Concordia’s Applied AI Institute partners with Women on Web to tackle digital censorship

Women on Web (WoW), a Canadian-based nonprofit providing global access to safe abortion services, has long struggled against digital suppression. Now, thanks to a collaboration with Concordia’s Applied AI Institute, researchers are taking a closer look at how online platforms limit access to reproductive health information.

The project is titled “Pills, Clicks, and Bans: Auditing Digital Censorship of Access to Abortion and Reproductive Rights.” It’s a research initiative designed to map how major information intermediaries — search engines, social media platforms and hosting services — restrict access to WoW’s website and services. By analyzing data on website visibility, social media reach and algorithmic patterns, researchers aim to develop case studies that expose the structural impact of digital censorship on reproductive rights advocacy.

“We’ve seen our website traffic drop by 80 per cent following search engine updates, and our content is routinely flagged or shadow banned on social media,” says Erin Hassard, a Concordia master’s student in media studies who is working on the project. “This isn’t just an inconvenience — it’s a major barrier to reproductive health access worldwide.”

WoW has faced various forms of online suppression, including search result demotions, blocked social media accounts and restrictions on key abortion-related terms. The collaboration with the Applied AI Institute will provide empirical evidence to help the organization push for policy changes and advocate for fairer content moderation practices.

For Fenwick McKelvey, co-director of the Applied AI Institute, this partnership aligns closely with the institute’s guiding principles. “Our work is rooted in public interest scholarship and the belief that AI should improve society, not entrench existing inequalities,” he explains.

“This project highlights how algorithmic biases disproportionately affect marginalized communities, and we are committed to bringing transparency to these systems.”

The project will be conducted in collaboration with principal investigator Stefanie Duguay and the Digital Intimacy, Gender and Sexuality (DIGS) Lab. Duguay, a Concordia University Research Chair (New Scholar) and director of the DIGS Lab, specializes in examining how digital platforms shape experiences of intimacy, gender and sexuality. Her contributions will assist in analyzing how algorithmic censorship impacts marginalized communities seeking reproductive health information.

Through this initiative, researchers at Concordia will not only assist WoW in understanding the scope of its digital censorship challenges but will also develop tools and training materials for other advocacy organizations facing similar issues. The goal is to create a global network capable of documenting and resisting digital suppression in the reproductive health space.

Learn more about Concordia’s Applied AI Institute.