“Bridging Intersectional Gaps in Digital Infrastructures in India”

This is a visualization of intersectional gaps in digital infrastructures, based on a mapping of the ecosystem of feminist publishing and content creation in India. Using fourteen icons for infrastructural keywords such as access, inclusion, safety, etc., the infographic illustrates motivations, barriers, affordances, and challenges of the digital transition in feminist content creation, and how they may provide a roadmap for creating feminist infrastructures.

Below is the full text of the infographic. However, the many red or brown icons associated with each item are missing in this textual transcription:

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Bridging Intersectional Gaps in Digital Infrastructures

Feminist Content Creation as Feminist Infrastructure

This visualisation maps some of the intersectional gaps in digital infrastructures as the ecosystem of feminist publishing and content creation in India navigates both the affordances and challenges of the digital transition. It explores the motivations of feminist publications and content creation spaces in building a space for creative expression, advocacy and research, especially for and by women and marginalised communities, but encountering various challenges in sustaining these interventions due to limitations in existing infrastructures.

The visualisation is based on the learnings from a study on digital feminist publishing and content creation/curation spaces in India. It can be read using the six overarching questions that discuss the state of feminist content creation as feminist infrastructure. The visualisation also highlights the infrastructural interventions and gaps in various areas including access, safety, inclusion, ownership and sustainability, across the different sections.

Technopolitical Dimensions of Infrastructure

The following elements are associated with different visual icons in the original infographic. Here they will be applied as text tags to different concepts as they are discussed.

• Access
• Safety
• Inclusion
• Ownership
• Language
• Labour
• Funding
• Privacy
• Free Speech
• Hate Speech
• Digital Access
• Policy
• Impact on Marginalised Communities
• Visual Design

Additionally, the icons originally associated with the above elements were also color coded: a red icons indicated an Infrastructural Gap, and a brown icon indicated a Potential/Existing Infrastructural Intervention. For the sake of clarity, colors will not be described here; instead their meaning will be substituted in place of any color assignation.

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1. What are the motivations for the transition to digital spaces?

Several print publications and content creation spaces transformed or extended into digital formats owing to the opportunities and flexibility that it allows. Some examples of this include an independent feminist publication house, a women-run rural media network, and a magazine on sexuality and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Digital Spaces

All of the list items in this section are considered potential/existing infrastructural interventions:

• Opens new avenues, access dimension
• Cost-effective compared to traditional publishing, funding dimension
• Wider distribution, reaching diverse audiences, inclusion dimension
• Allows for self publishing, access dimension
• Allows for multimodal content creation, inclusion dimension
• Increasing rights based conversations on the internet which foster participation from diverse communities, impact on marginalised communities dimension

Social Media

All of the list items in this section are considered potential/existing infrastructural interventions:

• Allows engagement with audience, access dimension
• Enables sharing of personal narratives including intimate content, free speech dimension
• Enables building networks of care, inclusion dimension

A sidebar-like note appears here, reading, “Social media platforms are often owned by large corporations that rely on data collection for profitability.” This note is associated with a privacy dimension coded as an infrastructural gap.

2. What are the barriers in digital spaces?

The affordances of digital spaces allow for diverse voices and forms of content. However, while the use of digital media is seen to enable access, it also entails several barriers for women and marginalised communities.

All of the following list items are considered infrastructural gaps:

• Lack of online availability of intersectional work with vulnerable groups, access dimension
• Lack of representation of people from marginalised communities in digital discourse, inclusion and impact on marginalised communities dimensions
• Remote areas/rural spaces are not represented, inclusion dimension
• Lack of effective regulations that safeguard digital rights, policy dimension
• Lack of representation in local languages, language dimension
• Lack of network for people from marginalised communities, inclusion and impact on marginalised communities dimensions
• People from marginalised communities are faced with several layers of barriers, impact on marginalised communities dimension

3. What are the motivations for some of these feminist publications and content creation spaces?

The objectives range from creative expression,capacity building and knowledge production to creating inclusive spaces for network building and sharing experiences. Several publications and content creation spaces are a result of social movements, advocacy and mobilisation in India related to gender rights, identities and inclusion.

Communities Feminist Content Creation Spaces Engage With

• Women
• LGBTQIA+
• Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi
• People with disabilities
• People with mental health issues
• People with chronic illnesses

These communities are located in rural areas, India, the Global South

A Snapshot of Publications and Content Creation Platforms Interviewed

• An independent feminist publication house that publishes academic books, fiction, memoirs, and popular nonfiction
• A digital intersectional feminist media platform that provides information on gender and feminism to the youth
• A digital platform that shares information for women with disabilities on body, sexuality, and intimate relationships
• A multimedia project that shares information and stories on intimacy and desire
• A women-run digital media network that practises feminist rural journalism
• A digital magazine that generates knowledge and discussion on issues of sexuality and sexual and reproductive health and rights in the global South
• A social media account that runs crowdsourced discussions on gender, sexuality, and feminism
• An alternative social media network for legal, health, and safety support and resources
• An online women’s magazine that produces writing on caste, gender, development, and environment
• An Instagram handle run by an artist and illustrator sharing people’s experiences and stories through visual art
• Individual writers, researchers, and activists working on caste, gender, and sexuality

4. What are the challenges in feminist publishing and content creation?

Sustainability

All of the list items in this section are considered infrastructural gaps:

• Limited funding, lack of resources, funding dimension
• Content on gender and sexuality seen as less significant, impact on marginalised communities dimension
• Difficulty in finding and retention of staff, finding women in technology, labour dimension
• Cultural and societal barriers restricting women in the workplace, impact on marginalised communities dimension
• Challenges with visual design due to lack of resources and expertise, visual design dimension

A sidebar-like note appears here, reading, “fundraising is also connected with labour in feminist content creation spaces as they are often self-financed, with a small team with many people taking on multiple roles.” This note is associated with labour and funding dimensions and coded as an infrastructural gap.

