Understanding technology-facilitated gender-based violence in digital labour platforms

Abstract

Digital labour platforms continue to expand across the globe. In a similar trajectory, the overall number of people earning a livelihood from the platforms continues to rise. Nevertheless, the standard image of a gig worker in people's imaginations remains a young, single male who works part-time on delivery or ride-hailing platforms. Fairwork's research in almost 40 countries across the 5 continents shows that this is not the case. This paper's contribution aims to shed light on women and LGBTQI+ people's experiences when dealing with technology-facilitated gender-based violence enabled by location-based platforms. It will draw on qualitative data to explore how gender norms and gender-based violence seep into otherwise assumed neutral technologies. It will particularly focus on workers’ lived experiences in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, all member countries of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur by its Spanish acronym) and reflect on the need for a concerted regional regulatory effort to address the problem of technology-facilitated gender-based violence in the platform economy.