Supporting Safer Digital Spaces: MENA Region Highlights

September 24, 2024

Digital technologies are being used to inflict significant harm online, known as technology-facilitated violence. In particular, harm affects certain groups based on their gender, which is known as technology-facilitated gender-based violence. This modern form of violence perpetuates inequality and has significant impacts on its targets, including silencing the voices of women and other gender minorities online.

Supporting a Safer Internet is a multi-year project led by the Centre for International Governance Innovation, with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and Ipsos. As part of the project, an international survey collected data from 18,149 people of all genders in 18 countries. Participants in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region were not asked to report their sexual orientation or gender identity due to safety and legal limitations in those countries. For this reason, this version of the Highlights report has been developed with a specific focus on the data gathered from participants in those countries. Qualitative and contextual data from the SecDev Foundation has been utilized in this report to complement and provide a deeper understanding of the statistical data derived from this project.

Recommendations from the MENA region agree with the Ipsos global survey recommendations for governments, technology companies, civil society organizations and researchers.

This report is available in Arabic.

هذا التقرير متوفر باللغة العربية.

About the Authors

Nadia Al-Sakkaf is a prominent Yemeni scholar and journalist who promotes women’s rights, press freedoms and sustainable social and environmental development in Yemen.

Natasha Chhabra is a mixed-methods researcher and consultant. She has more than a decade of experience in policy, research, advocacy and monitoring and evaluation.