WS 04 2026

27 May 2026 | 11:30 - 12:30 CEST | SICCO MANSHOLT
Consolidated programme 2026

Workshops are organised in a multi-stakeholder bottom up manner. Anyone interested in the topic can become a member of the Org Team. The EuroDIG session principles must be followed.

All sections of this page should be completed by 30 April 2026.

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DO NOT edit the title of the page yourself, the link to your session may otherwise disappear. Please send an updated title as early as possible to wiki@eurodig.org.

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Title: Advancing Gender Equality in the Digital Public Sphere: Tackling Online Violence and AI-Discrimination
Proposals: #29, #35, #36, #57

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Session teaser

Digital technologies are reshaping European societies, creating opportunities to advance gender equality by expanding access, participation, and empowerment for women, girls and diverse groups. At the same time, online and technology-facilitated violence is a growing cross-border threat to democracy, human rights, and gender equality, as digital tools can amplify and reinforce structural inequalities, including online and offline violence, discrimination, and exclusion.

This session examines how effective measures and regulatory frameworks – such as the Council of Europe’s standards and its monitoring mechanism GREVIO as well as the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) – combined with best practices and multistakeholder cooperation, can address online violence, prevent AI-driven discrimination, and harness digital technologies to protect fundamental rights and advance gender equality in the digital public sphere.

Session description

Youth are reporting increased feelings of extreme pessimism in relation to the internet. This is due to many reasons, such as content designed to produce cover-consumption, the data market, but also the overflow of AI content on social media platforms and technology facilitated violence. These attitudes towards the internet are reflected in, ironically, social media trends such as the analogue bag, self-sufficiency inspiration, trad-wife-content and viewing the possibility of being offline as a luxury only reserved for the rich.

When new forms of technology are developed, they are advertised to investors and consumers as essential tools to make life easier and better. The internet was thought to be the great equaliser, giving people of diverse backgrounds and from all corners of the world equal access to knowledge and connection to other people. Yet the relationship between new technologies and equality is ambivalent: while they have opened new opportunities, they have also deepened existing inequalities. Structural inequalities shape who benefits from technology and who does not. The digital gender gap is one of the most persistent expressions of this dynamic. Women and girls face unique barriers to equal participation online: artificial intelligence increasingly encodes and amplifies discrimination, while technology-facilitated violence against women and girls drives many to withdraw from public spaces altogether.

Age plays a crucial role in how women and girls experience technology-facilitated violence. Young women and girls are particularly likely to encounter such violence due to the significant role that technology plays in their daily lives, influencing how they communicate, socialise and access information. This is reflected in the numbers: in the 2024 Building Digital Resilience report by Plan International, 75% of girls and young women (13–24) reported experiencing online harm, with around 40% facing harassment at least monthly and 11% daily or almost daily. Sexualised abuse is prominent, with 44% encountering unwanted sexual images and 37% receiving inappropriate sexual messages.[1]The evaluation reports of GREVIO, the monitoring body of the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention, reveal an increasing prevalence of technology-facilitated violence among young people, including image-based abuse, as well as growing anti-gender narratives in online spaces.

The rise of artificial intelligence is transforming how discrimination manifests, particularly in the ways young women and girls are seen, treated and included in online and offline spaces. The rise of digital forgeries (“deepfakes”) exposes young women and girls to new and serious forms of online exploitation and abuse. In addition, misogynistic online communities, such as the “manosphere,” further fuel harmful narratives and violence against women and girls. Algorithms can amplify gender-based violence and misogynistic narratives, as they are designed to maximise user engagement and therefore tend to promote content that provokes strong emotional reactions.

In addition to causing serious psychological and social harm, the rising prevalence of discrimination and technology-facilitated violence often leads young women and girls to self-censor and withdraw from public debate. In a world where online spaces and social media have become the modern town square, young women removing themselves from online spaces leads to them being further underrepresented in the political conversation. Particularly in a political context where youth are already less likely to participate, youth deciding to remove themselves from the sphere of mobilisation might lead them to step back from political activities altogether. This makes these issues a threat to democracy from the perspective of youth and especially young women and girls.

