The internet was meant to be a tool for freedom. But for many women, queer people, and gender-diverse people, it has at times become a space of surveillance, abuse, and harassment, demonstrating the importance of resourcing digital spaces for community care, justice, and liberation.

A recent UNESCO report found that 73% of women journalists around the world have experienced online violence. In Latin America, digital surveillance tools are being used to track reproductive health activities. And in many parts of the world, queer content is censored while violent misogyny thrives unchecked. These are not glitches; they’re features of a digital system shaped by a narrow slice of the population.

At the same time, feminists around the world have used digital tools to organize and reimagine new futures.

This tension between harm and hope is at the heart of the feminist tech movement. In honor of Pride Month, we spoke with Jac sm Kee, cofounder of Numun Fund—a Ford Foundation grantee that resources feminist tech advocates around the world—about what’s broken in the digital world, how feminist advocates are fighting back, and what it takes to build technology rooted in care, justice, and collective power.

Let’s start with a moment. When did it all click for you that technology was a feminist issue?

It was a workshop I almost didn’t attend. I thought I was signing up to learn how to build a website. Instead, one of the trainers—who was this badass feminist from the Philippines, Pi Villanueva—asked: “Did you know technology has a gendered history?” That question cracked something open. Suddenly, I could see it: How power shaped even the tools we were told were neutral. How women and queer people were always expected to use tech, but never to make it, question it, or remake it.

From that spark to today, you’re now leading a fund specifically for feminist tech work and resourcing digital spaces for collective liberation. Why was Numun Fund needed?

Because the work of feminist tech activists exists at an important intersection that was unfortunately unfamiliar to many funders. Their work was categorized as “too niche” or “not tech enough” or “not gender enough.” We built Numun Fund because we know this work is critical,  and yet the movement is constantly struggling to be recognised and resourced. We wanted a fund led by the movement, for the movement—one that understands feminist tech isn’t a sidebar. It’s at the heart of our revolutions.

Read the full article about resourcing digital spaces for collective liberation by Monica Aleman at Ford Foundation.