Sadaf Khan reflected on how during the pandemic, the digital gender divide expanded due to patriarchal societal structure: In households having single devices, male members are in control. The pandemic further cut off women from digital access, where they could access it in places such as educational institutions. In the pretext of safety, women were not allowed to access public resources such as wifi while men were allowed to access them. In such a context, we need to rethink how GBV is defined, advocate for an environment that is not inherently hostile to women or inflicts violence on women.

Mona Shtaya deliberated on how hate speech and harassment have increased in intensity in online institutes- women are withdrawing from online institutes and leaving the internet. Moreover, issues around stereotypical portrayal of women damage the cause and advocacy of women’s rights. The governments are using and normalizing surveillance to oppress women: for example, in Arab spring, officials took private photos of women from their phones and in Jerusalem, women feel surveilled within their homes due to the CCTV cameras everywhere. There's a need for collaborations between local women’s organizations and social media platforms to combat GBV, it has worked in the past when private photos of women were shared. Platforms consult women’s groups to understand the local context to derive solutions to GBV on a case-by-case basis till policy solutions are found. Policy solutions without raising awareness campaigns for people to understand GBV and surveillance; will not be efficient. People need to know and understand the issues. The movement needs to be grassroots-driven.

Mallory Knodel spoke about the privacy enhancement and assessments research group: Insight required into spouseware (Apps that track movement of your partners) -There is a need to understand where the vulnerabilities are being exploited. A better understanding of secure protocols; Eg internet routers are trusted to be secure but can actually be used to exploit by those who have the technical knowhow. Double exclusion in a digitized world: people are excluded by not having access to the internet, as well as not having the option of access to resources physically. Eg driver’s license. Poeple are entitled to the right to be disconnected, a world that is enhanced by connectivity but not replaced by it. For accessibility of daily life to be available to everyone, not having to be “online” to access them. There is a cost to the digitization of government services: It creates a huge gap that civil society has to step in to fill in. Community organizations have to devise mechanics that cost time and resources. The platforms and services need to take more responsibility. Community-based spaces serve an important function of supporting women. They are not informal structures and need to be considered more seriously. If the internet is designed to be safer for those who are most vulnerable then it’s secure for everyone.

Poncelet O. Ileleji spoke from the perspective of living in a developing country (Gambia) in terms of what has been done to get women more included in programs: 55% of voters are women but two factors that get overlooked are: the cost of data is affordable only for certain people, so women were excluded from not being aware due to this; they had to rely on the male members to form their opinions. Women were excluded from accessing information that was relevant for health or children. There is a need for developing countries to have community networks that will support women. Women have very strong collective groups but they were not utilized to create awareness in local communities. Women not being able to access data on health, their children etc have been affected by the cost of the internet; reducing the cost of internet can resolve this. It is important to have a community networks that supports women.

Avis Momeni spoke about the inaccessibility of information about COVID in rural areas, not having access to the internet. Severe issues of misinformation regarding sanitization, hygiene, High cost also prevent certain populations from accessing the internet and digital devices and spaces.

On strategies and tools that have been helpful in being rights affirmative, and which have not been

• Avis Momeni:
  i. Govt conducted several consultations to provide information from the ministry of health, to prevent the spread of misinformation
  ii. Telecom sector reduced cost of internet to make it easier for people to communicate
  iii. Some actors developed websites to provide collated information to make it easier for people to find it.
  iv. Civil society needs to advocate for national geographic coverage of telecom infrastructure.
  v. There should be revised law on freedom of assembly and association taking in a non-digital aspect
  vi. Implementation of African declaration on gender rights and freedoms and national level in African countries 
  v. Implementation of the digital bill as the use of ICT to enable sustainable development goal
• Sadaf Khan
  i. Bringing agency to women collectives needs to be strategized on priority. Agency on how speech on the internet is governed along with the (policy)process through which the governance is done such as affordability.
  ii. Treating the internet as a utility instead of a luxury, making it accessible for all, gender-neutral.
  iii. There is a need to have feminist influence in corporate governance. As well as a need to demand more accountability for corporations and platforms on how they behave since they hold private data, It will also affect how GBV is dealt with. 
  iv. Regarding local content in terms of ability to use, meaningfulness and format (text, audio) determine accessibility and inclusivity. How content is generated, how it is passed on in the media. It’s all in English text, this hampers the success of women's collective. There’s a drawback of using easy methods- English, catchy flashy content to get attention but it makes it inaccessible. This is a complicated issue to resolve due to intersectionalities Eg- certain intersectionalities are criminalized (LGBTQ).
• Poncelet O. Ileleji:
  Local content perspective: one rule does not apply to all in terms of digital inclusion. Programs need to be grassroots-oriented, as more women and girls interact with the digital world. But the content that is available online is not catering to local audiences  (rural) Lang- French, Portuguese, etc It excludes women from rural areas.