Facebook
hosted a women’s safety roundtable
in Kenya on Wednesday, a first that will be followed by others in
Ireland, the Middle East, India and the US.
The meeting focused on communities jointly creating
a harassment-free online environment where everyone can feel safe to share and interact.
"We have a community of nearly 1.6 billion people and we work hard to
develop our global policies that focus on safety, encouraging online
respect and honouring the cultural diversity of our platform," Antigone Davis, Facebook's Head of Global Safety said.
"It is absolutely critical that we spend time with our partners around the world to listen and learn how we can do better as we develop our policies and educate people about how they can stay safe."
Ebele Okobi, Facebook's Head of Public Policy Africa, said the roundtable will help assure women of their security in society.
"Facebook is an important way for people in Africa to connect and share. We are committed to working with our partners to ensure our community, especially women, feel safe when they use our platform," Okobi said.
"We look forward to continuing the conversation in order to better reflect our community and develop the right policies."
Thirty organisations, including NGOs, academia, women’s rights groups, and safety organisations,
were represented at the roundtable in Nairobi.
African countries present included Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania and Zambia.
