Queering Beijing+30 in the digital age: addressing technology-facilitated gender-based violence against Queer communities in South Asia by One Future Collective

Overview

As digital technologies reshape political and social landscapes, queer individuals face escalating technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), including doxxing, online harassment, deepfake abuse, and state surveillance. While the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) is committed to eliminating violence against women and gender minorities, it could not have anticipated the emergence of digital violence as a key site of oppression – particularly for Queer and Trans communities. In hostile environments where legal protections are weak or actively regressing, digital spaces serve as both platforms for queer resistance and sites of intensified violence. This article examines the intersections of queerness and technology, focusing on their limited mention within the Beijing+30 review process, and argues that this gap is critical to address. This article is based on the findings of a study that employed a qualitative, participatory, and arts-based approach, incorporating critical digital ethnography and semi-structured interviews with queer activists and communities, digital rights defenders, and policymakers in South Asia, with a focus on Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. The thematic analysis explores how TFGBV manifests uniquely against Queer individuals, the existing gaps in feminist policy frameworks addressing digital violence faced by Queer people, and queer-led resistance strategies and policy interventions for safer digital futures. The findings aim to contribute to ongoing conversations around queering digital rights, enhancing intersectional protections against TFGBV, and broadening feminist governance mechanisms to better encompass queer digital security and autonomy. An inclusive BPfA must centre digital rights to avoid further marginalising Queer communities. This article calls for an urgent, intersectional, feminist, and technology-first response.