[1] Plan International (2024), Building Digital Resilience

Format

The session will be organised in an interactive breakout format combining short panel inputs and group discussions. First, a panel of four speakers representing youth organisations, international organisations, the private sector and civil society will provide brief 3-minute introductory remarks. The session will then move into four breakout discussions reflecting these perspectives: 1) youth experiences and participation; 2) policy and institutional responses; 3) platform design and industry responsibility; and 4) civil society approaches. The outcomes of the breakout groups will be shared in the concluding segment, highlighting key concerns and identifying recommendations to strengthen accountability, inclusivity and trust in digital environments. A dedicated online breakout discussion group will discuss cross-cutting elements, ensuring that remote participants can actively contribute and that their inputs are fully integrated into the plenary feedback and overall outcomes of the session.

The speakers are the following:

Youth perspective: Ella Cancara, Generation Equality -youth

International organisations and policy perspective: Flurina Frei, Council of Europe

Civil society perspective: Nico Schmidt, EU Policy Advisor, HateAid

Private sector perspective: Christian Mogensen, Tech Advisor and Former Head of Nordic Public Policy of Snapchat

Programme:

11:30 Welcome and Topic Introduction, Session Format (Breakout Groups, Guiding Questions), Quick Introduction of Speakers – 5 min

11:35 3-minute Statements by Speaker – 15 min

• Ella Cancara (Game Changer Project, Generation Equality -Youth)

• Flurina Frei (Gender Equality Policy Advisor, Council of Europe)

• Nico Schmidt (EU Policy Advisor, HateAid)

• Christian Mogensen (Tech Advisor and Former Head of Nordic Public Policy of Snapchat)

11:50 Discussion Segment (Working Groups)

• Introductions of Guiding Questions – 2 min

• What is the current most pressing issue you face in terms of GBOV?

• What would the ideal internet look like without GBOV?

• How can youth/international organizations/ the private sector/ NGO’s perspectives help to shape a more inclusive digital sphere?

12:15 Conclusion:

• Each breakout group shares their key concerns and 1-2 recommendations

12:28 Final Remarks – 2min

Further reading

Links to relevant websites, declarations, books, documents. Please note we cannot offer web space, so only links to external resources are possible. Example for an external link: Main page of EuroDIG

People

Please provide the name and affiliation/institution of all people you list here like this:

• First Name Last Name, Affiliation/institution

Programme Committee member(s)

• Milica Vesović, Programme Manager in the Digital Development Unit, Directorate of Security, Integrity and Rule of Law at the Council of Europe
• Minda Moreira, Internet Rights and Principles Coalition (IRPC)
• Yrjö Länsipuro, ISOC Finland

The Programme Committee (PC) supports the programme planning process throughout the year and works closely with the Secretariat. Members of the PC give advice on the topics, cluster the proposals and assist session organisers in their work. They also ensure that session principles are followed and monitor the complete programme to avoid repetition. 1-2 PC members have signed up to each session and will compile the messages.

Co Focal Points

• Oona Kurppa, Chairperson, Generation Equality Youth Group Finland
• Grit Marti Lange, Netzforma* e. V., Youth IGF Germany

Focal Points take over the responsibility and lead of the session organisation. They work in close cooperation with the Programme Committee and the EuroDIG Secretariat and are kindly requested to follow EuroDIG’s session principles

Organising Team (Org Team)

List Org Team members here as they sign up.

• Ella Cancara
• Iina Jauhanen
• Flurina Frei, Gender Equality Policy Advisor, Council of Europe
• Simayijiang Zumureti
• Milica Vesović, Programme Manager in the Digital Development Unit, Directorate of Security, Integrity and Rule of Law at the Council of Europe

The Org Team is a group of people shaping the session. Org Teams are open and every interested individual can become a member by subscribing to the mailing list.

Key Participants

Key Participants are experts willing to provide their knowledge during a session – not necessarily on stage. Key Participants should contribute to the session planning process and keep statements short and punchy during the session. They will be selected and assigned by the Org Team, ensuring a stakeholder balanced dialogue also considering gender and geographical balance. Please provide short CV’s of the Key Participants involved in your session at the Wiki or link to another source.

Messages

The Programme Committee is responsible for taking notes during the session and to formulate 3 (max. 5) bullet points that are presented at the end of each session. The audience shall agree on the messages in (rough) consensus.

Messages should:

• reflect the discussion in the particular session
• relate to European Internet governance policy
• be forward looking and propose goals and activities

Video record

Will be provided here after the event.

Transcript

Will be provided here after the event.