In the context of the digitization of the workplace, numerous companies are introducing digital platforms that are intended to strengthen employee participation. The implications of social media for the meaning of political engagement and participation has been widely addressed in the field of Internet studies. In the working environment, social networks have gained increasing attention in recent years, especially because of their potential to empower workers to engage in knowledge management strategies within organizations. The benefits of Enterprise Social Networks for internal operations, including the dissemination and creation of information, are promising.

The advantages of democratizing access to information for employees include but are not limited to: increasing employee commitment and motivation towards the organization’s objective; the advancement of productivity and creativity among users; and an overall higher satisfaction rate of workers. Enterprise Social Networks have received much attention in academia recently, with works addressing diverse aspects including its potential to enhance employee participation in organizations.

At first glance, collaborative communication technologies disable hierarchical structures of information flows, extending information channels laterally as well as enabling bottom-up communication. However, Enterprise Social Networks not only foster communication among employees through social collaboration tools, they also enable workers to be quantified while extending mechanisms of information control and governance by the employer. The options of real-time tracking make it easier to trace employees’ activity, which increases employee monitoring altogether.

This development leads German works councils for instance to prohibit the implementation of Enterprise Social Networks, as the Works Constitution Act (§ 87) allows them to veto if the employees’ well-being is put into question. The issue of workers’ control on digital platforms must be addressed by examining new forms and processes of employee empowerment online. In our research project at the Humboldt Institute for Internet on Society in Berlin, we investigate the affordances for digital transformations within organizations, including their respective adaptation to German workers’ rights. However, Enterprise Social Networks not only represent a threat to workers’ rights but may also function as an extension in favor of employees and the business practices of German works councils. The co-determination rights in Germany invites workers to actively participate in shaping of their working environment – the participatory nature of Enterprise Social Networks could therefore foster employee participation within organizations for instance.

Besides new prospects of workers’ control within Enterprise Social Networks, new constraints and affordances of information processing are further occurring for employees, while information asymmetries among employees are being intensified. Not every employee is naturally a talented blogger and therefore a successful knowledge sharer. Not all employees across the board of the whole workforce can meet the skills to share knowledge comprehensively for others. Elderly personnel for example, who are not digitally native, may be excluded from Enterprise Social Networks. Further not every work process allows access to Enterprise Social Networks—for example, as soon as one’s work routine does not include a computer or smart device. Thus information asymmetries among employees might be intensified by the implementation of Enterprise Social Networks, which constitutes one of its disadvantages. This can be highly problematic, as knowledge sharing influences formal and informal social structures within organizations, as Professor of Technology Management UC Santa Barbara Paul M. Leonardi argues: “Information is a valuable commodity in organizations because the possession or absence of it can alter social structure by positioning those who have information as powerful actors, and those who do not as less powerful” (Leonardi, Activating the informational capabilities of information technology for organizational change, 814).

The quantity and quality of information possessed by an individual affects their standing within an organization. When information is distributed equally, individuals may experience an equalization of participation rates among members and weakening of the group power status system overall. Certain users may have advanced skills to acquire information in an Enterprise Social Networks, and therefore have more power in the decision-making processes. Formal power in an organization corresponds to the degree to which knowledge can be accessed and changed. Informal power structures are also information and knowledge structures.

Organizations that implement Enterprise Social Networks must be aware of the prospective challenges that Enterprise Social Networks entail. The democratization and humanization of work remains a central task of employee representatives in the negotiation process of changing industries, especially in Germany where workers’ rights are historically embedded in the majority of organizations offering a say for employees when tools like Enterprise Social Networks are being introduced. However, this should not route works councils to simply preclude new technological tools as this response hinders innovation overall, but should rather inspire them to appropriate these for their own work practices and to challenge aspects information control in the negotiations processes with the establishment.

Shirley Ogolla

Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

shirley.ogolla@hiig.de

Researchers single out three levels of the digital divide: the first level is based on access to information and communication technologies (ICTs), the second level relates to differences in ICT skills, and the third level results from the unequal distribution of important opportunities based on access to ICT and quality of ICT use.

