Harm Reduction in New Media

Harm reduction, trauma-informed design, digital safety, data healing, transformative/restorative justice, calling in, calling out, consent-based tech, mutual aid, community guidelines, collective care, psychological access, content warnings, peer support, community moderation, accountability, surveillance, privacy, cybersecurity, CryptoParty, encrypted communication, data protection, secure access, anonymity, digital self-defense, anti-carceral tech, crisis response tools, abolitionist digital strategy, cultural harm, doxxing

1. Understand harm reduction as a community-based framework. Learn the roots of harm reduction from queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and disabled communities. Understand it as a strategy for care, autonomy, and survival in the context of ongoing systemic harm.
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2. ‍Identify how technology emerges from, causes, and amplify harm. Recognize how new media can reproduce violence through surveillance, algorithmic bias, misinformation, burnout, and online harassment. Reflect on how these harms impact marginalized users differently.‍
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3. Explore how communities use technology for survival and care. Examine how mutual aid networks, DIY tech, and community-designed safety tools reduce harm and increase connection, access, and support.‍
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4. Apply harm reduction principles to tech use, design, and moderation. Use values like consent, transparency, choice, and non-judgment to assess and shape how technologies are developed, shared, and facilitated in community spaces. Explore community-based approaches such as refurbishing hardware, using open-source software, and sharing freeware to increase access while reducing dependence on extractive or surveillance-based tech systems.
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5. Build awareness of privacy and cybersecurity as harm reduction. Learn foundational digital safety strategies including encryption, data consent, secure communication, anonymity, and surveillance resistance. Understand how these tools support safety and dignity, especially for people at risk of violence or criminalization.
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6. Imagine safer and more connected technological futures. Reflect on what it might mean to create tech spaces grounded in care, access, and community protection. Envision futures where harm reduction shapes the values and practices of technology itself.