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Twitter Launches #PositionOfStrength Campaign For Women Empowerment In India And The MENA Region

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As a recent UN report on cyber violence against women and girls maintained, "online crimes are not a ‘first world’ problem; they seamlessly follow the spread of the Internet."

In  countries where women often already face higher chances of being discriminated and attacked offline, digital platforms are not always a safe haven: from casual trolling to serious threats to online bullying, challenges abound.

In India and Malaysia, the UN says, WhatsApp seems to be the tool of choice, when it comes to harassing women online. And of course, the phenomenon is far from being absent in richer countries. Attackers all in the end aim at one thing: silencing and intimidating women, as if their existence and joy of living alone were for some people reason enough to hate them.

Luckily, in the last few years a number of initiatives have emerged, aimed at empowering victims against their aggressors. Tech Back The Tech", for instance, is a global campaign, which stigmatizes the use of technology as a tool for violence against women.

In Argentina, the #NiUnaMenos hashtag is used to highlight and condemn femicides that go unpunished in the country. In Pakistan, #Bytes for All uses digital storytelling to teach teenage girls about their rights.

Latest to join the list comes Twitter's #PositionOfStrength, a women’s empowerment initiative launched on Friday across India to help female Internet users bridge the gender equality gap online, using online platforms to expand their reach and influence. It was previously run in Australia and Ireland, but this is the first time the campaign arrives in Asia.

"As part of the #PositionOfStrength movement, we and our partners will host a series of roundtables and workshops with women leaders to explore increased empowerment and safety for women, both online and in the physical world, throughout the year," Twitter's Head of Public Policy Mahima Kaul wrote in a blog post announcing the initiative.

During the first roundtable, held on Friday, successful women explained how the use of digital platforms has the potential to remove barriers, biases, overcome mobility restrictions, and other limitations, and how Twitter, in particular, can provide a public voice and help develop a personal brand.

Participants to the first workshop were shown how to use tools like 'mute', 'block', and 'report' against cyber-bullying and trolling. Twitter's Head of Global Trust and Safety Outreach, Patricia Cartes, also announced that, as part of supporting women on the platform, users in India can now access the Twitter Safety Center in Hindi.

In the coming months, one of #PositionOfStrength partners, the Observer Research Foundation will take the campaign to 20 universities and colleges in Delhi, as part of an university contest on women empowerment. The competition will later be brought to other universities in more cities across the country.

Before the Indian launch, the #PositionofStrength initiative was also in the spotlights on Tuesday, at the Women’s Forum Dubai, with sessions on the hashtag specifically addressed to women living in the MENA region.

"We want women across the Gulf region to be able to communicate in a safe, secure, and enjoyable environment online. We don’t want them to shy away from contributing because of trolls or those who seek to stifle their voices," Twitter's EMEA Outreach manager Kira O'Connor said.