Invisible Firewalls: Gendered Exclusion and Resistance in The Digital Public Sphere

The digital public sphere, often envisioned as an egalitarian space for dialogue and democratic engagement, is increasingly shaped by structures of exclusion that mirror and reinforce offline inequalities. This paper critically examines the concept of invisible firewalls a metaphor for the socio-technical, algorithmic, and cultural barriers that inhibit the equitable participation of women and gender-diverse individuals in online environments. While digital technologies promise universality, access, and empowerment, in practice they often produce and perpetuate stratified forms of visibility, voice, and vulnerability. Drawing upon Nancy Fraser’s reconceptualization of the public sphere and Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, this study explores how gendered subjectivities are regulated and marginalized through online surveillance, algorithmic governance, and socio-cultural gatekeeping. Platforms, despite their outward neutrality, are underpinned by biased data architectures, as articulated in Safiya Umoja Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression and Virginia Eubanks’ Automating Inequality, which disproportionately affect women, particularly those from historically marginalized communities.