The Internet can be a fascinating space, with the potential to explore our diverse identities and navigate different kinds of experiences. In this podcast, today we will explore how the Internet and social media shape expressions of sex, and the performance of sexuality, desire and pleasure online. Cyber Democracy host Radhika Radhakrishnan discusses with Paromita Vohra and Smita Vanniyar about taking risks to express desire online, and how people employ personal safeguards to seek pleasure in a safe manner on the Internet. You will also hear how social media platforms as well as the state employ practices that censor sexual expression and sanitise the Internet, and how people are creatively subverting these in their everyday lives.

Paromita is a filmmaker and writer whose work spans themes of feminism, desire, urban life and popular culture. She is the founder and creative director of Agents of Ishq.

Smita works at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and technology with a focus on digital rights, holistic digital security, and digital storytelling.