Nowadays it is clear that developed countries and many developing countries are slowly overcoming the first-level digital divide. The purpose of the study is to reveal the causes of the first-level digital divide reduction in contemporary Russia. Understanding these causes is important because it might allow us to explain and control the digital gaps related to continuous information and communication changes in future.

Digital divide theorists M. Castells, Jan van Dijk, B. Wellman, M. Ragnedda, P. DiMaggio, E. Hargittai have pointed out that the first-level digital divide is influenced by traditional factors such as sex, age, race, nationality, health, occupation, education, country of accommodation, accommodation in city/rural areas, income, etc. At first, only the elite had Internet access, as elites usually get access to new technologies before others. Therefore, we can argue that Internet access distribution depends on the traditional factors influencing social inequality. This study argues that ICT evolution affects digital divide more than traditional factors.

I conducted a correlational analysis of traditional factors affecting digital divides in 36 countries by means of relevant statistical indicators:

The results of the analysis make it clear that Internet penetration (percentage of the total population of a given country or region that uses the Internet) is influenced mostly by 4 factors: age, health, income, accommodation in city/rural areas. However, the analysis of dynamics of these factors from 2004 to 2016 in Russia shows that they correlate partially with dynamics of Internet penetration in Russia.

At the same time, it is possible to note 4 outliers in dynamics of the Internet penetration rate in Russia:

• 2007 – IPR increased by 6.6% in comparison with the previous year;
• 2010 – IPR increased by 14% in comparison with the previous year;
• 2011 – IPR increased by 6% in comparison with the previous year;
• 2012 – IPR increased by 14.8% in comparison with the previous year.

To better understand these outliers, I analyzed Internet development in Russia through 5 factors:

• Type of Internet connection
• Price of Internet access
• Purpose of Internet use
• Equipment for Internet access
• Technological infrastructure for Internet access

The analysis of Internet development in Russia shows that each outlier is related to changes in the information and communication technologies field, such as significant price drops for Internet access, the emergence and growth of online social networks, providing free Internet access for using particular websites, the development of Internet infrastructure, the transition from WAP, GPRS, 2G (EDGE) to 3G and from 3G to 4G, development of equipment for Internet access (emergence of 3G and 4G mobile phones on the market), and the launching of paid and free public Wi-Fi networks.

This study attempts to show the influence of ICT evolution on digital divide reduction in Russia. I have argued that the digital divide is based on ICT evolution, and thus it differs from other types of social inequality. That is why traditional approaches to inequality are not sufficient for understanding the digital divide.

Daria Kushnarenko

The modern work environment has been drastically affected by the era of digital communication and information technologies. Computers, tablets and smartphones seem to be part of a mandatory items list nowadays. Therefore, the boundary between home life and work life has been reduced by new digital tools into non-work hours, leading to excessive daily life interference.

Certainly the internet has brought countless possibilities and new means of entertainment, learning, and working. Furthermore, the internet has broken down barriers that separate disparate segments of our lives to create a constantly connected world. “Hyperconnection” is related to irritability, anxiety, insomnia and isolation due extending on-work hours. It is caused by the erosion of barriers between private and work life, also contributing to elevated patterns of sedentary behavior and mortality. Our research illustrates a possibility that new technologies may meddle in the private lives of employees despite bringing  flexibility and promptitude. How do we establish limits to this connection to our work in a digital era?

The right to disconnect has been included in the law of several countries as well as the policies of many companies. In 2016, the French Government passed the El Khomri Law to amend the French Labour Code to include the right to disconnect from work-related technologies. It was adopted in response to a report on the impact of digital technologies on labour, which supported a right to “professional disconnection”. The reform recommended such a measure on the basis that  balance between work and private life is necessary for digital transformations to have a positive effect on a workers’ quality of life. This report identified several risks to psycho-social behavior, including emotional and cognitive overload. The French Government deemed the introduction of the right to disconnect necessary for the health of workers throughout the country. In a related example,, several German companies have implemented similar policies that guarantee employees a right to disconnect by  placing limits on the amount of work-related digital connection after work hours.

