As part of UN Women’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence campaign, Plan International and Feminist Internet have launched Maru - a chatbot that helps fight online harassment.
Plan International's research, 'Free To Be Online?', shows an increasing amount of gendered online abuse across social media channels. More than half of girls surveyed from around the world have been harassed online. Maru is targeted at helping young people worldwide with this problem. It can support and empower people who are experiencing, witnessing or fighting online harassment.
Maru means 'cloud space' in the Sesotho language. The chatbot was co-created with young activists from Ghana, Cameroon, Nepal, South Africa and Germany who are passionate about internet freedoms and safety. It provides real advice and resources from experts and activists.
Creating a safer, more equal internet
The Maru project is the latest in a wider programme of work to progress internet equality and safety, connecting into the work of UAL Creative Computing Institute.
Feminist Internet’s Dr Charlotte Webb developed the new Creative Computing Institute MA Internet Equalities which will welcome its first students next September.
Earlier this year Feminist Internet designed and ran an intensive course on designing feminist chatbots to tackle internet abuse supported by UAL CCI’s public programme. The teams collaborate again on the UAL CCI and Institute of Coding course Designing A Feminist Chatbot available on online learning platform FutureLearn.
Feminist Internet has found that applying ideas from feminism to technology development can help people create technologies that promote equality and positive social change rather than making problems worse. This approach can deepen how designers think about the values they embed in design as they create it, whether it’s a chatbot, an Artificial Intelligence-powered agent or something else.
The process of co-creating Maru and putting the chatbot in the hands of young people fighting, experiencing, or witnessing harassment shares these values with a global audience.
Designing Maru
Over a series of workshops, Maru's young creators were guided by feminist design principles which encouraged them to:
- Co-design Maru with reference to other activists
- Consider barriers people may face in accessing Maru
- Ensure Maru's language is empathetic and inclusive
- Ensure Maru's appearance does not reinforce stereotypes
- Reflect on biases that might exist in the team
- Ensure Maru represents global perspectives
Feminist Internet
Feminist Internet is a collective of artists and designers that aims to disrupt inequalities in internet products and services by educating and equipping the people who build them and use them. They do this by bringing together technology, intersectional feminism and creative practice.
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Maru chatbot -
Maru chatbot
