Guide to NOC (Network Of Centers) RightsCon Tunis 2019
Wednesday, June 12th, 2019
Creating Shared Global Workflows for Social Media Monitoring (ID 1421)
The Future of Media in the Age of Misinformation, Strategic Roundtable
Speakers: Nat Gyenes and Jeff Deutch. Moderator Daniel Arnaudo.
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 9:00am - 10:15am, Utique.
Host Organization: National Democratic Institute, Meedan.
Description: The central objective of the session would be to convene groups working on social media collection and monitoring to describe new efforts to integrate datasets of social media data, develop and define workflows and standards, demonstrate tools for content collection and verification, discuss strategies for collaboration and integration, provide some feedback, ask questions, help develop tools, and incubate a new group of potential users for content collection and sharing. While initiatives like the Credibility Coalition, the Journalism Trust Initiative, Trust Project and TrustMetrics, NewsGuard and the W3C Credible Web Community Group are making efforts to develop standards, and numerous initiatives are working on datasets, limited resources are being devoted to communities in the Global South. Stakeholders such as the international human rights community and organizations working toward protecting free expression should also be more closely involved. In this session, our aim is to bring together more of the RightsCon community into the conversation and determine practical steps for moving forward.
Terrorist online content regulations in Europe and beyond: changing the platform liability paradigm? (ID 151)
Democracy and Conflict and Shrinking Civic Spaces, Panel
Speakers: Jessica Dheere, Georgia Holmer, Virginia Pérez-Alonso. Moderator: Joan Barata
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 10:30am – 11:45am, Leptis
Host Organization: Center for Internet and Society - Stanford Law
Description: The approximate structure of the session will be the following: - Opening remarks on the most relevant legislative anti-terrorist proposals (at the EU level and beyond) and their contrast with international standards and most important regional liability exemption regimes. - Reflection on the effectiveness of legislative measures introducing responsibility provisions vis-a-vis platforms regarding terrorist online content. This approach will be provided by anti-terrorist expert(s), using the experience of international security organizations and national law enforcement bodies. - Presentation of cases of national legislation and its effects in different regions of the world (mainly South East Asia, Europe and Latin America). After these presentations, participants in the audience will be asked to share and discuss specific cases, experiences and approaches. The panel aims at fostering a debate that shall combine a human rights and international standards approach together with a proper consideration of the adequate tools to effectively deal with terrorist online content, with the aim of defining best possible models. The debate will also identify global and regional tendencies aiming at transforming the general liability system applicable to online platforms, and possible actions and efforts to properly tackle these tendencies and adequately understand the impact on freedom of expression.
The big dataset in the sky: challenging geographies of discrimination (ID 1059)
Intersectionality on the Internet: Diversity and Representation, Fishbowl
Speakers: Nandini Chami, María Paz Canales and Arthur Gwagwa. Moderator: Diego Valadares Vasconcelos Neto.
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 9:00am - 10:15am, Carthage 3.
Host Organization: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Description: An interactive discussion on challenging “geographies of discrimination” that will bring a perspective from the “Global South” to ,e.g., (1) international trade and investment agreements negotiations, (2) the Sustainable Development Goals implementation, (3) the United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms work, and (4) ensuring accountability to the Global South for decision-making and governance of digital technologies. Digital technologies can contribute to the realization of human rights, including the right to development. They also present great challenges by building a brave new world and a highly unequal one. Digital divides and closing gaps can be addressed in terms of access to and affordability of digital technologies and platforms in developing countries. However, “the big data divide” is a far larger gap. This is the divide between those who generate data and those who collect, store and use data, the former excluded from access to data, expertise and processing power, power which is increasingly opaque, indecipherable and too vast. This is not a question of privacy or protection alone, but one of discrimination and powerlessness. The session will debate challenges to closing geographic digital divides, in what is a highly uneven, under-regulated playing field rife in money, profits and big monopolies.
Let’s Get Playin’: A demo of SMEX’s board game on online mobile safety (ID 576)
Privacy and Surveillance and Individual Security, Meetup
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 12:00pm - 1:00pm, Limes
Host Organization: SMEX
Description: Participants will play Proxy, the board game that SMEX has developed to teach Lebanese youth about privacy and security. The game, which debuted at MozFest and will have been played by various groups of young people in Lebanon prior to RightsCon, is a competition between a “hacker” and a team of three activists, each with a unique identity and skillset. The activists win when they work together to reach three “safety levels” and the hacker wins if he outwits them first by obtaining three types of personally identifying information (GPS Location, Mobile Pin/Passphrase, and Email Password) about each activist. In our 90-minute session, groups of 4 will play the game for the first 65 minutes (15 minutes to explain, 50 minutes of playing time); during the last 25 minutes, we will elicit feedback about our specific game, but also discuss the core digital safety issues that board games and other offline tools can help address.