In 2012, the European Commission organized a body of research entitled “The onlife initiative: concept reengineering for rethinking societal concerns in the digital transition” about how the development of information and communication technologies can have a radical impact on human well-being.

Meanwhile in Brazil, the recent Labour Law Reform has created the “telejob”, which consists of using the internet and other forms of telecommunication over distance to provide a service (article 75-B, Consolidation of the Labour Law). In other words, the Brazilian labour law reform extended the workplace to workers personal lives, assisted by the new technologies. The work relationship has gradually become online, requiring regulation of its interference.

There are so many contradictions that surround the world of work, including lack of job stability and workers’ rights, the role of new challenges in a hyperconnected era. In such manner, the right to disconnect from work is a right of all society. Viewed in another way, non-work in present days is even a factor of human nature redemption. However, this situation is far from producing a rupture in the legal standards of human work protection. This new world of contradictory work brings to the jurists the challenge of finding these answers, which are also intended to preserve the society health.

André Tito da Motta Oliveira

Prejudice. Exclusion. Difficulty in educational access. Inability to find work. Violation of rights. These are some of the daily challenges faced by transgender people. In spite of the various initiatives and projects aimed at this population in the areas of social welfare (health, social assistance and social security), education, labor and public safety, more visibility has also lead to stronger opposition.

Such a duality of advances and setbacks also persists in the online environment. Transgender people have used the Internet as a tool to combat social isolation, marginalization and the lack of access to health, economic and legal information, creating safe virtual networks and communities where they can exercise fundamental rights and freedoms, have access to critical information to build knowledge, express thoughts and beliefs and to mobilize for change.

Among the various subspaces within the Internet ecosystem, one has radically changed the way people relate: dating apps. These applications were developed to allow users to interact, socialize, and meet others through their interface. For better or worse, the growth in the use of new technologies, especially smartphones, has changed many facets of our society, including the way people establish romantic relationships. For cisgender people, it is now easier to date and hook up. However, for those who identify as transgender, online dating is much more complicated.

The first identified problem relates to the platforms themselves: having been designed in a binary way, most apps lack a real variety of sexual orientation and gender identities for users to choose (Tinder, Happn and Badoo, to name a few). ‘Real name’ policies also pose an issue for transgender people, who are susceptible as well to collection of a large amount of personal data by private companies, such as the age-rank of people the user is interested in, when and where every online conversation happens. Grindr, a dating app for the LGBT+ community, has shared information regarding HIV status from its users with third parties. Nevertheless, the app recently announced it would stop sharing this information.

Secondly, this kind of data confidentiality in dating apps is even more relevant to people living in countries where prejudice is strong and the community is extremely persecuted by the government: the simple use of these platforms can endanger the lives of users. Increased surveillance and monitoring techniques, content regulation, filtering mechanisms and even death penalties for accessing LGBT+ content online are some of the challenges brought to light by online access.

Access to personal data from dating apps has motivated state persecution and the platforms’ policies are not satisfactory when dealing with practices of data sharing with government or law enforcement authorities. These policies generally include generic terms that provide hardly any guarantees to users. Experts also argue that when a data request is considered illegitimate, the platform operator should deny the request and, to the extent that it is possible, challenge it before a relevant court. With these findings, it is clear that dating apps have an active duty to improve their terms of service and guard their customers’ data vis-à-vis third parties.

Lastly, besides these vulnerabilities that users have before the platforms and governments, there is also the exposure to other users of the apps. It is not unusual for transgender individuals to be contacted in a hurtful, sexualizing, objectifying, fetishizing and reductionist way and furthermore, they do not have a proper response by the platform, being unfairly blocked, reported or deleted [trigger warning] due to their identities.

You may have come to this part of the post thinking the scenario is desolate for the trans community in the online environment, and in some cases it can be. But there are a lot of people fighting back to change this current state. In recent years we have witnessed the emergence of several resources, guides and organisations that helps the trans community to use new technologies in a secure form, and also give tips on how to protect yourself when the virtual flirting evolves into a real date. When it comes specifically to dating apps, some applications designed for transgender people have been launched. OkCupid, for instance, introduced over 10 gender options and had a crowdsource tool to better explain the new terms. These shows that trans people are striving to develop comfortable places to meet and date without judgment and are creating necessary alternatives to the mainstreams apps that are usually developed for a cisgender public.

