Executive Summary

The Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Nanyang Technology University (NTU) and the Canadian High Commission to Singapore collaboratively organised a three-part webinar series on “Gender, Security and Digital Space: Exploring Risks, Opportunities, and Security Implications” on May 11, 18, and 25, 2021.

The webinar series, which featured industry experts and speakers at the forefront of research and practice, explored various issues concerning security in cyberspace, including disinformation campaigns, hate speech, and internet shutdowns. These are burgeoning issues in digital space that have garnered greater attention as security concerns. With growing cognizance that these issues have disproportionate effects on the population by gender, the webinar series visited the concepts concerning security that are traditionally considered to be “masculine,” highlighted the importance of taking a gender-focused approach to security and cyberspace, and discussed policy responses to online threats that have gendered impacts.

The first webinar explored key issues arising in the cyber security landscape and how gender perspectives are often overlooked when discussing their impacts, thus exacerbating vulnerabilities for women and other marginalised groups online. It drew attention to how the assumed gender neutrality of digital spaces results in gender blindness, which overlooks the nuance in capabilities, needs, and priorities of women, men, and non-binary peoples.

The assumption of masculinised norms of vulnerability, threat, and security often project the responsibility of cyber security onto individual users. This emphasises the need for a framework that incorporates a gender-focused perspective into the design and operation of socio-technological systems, the identification of vulnerabilities, and the response to and post-incident reporting of cyber security attacks.

In ASEAN, the persistence of the digital gender gap made particularly salient by the COVID-19 pandemic, threatens the exacerbation of gender inequality in the region. The gendered digital divide puts women at risk of income loss, and impedes access to education and career opportunities, especially with digital acceleration in the wake of the pandemic. This gender divide also affects the participation of women and other marginalised groups in digital space, endangering their security and well-being in the long-run.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can help mitigate some of the challenges central to the women’s equality agenda, for instance, through the facilitation of political mobilisation and freedom of expression, the facilitation of women’s economic activity and participation in markets, and the mediation of interaction between individuals and governments. Thus, as Internet shutdowns are increasingly normalised as a security response to political mobilisations and unrest in some countries, it is cardinal to examine its disproportionate impact on women.

The second webinar discussed the gendered implications of disinformation and hate speech with a particular focus on gendered disinformation and hate speech targeting women in politics. It drew attention to how gendered disinformation and hate speech amplifies gender stereotypes, discourages women from participating in politics, and damages democracy and human rights. The webinar highlighted the extent to which women face online disinformation and hate speech, and drew attention to patterns and similarities observed in different contexts while noting the existence of culture and context specific differences in various countries.

The risks to national and individual security in cyberspace, including algorithmic biases, disinformation, and toxic representation of women, diminish advantages brought by the Internet. Social media contributes to the problem, playing host to gender biases and offering few solutions, as perpetrators of gendered disinformation and online abuse often do not face penalties. It is crucial for women experiencing online abuse and disinformation to be vocal and enhancing individuals’ media literacy is a part of the solution. However, the speakers acknowledged the burden placed on the victims of hate speech and disinformation to report such acts. They pointed at the need to support individuals suffering from online abuse and disinformation online, and called for a whole-of-society response.

Countermeasures to gendered disinformation and hate speech have to demarcate different types of violence and attend to advancing tactics, instruments, and terminology concerning violence against women. The barriers to countering gendered disinformation and hate in online spaces include limitations to the tools and political will to tackle the problem, lack of gender-focus in examining threats in platforms, absence of intersectional enforcement, victims having to shoulder the task of reporting online harms, and malign creativity.

The third webinar focused on gender-based hate speech and disinformation, and the role of social innovation in addressing these aspects of online insecurity.

The experiences from Taiwan’s model of collaboration with its civic-tech community reveal the potential of digital space as a platform for community-driven and collaborative efforts in the battle against misinformation.

Recognising misogynistic disinformation and hate speech as a distinct category of online violence, the webinar discussed a rise in volume of and engagement with misogynistic content during the pandemic. These misogynistic narratives have been found to disproportionately affect the attitudes of followers online.

Countermeasures in practice in multiple case studies across Asia underscore the value of digital literacy, as well as humour when countering online misogyny.