Privacy and Surveillance and Individual Security, Workshop
Speakers: Renate Samson, Mark Lehmann, Mónica Estrada and Maria Solange Maqueo. Moderator: Judith Mariscal.
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 12:00pm - 1:00pm, Carthage 3.
Host Organization: Centro Latam Digital.
Description: The use of diverse technologies as a means to improve work conditions and increase productivity has been embraced steadily by various industries and sectors all over the world. This has transformed privacy boundaries in employer-employee relationships. The right to privacy admits certain limits or restrictions, particularly when obligations are assumed within a work relationship. But this cannot be considered an unrestricted excuse to invade the private sphere of employees or to treat their personal data inappropriately. There are many grey areas, especially when the working conditions are not clear and when neither employers nor employees know the scope of its functions. This panel will analyze challenges around these tensions, focusing on the opinions on processing personal data in the workplace issued by the European Data Protection Board, which provides a basis for reassessing the balance between the legitimate interests of employers and reasonable expectations of workers' privacy. Speakers will analyze to the criteria that both the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have used to determine the scope and limits of employers’ legitimate interests and whether these can be translated to different contexts and local legislation in countries like Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay and Perú.
The Network of Internet & Society Centers Information Quality Meetup (ID 1125)
Show and Tell: Skill-building for Advocacy and Campaigning, Meetup
Moderator: Sandra Cortesi
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 1:00pm - 2:00pm, Carthage 1
Host Organization: Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society - Harvard University
Description: The Network of Internet & Society Centers (NoC, https://networkofcenters.net) is a network of almost 100 Internet and society centers around the world. As many NoC representatives attend RightsCon, we hope that by hosting this meetup NoC representatives can (re)connect and new people can join the conversation. The meetup is envisioned as a highly engaging, participatory, and somewhat gamified encounter. The idea for the meetup is inspired by a cards-based activity designed at the Berkman Klein Center (bit.ly/iqcards1). In short time intervals, meetup participants are encouraged to find someone with a stack of cards and have them introduce their project using the card as a basis for the conversation. Those receiving cards will be able to keep them and invited to reconnect with those they spoke to during the conference, opening opportunities for channels of collaboration.
Tech Demos: Getting Chatty – rethinking secure communications (ID 1308)
Privacy and Surveillance and Individual Security
Speakers: Holger Krekel, Khaled Ben Driss, Ksenia Ermoshina
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 1:00pm - 2:00pm, Elydhafa
Description: First Part - Build contextual chatbots and Artificial Intelligence assistants with open source conversational AI framework (RASA NLU) (Wevioo); In this tech demo, we will present how to develop a chatbot from scratch using an NLP open source framework (RASA NLU). The Rasa NLU framework is a set of open source machine learning tools for developers to create contextual chatbots and assistants. What is a ChatBot? What can you do with a Chatbot? Presentation of Natural Language Processing Solutions (NLP / NLU), Discovery of RASA an open source framework AI for NLP / NLU, Handle contextual conversations with deep learning instead of hand-crafted rules, The heart of Chatbot, Preparations & Configurations, Connecting to an external API, Integrating ChatBot with your information system, Integrating ChatBot with social networks, Improvements to Chatbot based on usage. Second Part - Delta.Chat: rethinking decentralized secure communication _with_ at-risk communities (ISCC CNRS); Delta Chat is a decentralized secure messenger using email for transferring messages. For the last year we have been designing and testing use-cases for human rights organizations and journalists working in at-risk environments in Eastern Europe. During this session we will present Delta.Chat project, not just as another "messaging app", but as a community effort to decentralize secure messaging infrastructure in an interoperable way. Then, we will give the floor to our partner, Eugenia Andreyuk, from the Human Rights Information Center, Kyiv, Ukraine, that works on monitoring human rights violation in at-risk areas, such as Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. She will give elements of local context, risks and threat models. After we will propose to the audience to try out the app by themselves. We will wrap-up with a round of open comments.
Are we seriously going to trade away our privacy like cars, rice, or bananas? (ID 1557)
Data Trust and Protection and User Control, Workshop
Speakers: Lisa Garcia, Burcu Kilic, Estelle Masse and Pablo Viollier. Moderator: Francisco Vera.