It is important to stress that the trans community is still academically marginalized, even in broader debates about gender, and that this post has an exploratory spirit. For you, readers, feel free to contact us if you would like to exchange references, experiences and any other material you find useful.

Júlia Knauer, LL.M. Candidate, Tillburg University

Luã Fergus, Research Assistant, Center for Technology & Society (CTS) at FGV

The Internet constitutes a core infrastructure, especially in the western societies. The usage of this infrastructure has changed and developed significantly since its invention – from primarily being a communication infrastructure that provided access to static information, to becoming a global platform, to full-scale applications implemented as services. In recent years, we have seen a massive increase in using the internet as a mean to collect and provide data. Social media platforms and search engines assemble, apply and sell data about their users and their usage of these data-driven services; online shops use data to recommend products to buyers; and public organizations, such as municipalities, are to a greater extent making data available through open data interfaces that allow businesses to build services on top of these data sources. But, it requires IT expertise for the data to be made accessible [1].

Similar to roads and other physical infrastructures, data is now considered an enabler for societal actors and companies. We are taught, and thus know, how to navigate the streets. Assuming that data continues to develop as an infrastructure on which services are provided, we all arguably need to learn how to “drive on data.”

The term ‘data literacy’ describes the ability to derive meaningful information from data. Data literacy has gradually emerged from the “data revolution discussions” as policymakers, experts and advocates has begun to consider what it would take to enable citizens and organizations to explore and thus make better use of the data available to them. Moreover, the OECD has highlighted the important role that infomediaries (e.g. civic society, media and developers) play in the ongoing process of making sense of and creating value from “raw” data, as well as helping to steer the direction of how data is accountably collected, analyzed and applied [2]. More concretely, we have for instance observed a growing number of open data and civic technology advocates that organize hackathons to teach technical skills to the participants, enabling them to explore and work creatively with data often for social good; data journalists who report on interesting stories based on data; and data providers who induce a new level of transparency; and policymakers that support agendas that promote more technical curricula and coding programs.

Despite the increasing number of “bottom-up” initiatives that aim to tackle and improve the skills of the public, (big) data literacy is still a prominent barrier for many organizations. The lack of data literacy prevents them from “unlocking their data potential” [3]. The notion of “the digital divide” has been used to describe the gap between those who can access and engage with digital technologies and those who can’t [4]. The era of Big Data thus creates a new dimension of the digital divide: those who can make sense of and engage with data, and those who can’t. In order to prevent this growing dimension of the digital divide, it thus becomes important to question how we can engage in “infrastructuring” to further make data a public good.

Our research focuses on how we can develop tools and techniques that enable small and medium-sized organizations to explore the innovative potential of big data. By working closely with industry, we experiment with and aim to better understand how we can represent big data in design processes, in ways that enable “non-IT experts” to talk about and through data, to further be able to explore data’s innovative potential [5].

Knowledge sharing is key! We are therefore very interested in hearing more about other research projects that:

• try to tackle the challenge of representing and visualizing Big data to groups/teams consisting of people with diverse backgrounds
• discuss how we can make data a design material, which can engage people in the design of digital systems and data-driven services – and ideally the underlying data infrastructures
• experiment with ways to enhance Big Data literacy for “non-IT experts”

There might also be aspects that are interesting and relevant to our research, but which is not reflected in the list of topics above. Either way, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Cathrine Seidelin

University of Copenhagen

Political internet memes were used on a large scale for the first time during the 2012 US Presidential Election (remember Texts from Hillary and Romney hates Big Bird?). Initially used as a form of entertainment, the purpose of these funny images changed during the 2016 election. Memes started to dominate news headlines and were used to influence the political views of social media users. Palmer Luckey – founder of Facebook’s Oculus product – invested millions in a group responsible for generating and spreading anti-Clinton memes (see for example memes mocking Clinton’s health or spreading rumours that she was running a pedophile ring). During the 2016 elections, memes were not “just funny” anymore: they had become a tool to influence voters.

