Dignity in Difference is a social enterprise headquartered in Nepal that resists digital toxicity by fostering safer, more inclusive digital spaces for women, gender minorities, and marginalized communities in South Asia. They build digital resilience by equipping communities to counter online harm, disinformation, and hate through innovative tools, advocacy and research.
Contribution to Promoting Democracy
Design justice guides all that Dignity in Difference does: “nothing for us without us.” Their award-winning tool, VoiceValor, empowered young South Asian feminist YouTubers to lead systemic change in algorithmic fairness by defining online misogyny, controlling data access, and shaping support mechanisms. Another tool, Bunk With Kindness, helps youth and marginalized communities build the skill of changing misinformed minds through meaningful, empathy-driven dialogue. The tool helps users learn how to debunk false claims using empathy and reason so that they can craft responses that are not only accurate but also compassionate.
Impact on Promoting Democratic Principles
Over 10,000 LGBTQI+ and other marginalized groups have engaged with VoiceValor and Bunk with Kindness to counter digital toxicity and build inclusive spaces. VoiceValor has identified 5,500+ algorithmic failures in detecting cultural online misogyny, improving online safety for over 10 million women and girls in South Asia. Users of Bunk with Kindness demonstrated a 40% increase in the use of empathy, personal storytelling, and compassion in their debunking narratives, fostering healthier civic discourse.
The goal of Dignity in Difference is to scale these interventions to 100,000 users to effectively counter disinformation and online hate encroaching on democracy and civic space in the region.
