A self-assessment guide for digital emergencies developed by Hivos,
Digital Defenders Partnership, EFF, Global Voices, Front Line Defenders,
Internews, Freedom House, Access, Qurium, CIRCL, IWPR and Open
Technology Fund.
Publications & Tools
We have organised our growing library of publications and tools to better serve the sex worker-led movement, funders, and allies. We have highlighted key topics that intersect with our work including participatory grantmaking, donor finders, and other work contributed from regional networks, sex worker funders, and other organisations that support sex worker rights.
Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline works with individuals and organizations around the world to keep them safe online. If you’re at risk, they can help you improve your digital security practices to keep out of harm’s way. If you’re already under attack, they provide rapid-response emergency assistance. Available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, and more.
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This toolkit offers key organizing lessons, strategies, and political visions from migrant worker and sex worker-led political formations: workers who are forcibly excluded from the economy or working in the shadows of formalized economies. This toolkit features a summary of research conducted between February 2021 & July 2021. It also draws from collective learning during the Informal, Criminalized, Precarious: Sex Workers Organizing Against Barriers conference.
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“Child sexual exploitation is a serious problem that Congress should address. The EARN IT Act is not a solution to this problem…The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies
Act of 2020 (EARN IT Act) amends an existing federal law to force online
platforms into changing how they moderate content online by scanning
and censoring more of their users? communications.”
“Hacking//Hustling used a participatory action research model to gather quantitative and qualitative data regarding the impact of the removal of Backpage and the passage of FOSTA-SESTA on two groups of sex workers: those who work online, and primarily street-based sex workers who have limited access to technology. The results of our online survey (98 participants) and street-based survey (38 participants) indicate that the removal of Backpage and FOSTA-SESTA have had detrimental effects on online workers? financial stability, safety, access to community, and health outcomes.” Advised by Naomi Lauren at WCIIA (our Grantee-Partner).
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“Sex workers already face many forms of financial and tech-based discrimination….Here’s what to know about financial discrimination against sex workers, how we’re fighting back, and what Mastercard must do now – and in the longrun – to protect sex workers’ rights.”
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“In order to show a commitment to human rights, civil liberties, and sound technology policy, it?s imperative that PayPal and Venmo provide transparency to their users… The ACLU has joined 22 other civil rights groups in demanding a stop to PayPal and Venmo’s practices that harm vulnerable communities by shutting people out without due process.
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“This research aims to gain a better understanding of the ways that platforms’ responses to Section 230 2 carve-outs 3 impact
content moderation, and threaten free speech and human rights for those who trade sex and/or work in movement spaces. In this sex worker-led study, Hacking//Hustling used a participatory action research model to gather quantitative and qualitative data to study the impact of content moderation on sex workers and AOP (n=262) after the uprisings against state-sanctioned police violence and police murder of Black people. The results of our survey indicate that sex workers and AOP have noticed significant changes in content moderation tactics aiding in the disruption of movement work, the flow of capital, and further chilling speech.”
This Smart Guide identifies some of the current (2021) trends in the use of ICT, exploring good and bad practices, and examines the threats and challenges to sex workers’ safety, privacy, and well-being. It highlights the need for ICT developments that meet the highest security standards, are community-led and owned, that protect the health and other human rights of sex workers, and that do not replace essential face-to-face services for sex workers or undermine community empowerment at grassroots level. The Smart Guide draws on the expertise of sex workers and key informants and concludes with recommendations for different stakeholders.
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The first of four briefing papers on Digital Rights ESWA intends to publish in 2022. This paper, written by Marin Scarlett, explores the imact on self-expression, freedom of speech and mental health; impact on financial stability; impact on agency and independence; and impact on community and political organising.
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