Memes contain certain manipulative techniques that make them suitable for transferring a distorted view of reality. Memes need to be interesting enough to survive online. Successful memes are simplistic: they convey “one uncomplicated idea or slogan” (Shifman 2014, 67). Memes can distort reality as they often present a simplistic message. Through their briefness, facts can more easily be left out. There is limited space for sharing detailed information or presenting counter arguments. Simplified messages can be especially persuasive if viewers have little or no knowledge on the topic that is being addressed. This simplicity means that memes almost completely rely on visuals to convey a message.

Visuals are effective for propagandizing political views, as images are less threatening and can reach a larger audience than text. Moreover, visual frames have a stronger influence on an audience than textual frames, as their influence is more subtle. A distorted view of reality can be created using manipulated or photoshopped images. Visuals can be highly effective in arousing emotions, which can effectively influence political views.

Memes often contain humour, which is a powerful way to influence opinions. People who often watch political satire tend to have a more negative perception of political candidates and less trust in politics. An example of the persuasive power of humour is Tina Fey’s parody of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. These parodies were found to have a negative effect – a so-called ‘Fey Effect’ – on how voters evaluated Sarah Palin. Humour is also powerful because it makes a message stick with its viewers. By now, many have forgotten much of what Sarah Palin actually said, but Tina Fey’s portrayal of her lives on.

Research on the impact of memes on people’s views is scarce. Williamson, Sangster and Lawson show that exposure to feminist memes increases endorsement of feminist beliefs. Recent research indicates that viewing political internet memes results in stronger feelings of aversion compared to viewing non-political memes. Findings of my undergraduate thesis – though not significant – show that people generally rate politicians more negatively after seeing him or her portrayed in a meme compared to portrayals in a normal image.

Memes are likely to be shared between friends. Online people can decide who to link with and what pages to follow. A study by Pew Research shows that nearly 60% of respondents find discussing politics with people they disagree with “stressful and frustrating”. Some might even block or unfriend those with dissimilar political views. The negative perception of politicians can be strengthened if social media users are only confronted with persuasive political memes and no posts providing counterarguments to those memes.  Disinformation can have large consequences, especially when people are not exposed to a diversity of opinions online. This fear should be taken seriously as young people today have indicated that social media is their primary source of news.

The power of memes to successfully spread rumours is especially frightening when their persuasive power and large reach is taken into account. In a time when Russian trolls are spreading fake news and wealthy investors such as Palmer Luckey spend money on online propaganda, memes play an important part in shaping the state of our current democracy. Misinformation serves as a collective warning for democracy when citizens are emotionally manipulated to distrust entire population groups or their own democratic processes. The aim of Luckey’s investment was not only to get Trump elected, but to also prove the persuasive power of “shitposting” and the use of humorous images for political purposes.

Ofra Klein

(ofra.klein@eui.eu @ofra_klein)

PhD Researcher

European University Institute

While government policy papers, pop science articles and advertising campaigns recurrently extol the virtues of digital connectivity, proclaiming ‘ Life’s Better Connected’, the last few years have seen the emergence of a rising tide of digital discontent. With the creeping ubiquity of wireless, contactless and mobile connectivity, and the proliferating array of ‘smart’ things, apps and ‘all you can eat’ data plans that encourage continuous, exhaustive connection, a mounting sense of unease has surfaced around the security, privacy and health risks endemic to this ontological regime of constant connectivity.

