How to Report

WHAT CAN YOU MAP

Any experience, report or cases of violence against women which happened online or through the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs), like mobile phones and the internet.

You can either document your own experience, or ask someone you know to share hers. You can also map a case published in local or national papers, or in internet sites or blogs from your country, adding links to the website where it has been published. It is important to document every story to build evidence about online VAW.

If you would like to report someone else's story, as far as possible, please make sure you have their express permission and consent.

You can also anonymise the story to protect your identity or the identity of the person affected by changing important details such as your/her real name, age, type of employment and location (choose a broad area). This allows the story to be heard, without putting the story-teller's sense of privacy and safety further at risk. Unless the perpetrator has been found guilty of the crime by a court of law, the full name shouldn't be used, even if it appears in the news.

HOW TO ADD YOUR STORY TO THE MAP

1) Send us an email: map@takebackthetech.net

2) Submit a report

You can post your experience directly by using the "Submit a report" form.

a) Title of report
Give your story a title and write it here. This can be a sentence that briefly captures the experience, or if you are reporting from something in the media, the title of the news article.

b) Description
Here is where you share your story. Describe what happened in as many or as few details as you like. If you are mapping a newspaper report, you can just cut and paste the article here. Please respect the privacy of all persons involved: do not use actual names of the person who experienced the violence or the abuser in your report.

c) Date & Time
Where relevant, you can click on “modify date” and select the date that the violence took place, or when the newspaper report that you’re citing was published. If it happened over several months, you can just select the month and year that it began. If you are reporting at the time when it is happening, you can leave the date & time as is.

d) Your name & email
If you feel comfortable, you can include your name (a pseudonym will do) and email address here.  We take privacy very seriously, and your email address will only be used to contact you if we need any clarification or verification. It will not be shared with anyone, and we will not send you any other types of emails.  You can also choose to leave this option blank.

e) The map

This is where you can mark the location of where the violence took place. For your own privacy, do not select your actual home address or street address. A rough idea of the location is enough for the purposes of this map, for example, your town/city/region.

·      Use your mouse to find the location in the map directly. First zoom out and find your country, then click and zoom in to find your region and town/city. 

·      There are 4 icons below the map. You can either use the first icon that is shaped like a rectangle to select a broad area, or the icon that looks like a pencil to drop a marker in a specific place. If it happened in several places, you can put in several markers or use the rectangle to indicate a broad area. As a reminder, please do NOT drop a marker on your home address or street address.

·      If you made a mistake, you can delete the marker by selecting either “delete last” (for the last entry you made), delete selected (a selection of markers) or “clear map” (to delete everything)

·      Write your town/city, country under "refine location"

f) News source link
If you are mapping news reports, then add the URL or web address of the news article here.

g) External video link
If your mapping initiative is part of a creative campaign that uses video, you can add the URL or web address of where the video is located here.

h) Upload photos
You can scan and upload newspaper reports, or printscreens of hacked websites here.

i) Submit
Once you have filled in this form, click “Submit” and your story is part of this global initiative to map technology-related violence against women!

CATEGORIES & DESCRIPTION

These are the categories that we want  to map, to better understand the different forms of technology-related violence against women and what is involved. This helps us look at the stories as a whole, and identify key issues that need to be addressed in our advocacy work. 

1) Violation

What is the act of violence? What did the abuser, perpetrator or violator do?

a) Accessing private data
Accessing your private information without consent, by hacking into your account, stealing your password, using your computer to access your accounts while it is logged in etc.

b) Taking photo/video without consent
Taking photographs or recording videos of you without your knowledge or consent.

c) Monitoring & tracking
Monitoring & tracking your online or offline activities and movement.

d) Deleting, changing or faking personal data, photos/videos
Deleting your emails, creating false personal data like online accounts or advertisement postings, manipulating or creating fake photos and videos of you.

e) Repeated harassment
Repeated and unwanted harassment through messages, contact, publishing info about you online etc.

f) Threats of violence/blackmail
Sending threatening messages or blackmailing you with threats of publishing personal photographs online etc.

g) Stealing identity, money or property
Stealing your identity by creating a fake account under your name, using your passwords to withdraw money from your bank account, etc.

h) Sharing and/or disseminating private information
Sharing and/or disseminating private information & communication like videos, photos and emails, without your knowledge or consent.

i) Abusive comments

Offensive or denigrating online comments meant to hurt a person's reputation or diminish her/his work, content production, etc

j) Other
Acts of violence that are not covered in these categories. If you select this, please do remember to include information in the report about what happened

What harm did you face as a result of the violation or act of violence?

a) Physical harm
Assaulted, beaten, suffered physical injury etc.

b) Emotional or psychological harm
Depression, anxiety, living in a state of fear etc.

c) Sexual harm
Sexually harassed, assaulted, raped etc.

d) Harm to reputation
Damaged your reputation, standing or credibility at work, in your community or beyond.

e) Loss of identity
Lost your online accounts, or ability to assert your identity online because someone created an account in your name etc.

f) Loss of property, economic costs
Lost money, content, assets etc.

g) Mobility limited
Lost ability to move around freely and participate in online and offline spaces.

h) Censorship
Lost ability to freely express yourself and engage in online spaces.

i)Invasion of privacy

Intrusion into the personal life of another, or in one's private affairs

3) Technology platform

What type of ICT (information and communication technologies) was used, or where did the violence happen? Below is a list of potential platforms that we have identified.

a) Mobile phone
b) Radio
c) Television
d) Newspaper
e) Forum, mailing lists or ads 
f (Facebook
g) Twitter
h) Orkut
i) Youtube
g) Other social networks 
j) Online chats (e.g. Skype, IM)
k) Geolocation (e.g. maps, GPS, 4square)
l) Email
m) Webcam
n) Video
o) Audio/mp3
p) Other

4)    Abuser/Violator

Who was the abuser/violator?

a) Someone known
A friend, husband, ex-partner, colleague etc.

b) Someone unknown
Stranger or not sure who the abuser/violator is because his/her identity is hidden

c) A group of people
Many different people coming together or acting separately to engage in the act of violence or violation

d) Internet platform provider (e.g. Facebook)
Violence was experienced because of a decision, action or role played by a private company that provided a service online.

e)  State
Violence was caused by someone in a state or public institution such as the police, military, hospital, social services, state enforcement authority, etc.

f) Other
Abuser/violator is not covered by the categories above.

5)    Action by Victim

Type of public action that victim takes to stop tech-related VAW

a) Reported to police/state enforcement authority

b) Reported to State office specialised in VAW to get help/counselling

c) Investigation initiated by prosecutor 

d) Indictment/ perpetrator brought to trial

e) Perpetrator imprisoned

6) Age of person experiencing abuse