Emergency Motion 4
Gender Based Violence, Regulation & the Justice System
“That this Congress notes the recent developments:
- the consultation launch of ‘Improving Protections in the Justice System for Women and Girls’;
- Meta was held liable for intentionally building addictive social media platforms that harmed a woman’s mental health;
- that a domestic abuser has been held criminally responsible for the suicide of their partner; and
- the exposé of the global online ‘Rape Academy’.
“These concerning developments come in addition to:
- the rise in AI creating new and disturbing forms of sexual abuse;
- legislation and enforcement that has lagged behind technological advances; and
- corporate criminal liability laws that ignore algorithms and platform design models which create avoidable harms and addictions.
“Congress calls on the STUC to campaign for:
- stronger laws to criminalise AI-generated image-based sexual abuse, including deep fakes;
- tech companies to be held legally accountable for preventing sexually abusive content and providing urgent redress for victims/survivors;
- sustained psychological abuse online to lead to individual and corporate responsibility, including where this was a significant contributing factor in a death; and
- corporate manslaughter charges against tech companies, in appropriate cases, for online harms and unethical platform design models to be instituted, while recognising modern corporate structures.
“Congress further calls on the STUC to:
- work with affiliates to raise awareness of digital violence as part of workplace sexual harassment and health & safety campaigns;
- lobby HSE to produce clear guidance on sexual harassment as a workplace hazard, including HSE’s ability to take proactive regulatory action and raise the issue of digital violence as a core part of workplace health & safety; and
- work with affiliates to promote adherence to new requirements including Workers Protection Act (Amendment of Equality Act) 2023 and the Sexual Harassment ‘qualifying disclosure’, building a shared narrative across affiliates to campaign around digital gender based violence.”
Mover: NASUWT
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