Fears about sleep deprivation, dwindling attention spans and the biological effects of long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation have mushroomed, leading growing numbers of schools to remove WiFi and ban smartphones. In the post-Snowden security landscape, increased awareness of routine and warrantless dataveillance has led to intensifying public and policy debates over digital privacy, resulting in many users abandoning social media platforms. Moral panics about social media and smartphone addiction have given rise to multiple ‘national days of unplugging’ and pledges to #GoGadgetFree. A market has even emerged for designer dumb phones (with Nokia re-releasing their old 3310 model in 2017). Growing numbers of cafés, restaurants and public houses are establishing smartphone-free and WiFi-free (‘NoFi’) zones with the hope of rekindling a romanticised form of vanishing pre-digital sociality (and to stop laptop table-hoggers). Device-free dinners and teambuilding events, behaviour-correcting practices like phone stacking, and the emergence of Internet- blocking apps (with names like ‘Freedom’, ‘Cold Turkey’ and ‘Anti Social’), all aim to help struggling users cultivate mindful connectivity.

Amidst this growing discontent, a new culture hero has emerged: the blogger who bravely heads out into the Great Offline. Going offline has, somewhat paradoxically, gone viral. A simple Google search reveals hundreds of inspirational tales from bloggers, journalists and vloggers returning from their week, month or even year-long ‘digital sabbatical’ to narrate their cathartic offline odyssey. For some, the experience positively transforms their lives, while for others, it reconfirms and renews their faith in the Internet. For all, it is a revelatory experience that teaches them something meaningful about themselves, their relationships with others and their social worlds. Quitting social media has been found to add significant brand value to celebrities’ public images. Ed Sheeran, Adele, Kanye West and Zayn Malik are just some of the famous faces to have digitally disappeared.

As the popularity of offlinism grows, a nascent industry of digital detox retreats and Internet-free holiday packages has emerged to capitalise on this increasingly widespread cultural trend. Camp Grounded in the Northern California redwoods is a summer camp ‘where grown-ups go to unplug’ and requires campers to surrender their devices upon arrival. Time To Log Off and Unplugged Weekend similarly provide a variety of camps, workshops and retreats to nondigital destinations, that aim to help burnt-out users restore their tech-life balance. Needless to say these unplugged experience packages come with a hefty price tag. Ontologically reconfigured as ‘the offline’, forests, mountains and tropical islands have triumphantly re-emerged as alluring and lucrative frontiers to be (re)colonised, (re)commodified and (re)consumed. The great outdoors repackaged for public consumption as the great offline.

If disconnection ever appeared as a mode of resisting the compulsory connectivity of the control society, it is increasingly being incorporated into it through these unplugging practices as a form of permissible release. Often branded as ‘disconnect to reconnect’, the digital detox is figured as a restorative and rejuvenating – but momentary – break from the digital noise of endless status updates, Facebook feeds, Netflix binges and compulsive email checking. Providing users with a space of permitted freedom from the frenzied techno-anxieties of the connected world, this strain of offlinism ultimately preserves and strengthens the technopolitical hegemony of connectivity.

As sacred spaces to turn off, shut down, and log out (to update Timothy Leary’s famous phrase for the Digital Age), those increasingly rare regions that still somehow exist beyond the ever-increasing reach of digital connectivity are fast becoming endangered sites in need of protection. In opposition to the corporate push to ‘bridge the connectivity gap’ in the name of digital expansionism, might we soon find activists from the unplugging movement campaigning for these sites to be left as signal-free dead zones, to be preserved and cherished for future generations?

Alexander Taylor

Department of Social Anthropology

University of Cambridge

Leader-centric theories

The increasing use of the internet in organisations means there is an increased opportunity for transparency and directly engaging with all employees, particularly in a global organisation. From a skills perspective, this opens up a new set of skills that a competent leader may need to develop to be successful today. This applies not only to how a leader interacts with employees but now with social media, it applies also to communication with customers. Leaders need to consider not only what information they share through this medium but also the short-term and long-term risks associated with the information they choose to share or not share. This is more pronounced in organisations that may be international as the internet removes physical boundaries, whilst requiring more culturally sensitive communication. This illustrates the types of skill that the leader must consider and develop i.e. the ability to effectively communicate to achieve organisational goals across national boundaries and cultural differences whilst being sensitive to all and also risk management in relation to information sharing.