Languages

All of the list items in this section are identified with the language dimension and considered infrastructural gaps:

• No existing model for digital publications in regional languages
• Lack of staff for writing in local languages
• Difficulty in translation of specific and complex terminology
• Content Management System platforms not yet compatible for regional languages

Harassment

All of the list items in this section are considered infrastructural gaps:

• Online trolling and abuse, fear of attacks, and microaggressions, safety and hate speech dimensions
• Pushback on content from individuals and social media
• Drastic physical and psychological impact of hate speech, hate speech dimension
• Increased dangers and impact of online and physical threats, with no process of redressal, , safety and hate speech dimensions
• Lack of community guidelines on safety and privacy, safety and privacy dimensions
• Reliance on social media for diverse needs including work, which makes it difficult to exit these spaces completely (especially for marginalised groups), hate speech and impact on marginalised communities dimensions

Censorship

All of the list items in this section are identified with the free speech dimension and considered infrastructural gaps:

• Measured risks are taken due to fear of censorship
• Use of sensational language is avoided
• Content related to sexuality and pleasure difficult to promote, as imagery with nudity is not allowed on social media

5. What are the infrastructural changes needed?

Access

All of the list items in this section are considered potential/existing infrastructural interventions:

• Access to devices, internet connectivity, and training for use of technology, digital access dimension
• Accessible discourse on feminism, beyond people with caste and class privilege, impact on marginalised communities dimension
• Availability of publications for open access and/or unlimited downloads for subscribers, digital access dimension
• Reducing jargon around feminism, gender, and sexuality, access dimension
• Open and free use availability of imagery, visual design dimension
• Simple and engaging visuals, visual design dimension
• Hand-drawn/handmade digitality to create a decolonised visual language, visual design dimension

A sidebar-like note appears here, reading, “significant power of phones in rural areas, more creative engagement with technology.” This note is associated with the access dimension and coded as a potential/existing infrastructural intervention.

Safety

All of the list items in this section are considered potential/existing infrastructural interventions:

• Privacy preserving practices, and maintaining anonymity of people in published content, privacy dimension
• Anonymising personal information of writers on public platforms, privacy dimension
• Hell banning/shadow banning online trolls, hate speech dimension
• Privacy, surveillance, data protection, and freedom of expression laws to protect anonymity and safeguard free speech, policy dimension

A sidebar-like note appears here, reading, “several feminist content creation spaces are increasingly following feminist principles in visual design.” This note is associated with the visual design dimension and coded as a potential/existing infrastructural intervention.

Inclusion

All of the list items in this section are considered potential/existing infrastructural interventions:

• Fair compensation for all content creators; writers, reporters, illustrators, etc., labour dimension
• Equitable learning in educational institutions based on feminist principles, inclusion dimension
• Digitisation, archival efforts, documentation centres, digital access dimension
• Visibility and inclusion in public spaces for marginalised communities, impact on marginalised communities dimension
• Important to stay faithful to languages during translations, language dimension
• Allowing code-switching and hybrid language use within multilingual content online, language dimension
• Multilingual aesthetic to accommodate local languages, visual design dimension
• Diverging from stereotypical imagery, affirmative visual content, visual design dimension
• Diverse representation of marginalised communities in images, visual design dimension
• Depicting gender fluid and non-normative bodies, visual design dimension
• More sensitive representation of gender based violence, sexuality and disability in media, visual design dimension

A sidebar-like note appears here, reading, “given the sustainability concerns, feminist content spaces also face the challenge of documenting and archiving their legacy in the digital medium.” This note is associated with a visual design dimension and coded as an infrastructural gap.

Ownership

All of the list items in this section are considered potential/existing infrastructural interventions:

• Critical analysis of ownership, regulation and control of platforms and content, ownership dimension
• Creating/producing decentralised infrastructures, ownership and digital access dimensions
• Co-creation, and ownership of content by diverse communities, ownership and impact on marginalised communities dimensions

6. What could Feminist Infrastructures look like?

All of the list items in this section are considered potential/existing infrastructural interventions:

• Feminist institutions and complementary work between organisations, ownership dimension
• Set of feminist practices that can be adopted by organisations, inclusion dimension
• Educational tools, access dimension
• Community libraries, access dimension
• Institutions and redressal mechanisms for online safety, safety dimension
• Well-funded feminist resource centre for research, access and funding dimensions
• Safe spaces for women and marginalised communities to speak out, impact on marginalised communities and safety dimensions
• Networking platform for marginalised groups to access resources and support, impact on marginalised communities, access, and inclusion dimensions
• Physical access to information, media, and time, access dimension
• Moderators on online platforms trained based on feminist principles, safety dimension

Credits

Research and Conceptualisation:P P Sneha and Saumyaa Naidu. Design: Saumyaa Naidu.

This visualisation uses icons from the Noun Project by Nitut786, Rifai, Asheeqa, Max Miner, Andri Graphic, Tezar Tantular, Travis Avery, Alice Noir, Annie Wang, Gan Khoon Lay, Joni, Dinosoftlab, Olena Panasovska, Oleksandr Panasovskyi, Nuricon, Marissa Coffey, Braja Omar Justico, ProSymbols, Nicole Hammonds, Cindy Clegane, Putri Afifah Octaviani, Tomas Knopp.