As a part of our Take Back the Tech! campaign we launched a map, the one we have already talked about (mapirajnasilje.net), which aims to document the violence that is happening in the virtual world, through popular online platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), mobile phones, tablets and similar devices. Unfortunately, online violence is still largely invisible in our society, because it is perceived as harmless, but the consequences for the girls and women who are going through the horror of it are immense and they must not be ignored.
The fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina still lacks laws and policies that would protect victims and help prevent this type of violence does not help either.
It is of great importance to document these cases because only then can we turn the invisible into visible, and only then can online violence cease to be treated as an isolated case, but as an everyday mass phenomenon. Mapping the cases is also important for raising awareness on the issue and lobbying public authorities and institutions, so that we are actually able to talk about potential policies and laws that could be drafted and implemented in order to protect victims and reduce this type of violence.
We wanted to make the already existing above mentioned map more functional and user-friendly, so we introduced a new function (or a new big red button, if you prefer) on the right side of our main page labelled Report Violence. In addition to the online application form, which has been simplified, we have compiled a list of contacts and relevant institutions which you can contact in case of violence (numbers of authorities in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska), social work centres, and centres across Bosnia and Herzegovina where you can get free legal help, if needed.
To better illustrate the link between violence against women and ICTs, at the very bottom of the page we published a brief overview of some of the actual cases which we encountered during the campaign.
Take Back the Tech! is carried out in cooperation with the OneWorld Foundation Platform for Southeast Europe, and globally with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC).