Artificial intelligence is transforming how information is produced, distributed, and contested. While opening new possibilities for communication, research, and access to knowledge, it also amplifies challenges for historically vulnerable groups, especially women journalists, communicators, and human rights defenders who face digital violence, disinformation campaigns, and coordinated attacks.
A UNESCO study indicates that approximately 751,300 female journalists have experienced some form of online violence, with a significant portion reporting physical or death threats associated with these attacks. With the advancement of artificial intelligence tools, new forms of violence have gained scale, including the production of falsified content, deepfakes, improper exposure of personal data (doxxing), and automated harassment campaigns.
In Brazil and Latin America, these impacts also reveal racial and gender inequalities. Black, Indigenous, and Quilombola women who occupy public spaces are among the groups most exposed to attempts at silencing and delegitimization. When diverse voices cease to participate in public debate, society as a whole loses in terms of quality of information, plurality, and democratic capacity.
A network created to face new digital challenges.
It is in this context that it operates. Network of Black Journalists for Diversity in Communication (Rede JP), an organization founded in 2018 and formally established in 2021, that works to strengthen the presence, safety, and sustainability of journalists and communicators from underrepresented groups in Brazil and Latin America.
The organization develops initiatives that combine training, research, technology and digital protection, creating solutions geared towards the contemporary challenges of the information ecosystem.
Among these initiatives is... REPCONE (Digital Protection Network for Black Women Communicators), This program focuses on strengthening the digital, legal, and psychosocial security of female communicators and journalists from underrepresented groups. The initiative offers training, the creation of support networks, mechanisms for responding to digital threats, and opportunities for... economic empowerment, through micro-grants designed to support projects, communication initiatives, and strategies developed by the participants themselves.
By combining protection, knowledge, and access to resources, REPCONE seeks to expand the autonomy, responsiveness, and sustainability of women communicators working in public spaces, especially in contexts of greater exposure to digital attacks, gender-based violence, and disinformation.
The JP Network also develops technological solutions and research from perspectives of the Global South, such as... ComuniHub, digital infrastructure aimed at strengthening journalism and the circulation of knowledge, and the LATIN IA, a conversational artificial intelligence created to offer guidance and support to women in vulnerable situations in the digital environment.
A fund to strengthen information infrastructure.
To increase the sustainability of these actions and create a structure capable of receiving national and international resources, the JP Network created the Afro-Latin Fund for Public Interest Journalism, an initiative linked to JP Network Philanthropic Fund, with financial management of Sitawi Finanças do Bem.
The partnership stems from the recognition that information is an essential infrastructure for social and democratic development. Just as communities, territories, and natural ecosystems need sustainable mechanisms for protection and investment, the informational environment also depends on organizations, technologies, local networks, and professionals prepared to produce, verify, and distribute reliable knowledge.
In this sense, strengthening journalists and communicators means investing in a fundamental layer of democracy: the ability of different communities to participate in public debate, produce their own narratives, and confront historical inequalities in access to information.
The Afrolatino Fund allows resources aimed at strengthening informational diversity to be managed with security, transparency, and governance, facilitating the work of the JP Network with institutional funders and strategic partners.
In addition to supporting initiatives from the JP Network itself, the Fund has the potential to support other organizations and projects aligned with this agenda, expanding access to resources for local initiatives working with communication, technology, diversity, and information integrity.
For Marcelle Chagas, general coordinator of the JP Network, researcher at the Mozilla Foundation and responsible for the strategy of the Afrolatino Fund., The creation of this mechanism represents a shift in how society understands impact investing.
“A structured fund allows protection, research, technology, and training to continue between calls for proposals. We are not funding isolated actions, but strengthening a permanent infrastructure to ensure that different voices continue to participate in the information ecosystem and in democratic construction.”
Fernanda Pessoa, Senior Manager of Philanthropy Management at Sitawi, reiterates that this partnership contributes to expanding the sustainability and reach of this agenda:
“Strengthening democracy requires ensuring that journalists and communicators can work safely and autonomously. By managing the finances of the Afrolatino Fund, Sitawi helps national and international funders support this agenda with governance, transparency, and efficiency, increasing the sustainability of initiatives developed by the JP Network and other organizations in the ecosystem.”
Strengthening Latin American information networks
The JP Network's activities are also connected to Network of Afrolatino Journalists, an initiative created by the organization to bring together Black journalists and communicators from different Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador.
The network expands the circulation of narratives produced by Afro-descendant professionals and strengthens connections between communication, technology, and racial justice on the continent.
Support for Afro-Latin Fund for Public Interest Journalism This represents an opportunity to strengthen a new social investment agenda: one that recognizes reliable information, the diversity of voices, and the protection of communicators as essential elements for democratic and resilient societies.
At a time when artificial intelligence is redefining the struggle for information and visibility, strengthening diverse information ecosystems is also strengthening democracy.
