On 25 August 2026 (9am EDT / 3pm SAST), the SVRI TFGBV Community of Practice (CoP) will host a webinar on ‘Defining Intimacy, Consent and Harm in the Digital Age’. 

As digital technologies reshape how intimacy is created and shared, legal systems, platforms, and policymakers are grappling with a fundamental question: what does meaningful consent look like online? This multidisciplinary panel brings together experts in law, digital rights, platform governance, and survivor advocacy to explore the evolving boundaries of consent, privacy, autonomy, and freedom of expression in cases of non-consensual intimate image sharing. Moving beyond content moderation, the discussion will examine how societies can develop survivor-centered, rights-based responses to technology-facilitated gender-based violence while addressing the emerging challenges posed by AI and rapidly evolving digital ecosystems. 

Speakers

Rohini Lakshané

Independent Researcher, Technologist, and Wikimedian

Her body of work has addressed gender inequity and violence, access to knowledge, openness, patent reform, diversity and inclusion in technology spaces, and the intersection of gender, sexuality, and the internet. Rohini received the 15th Laadli Media Award in the English Web Article category in 2025 for her longform article, ‘The crying shame of image-based abuse’ written during her fellowship at FactorDaily. Her earlier longform article, ‘The trouble with being a woman in FOSS’ was part of the ‘Deep Dives—Sexing the Interwebs’ series, which won the South Asian Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity — Web (Best Special Edition) category in 2017.

Dr. Olga Marques 

Associate Professor of Criminology and Justice at Ontario Tech University

Her research examines how institutional systems, legal frameworks, and digital environments shape harm and justice. By applying a critical lens to both offline inequalities and online spaces, her work explores how digital platforms, non-consensual image distribution, and technology-facilitated abuse impact marginalized women and frontline support networks.

Kenya Fairley 

Associate Director of Safety Partnerships at Bumble Inc.

Drawing on over two decades of experience across non-profit, city, and federal government sectors, her work spans survivor-centered advocacy, trauma-informed policy, and domestic and sexual violence prevention. She brings an intersectional, feminist lens to global digital safety, collaborating across stakeholders to address technology-facilitated gender-based violence, foster digital consent, and build equitable, healthy connections across online platforms.

Hyra Basit

Program Manager for the Cyber Harassment Helpline at the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) in Pakistan. 

Holding an MS in Media and Production from Indiana University and a BSc in Political Science from LUMS, she helped initiate the Helpline project to address technology-facilitated harms. Her work combines frontline crisis response, gender-responsive capacity building for law enforcement, and creative media strategies to drive social change and digital safety.