🏆 The Virtual is Real: Take on Online Violence

❤️‍🩹 “The Virtual is Real” bridges the gap between online violence and IRL violence, powerfully illustrating how a few keystrokes can lead to severe and long-term ‘real world’ trauma. As Indigo Design Award’s 2023 Mobile Design of the Year, this project, by Elkanodata, uses simple, stark visuals to compassionately reveal the stories of eleven survivors of gender-based online abuse.

❤️‍🩹 The project removes the barrier of the screen, forcing us to grapple with the grim ripple effects that online violence has on everyday women. Leveling the playing field and making virtual cruelty real forces us to feel, emphasize, and act.

❤️‍🩹 Through a profoundly immersive multimedia campaign, Elkanodata makes these digital experiences tangible and challenges us to strive towards a safer, kinder web free of discrimination and gender-based abuse. It’s also a powerful tool that helps women and girls who’ve experienced this kind of online violence feel heard and validated, as often digital malice is downplayed as less serious than IRL forms. By destigmatizing and recognizing all survivors, we’re able to create healthier spaces and heal.

❤️‍🩹 “The Virtual is Real” already has real-world effects, with major social media providers joining the conversation on how to identify and address toxic behavior and bullying on their sites. Design can be used as a serious force for good.

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