee Hearing for Gender Based Electronic Violence, and Senator Risa Hontiveros, staunch advocate for women's rights. |
Even before I perused the United Nations Human Rights document on Rights to Privacy online, I've already heard of the phrase, "our rights offline is our rights online" from friends in the Information Communication Technology advocacy, particularly from Democracy.net.ph. This is true especially in the discourse of gender based violence - we are supposed to be protected online as well as offline. Ideally.
The incidents related to the Facebook pages called "Hokage" and "Pastor", popularized and further exposed by the page Catcalled in the Philippines, tell us otherwise. The experience of the young girls who spoke against the Marcos burial only to be met by threats of rape and murder is evidence against this ideal. The vitriol the LGBT community receives online when there are talks of same sex marriage or gender affirming interventions, such as in the case of Jake Zyrus, is a manifestation of homophobia. My own experience as a woman and an advocate against rape culture have also exposed me to some traumatizing experiences online, the mildest of which were comments on my alleged propensity to go out with whichever guy happens to be in the area, just because I insisted that consent to go somewhere (even if it is a motel) is not consent for sex.
Our rights offline are our rights online, perhaps because the violation of our rights online has severe consequences beyond cyberspace. Sexual violence offline causes significant psychological trauma to people. Depression, self harm, nightmares, and suicide are just some of the symptoms experienced by victims. The same mental anguish can be observed in victims of online sexual harassment. One of the victims reported feeling depressed, having suicidal thoughts, and engaging in self harm. Her intimate photos on Facebook may have already been deleted, but not the scar on her left wrist. The violation, whether done offline and online, has the same effect of mental, emotional, and psychological anguish for victims.
It was these recent events and out personal experiences that led me and two other fierce, intelligent, and beautiful women to start speaking out against sexual violence online, and when the opportunity to do more impact by telling our stories in aid of legislation, Doc Tess Termulo and Ate Christene dela Cruz made sure that out voices will be heard. This was only a prelude. "Something wicked this way comes," but that is another story for another day.
We received an invitation to meet with the staff of Senator Risa Hontiveros, the proponent of the Tres Marias bills which aimed to strengthen the existing rape law, introduce peer-to-peer sexual harassment, and prosecute online violence against women and the LGBT. We were also invited as resource persons during the hearing of the Senate Committees on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality; and Science and Technology for a public hearing on the said bill. I was invited as one of victims of online harassment, as well as incorporator of the Philippine Society of SRH Nurses, Inc. As a resource person, I was tasked to prepare a position paper for the Society, as well as a personal statement. Both of these will be published in subsequent blogpost.
This engagement opens up a whole new avenue on protecting our sexual rights online, which something every netizen should look forward to.
1. Unauthorized recording, reproduction or distribution of videos showing the victim’s naked or undergarment-clad genitals, public area, buttocks or breasts;
2. Uploading or sharing without the consent of the victim, any form of media that contain pictures, voice or video of the victim with lewd, indecent, obscene or sexual content:
3. Harassing or threatening the victim through text messaging, obscene, misogynistic, homophobic or indecent posts in social media sites, or other cyber, electronic or multimedia means;
4. Cyber-stalking which includes, but is not limited to the hacking of personal accounts on social networking sites, the use of location trackers on cellular devices; and
5. Unauthorized use of the victim’s picture, video, voice, name or any other aspect of the victim’s identity and distributing the same in any video game, phone application, program and the like, which deliberately exposes the victim to harassment and attack and puts or tends to put the victim in a bad light or injure the victim’s reputation."
The innovations of these bills filed by Senators Binay and Hontiveros serve as responses to the changing times and the dynamic challenge of preventing and persecuting gender based violence. I, for one, am excited to see this landmark bill become law.#
It was these recent events and out personal experiences that led me and two other fierce, intelligent, and beautiful women to start speaking out against sexual violence online, and when the opportunity to do more impact by telling our stories in aid of legislation, Doc Tess Termulo and Ate Christene dela Cruz made sure that out voices will be heard. This was only a prelude. "Something wicked this way comes," but that is another story for another day.
We received an invitation to meet with the staff of Senator Risa Hontiveros, the proponent of the Tres Marias bills which aimed to strengthen the existing rape law, introduce peer-to-peer sexual harassment, and prosecute online violence against women and the LGBT. We were also invited as resource persons during the hearing of the Senate Committees on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality; and Science and Technology for a public hearing on the said bill. I was invited as one of victims of online harassment, as well as incorporator of the Philippine Society of SRH Nurses, Inc. As a resource person, I was tasked to prepare a position paper for the Society, as well as a personal statement. Both of these will be published in subsequent blogpost.
This engagement opens up a whole new avenue on protecting our sexual rights online, which something every netizen should look forward to.
Two bills concerning online violence are in deliberation.
Senator Hontiveros's proposed "Gender-based Electronic Violence Act of 2016” is an amalgamation of Senator Binay's expansion of VAW to cyberspace and the reality than the LGBT is also a constant target of online violence. In this bill, gender-based electronic violence (GBEV) is defined as, "an offense refers to any acts or omissions involving the use or exploitation of
ephemeral data or any form of information and communications technology (ICT) which
causes or is likely to cause mental, emotional, or psychological distress or suffering to
the female victim or Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) victim, and
tending to disparage the dignity and personhood of the same on account of his or her
gender, including but not limited to:
In 2013, Senator Nancy Binay filed the proposed Electronic Violence Against Women (E-VAW) Law of 2013, which aimed to expand the coverage of the existing Anti Violence Against Women and Their Children Act (RA9262) to cyberspace. While an excellent proposal due to the proliferation of revenge porn cases - where intimate partners upload, the E-VAW bill still only covers women who were violated by people who they have sexual or dating relationships with. The bill, therefore, does not encompass online violence committed by persons who have no relation to the victim - such as in the case of the girl who protested against Marcos or those men who kept sharing women's photos with lewd comments.
1. Unauthorized recording, reproduction or distribution of videos showing the victim’s naked or undergarment-clad genitals, public area, buttocks or breasts;
2. Uploading or sharing without the consent of the victim, any form of media that contain pictures, voice or video of the victim with lewd, indecent, obscene or sexual content:
3. Harassing or threatening the victim through text messaging, obscene, misogynistic, homophobic or indecent posts in social media sites, or other cyber, electronic or multimedia means;
4. Cyber-stalking which includes, but is not limited to the hacking of personal accounts on social networking sites, the use of location trackers on cellular devices; and
5. Unauthorized use of the victim’s picture, video, voice, name or any other aspect of the victim’s identity and distributing the same in any video game, phone application, program and the like, which deliberately exposes the victim to harassment and attack and puts or tends to put the victim in a bad light or injure the victim’s reputation."
The innovations of these bills filed by Senators Binay and Hontiveros serve as responses to the changing times and the dynamic challenge of preventing and persecuting gender based violence. I, for one, am excited to see this landmark bill become law.#
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