‘Leadership as a process’ theories

If we examine this using ‘leadership as a process’ theories, this is perhaps where the increasing use of the internet in the work place provides most opportunity. With channels such as social media, blogs, even the company website, the leader is provided with the opportunity to communicate directly with employees and even customers in a way that we have not seen before. Whilst this can benefit all types of leaders, transformational leaders may be more likely to maximise use of the opportunities to build relationships and share his/her vision and increase influence.

Implications for leadership development

Let us consider the implications of the above reflections on the design of leadership development programme. Whilst the internet provides a great opportunity for leaders, it also brings with it the need for an array of skills in the leader’s toolkit such as culturally sensitive communication, risk management in relation to information sharing as well as many others. Leadership development programmes would need to help leaders to understand the new skills required in using the internet in their role, identify their skills gap in relation to their use of the internet in their relationship with their employee and customers. The programmes would then need to provide awareness and support them to build these skills. For example, the internet may encourage and facilitate the delivery of more transformational leadership style. This direct communication also creates the need for a more democratic leadership style. Leadership can be a challenging yet important role in any organisation as it is. With the increasing role of the internet in organisations, it is imperative that the impact of the internet on leadership and leadership development receives further review and discussion.

Monica Mendiratta

The term “revenge porn” is being used in several countries and contexts (by feminists, the media, law and policy makers) to refer to the unconsented disclosure of intimate, erotic or sexual material, usually via internet. While placing various legal questions about privacy and the liability of Internet providers, the debates that surround it allow us to reflect on how new communication technologies help to enlighten gender, sexuality, privacy matters and also bring new social, political, legal and anthropological challenges.

In my phd work, which focus on “revenge porn” controversies in Brazil, the Internet is both a subject and a field of observation. Due to the technical advances made available by new information technologies – social networks, smart-phones and other platforms – we are faced with changes in the way we interact with each other and with digital media. In different ways, it is in and through the internet that “revenge porngraphy” comes to life. It is in spaces of virtual sociability that circulate, concurrently, both the products of unauthorized and malicious disclosure of intimate contents, as well as the resulting condemnations and persecutions of the women involved, allowing the maintenance and proliferation of different forms of violence against women.

An active part of an “enlarged public sphere”, the internet is a space of multiple disputes, which poses opposing, ambiguous, contrasting and conflicting positions. If restrictive and condemning conventions of gender and sexuality are perpetuated online, dissident and counter-hegemonic voices also circulate. Therefore, the internet can also be a kind of battlefield for sexuality, a space that brings together political clashes about meanings and restrictions on bodies, behaviors and uses of pleasures.

Beatriz Accioly Lins

bia.accioly.lins@gmail.com

The central theme of my postdoctoral research is the understanding of different constructions of the notion of sexual violence against children and adolescents in communities characterized as “socially vulnerable.”

The fieldwork that gives base to the proposed reflections has as context two favelas of the city of Rio de Janeiro: Morro da Providência and Complexo do Muquiço. It is difficut to gather quantitative data about life in favelas, especially because the presence of groups linked to drug traffic and the police violence. As I am na anthropologist I use ethnography as the main methodology. So the data of this research comes from direct interaction with adolescents, with children and with the wider observation of community relations and local networks of news and gossip. I truly believe that ethnography can allow us to seize more specific data, something that goes beyond numbers.  While conducting fieldwork an important fact appeared: as a consequence of increasing digital inclusion, especially with the use of mobile phones and mobile networks, there is a significant presence of children and adolescents, from these places, in social networks and in interaction programs (Messenger, Whatsapp). In these environments, in addition to the practice of sexting, adolescents are exposed and are subject to harassment and violence.

My goal is to discuss the challenges involved in mapping the networks of relationships established on the internet when it comes to work with violence in which markers of age, social class and income intersect. Moreover, in contexts marked by the overlapping of violence, it is a preponderant factor to understand how the internet appears as an environment of generation or reiteration of violence for children and adolescents.  This discussion allows us to advance in the understanding of the contradictions, tensions and vulnerabilities involved in the process of technological inclusion (and exclusion) and tell us about the general inequalities (and the digital inequalities are one of them) that we can find in vulnerable and precarious communities in Brazil.

Carol Parreiras

 carolparreiras@gmail.com