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 2:15pm - 3:30pm, Carthage 3.
Host Organization: Public Citizen.
Description: When data becomes a trade commodity, privacy is treated as a trade barrier. Policymakers are using this logic, and therefore privacy and data protection rules are undermined by binding, enforceable trade agreements. Trade deals containing data governance rules are crafted by technology companies who are the only stakeholders represented in the negotiations. Appearing first in the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP), these rules constrain how countries regulate the cross- border transfer of data. Since the TPP, these rules have emerged in a growing number of bilateral, plurilateral, and regional trade agreements. This is despite the fact that such provisions directly undermine nations' human rights obligations. Furthermore, these rules could worsen competition between platform companies as they grow to become international data monopolies. This session will collectively map and strategize a way forward to influence trade policy making on behalf of digital rights organizations and all those who defend our human rights on the internet. The highlight will be a facilitated discussion about what each person can do to get involved to defend privacy and fight for a more diverse internet economy worldwide.
Network Disruptions in Times of Conflict: Strategies for circumvention and resistance (ID 582)
Turn It On and #KeepItOn: Connectivity and Shutdowns, Fishbowl
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 3:45pm - 5:00pm, Oya 3
Host Organization: SMEX
Description: In this session, participants will come together to discuss the impact of network disruption and internet censorship in times of conflict, and what strategies people have taken to circumvent it. A diverse group of regional researchers and activists, network measurers, and circumvention tool designers will come together to bring their own unique perspective on the effect of disruptions and censorship in times of conflict, and how the the impact can be mitigated. Whether a state or non-state actor is initiating these disruptions, they often have dire consequences for the people experiencing them, hindering their ability to communicate and their access to reliable news sources; and limiting their access to emergency services. The discussion will build on the existing work of the participants and hopefully inform future research and the development of circumvention tools. (For the AccessNow folks reading this, I have confirmed NetBlocks and Psiphon, but am waiting on them to tell me who. Potentially Helmi Noman who researches Yemen too. Very happy to add anyone else Access might recommend to this session).
Forging Alternative Models for Business and Human Rights, Workshop
Speakers: Stephanie Elder, Kim Malfacini, Nicolas Suzor and Alex Walden. Moderator: Spandana Singh.
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 3:45pm - 5:00pm, Dougga
Host Organization: New America's Open Technology Institute
Description: As social media companies have increasingly become gatekeepers of online speech, they have also faced growing pressure to provide meaningful transparency around their takedowns of content based on violations of their terms of service. In 2018, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter were the first companies to finally start issuing transparency reports on their content moderation efforts. This strategic roundtable will survey the current state of this emerging practice and discuss how to ensure a robust future for content moderation transparency: companies that have already issued reports will share lessons learned in the implementation of their reports, companies that haven't reported will discuss the challenges they've faced, advocates and researchers will highlight fresh insights derived from the data and flag what additional data is still needed, and all will brainstorm new ideas for how best to expand the practice to include more companies and more innovative features, in a manner that will give policymakers and the public a meaningful window into platforms' content takedown practices. 2018 is the year that content moderation reporting finally became a best practice; we want to jointly strategize on how to ensure that it is standard practice by 2020.
Multistakeholder Models of Content Moderation: A Global Perspective (ID 498)
(un)Censored: The Future of Expression, Workshop
Speakers: Rasha Abdulla, Pierre Francois Doquir, Nighat Dad, David Kaye and 'Gbenga Sesan. Moderator Megan Metzger.
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 5:15pm - 6:30pm, Carthage 2
Host Organization: Global Digital Policy Incubator (GDPi) - Stanford University, ARTICLE 19
Description: This workshop will function as an opportunity to develop the practical terms of a participatory, multistakeholder social media council(s) for the moderation of online content. The need for a multistakeholder model arises from several trends: first, recent government legislation which poses threats to freedom of expression online; second, the extraordinary control over content exercised by private companies whose platforms increasingly represent the public square; and third, the urgent need to combat harmful online content, while protecting and respecting freedom of expression. With input from speakers who are experts in online content and human rights, and specifically the unique challenges faced by those in the Global South, this workshop will address practical questions for building a feasible multistakeholder social media council. Some key questions will include: How should we properly structure such a body to ensure effectiveness, buy-in from governments and platforms, and protection of human rights principles? Who should be a member of such a body? How should members be selected? What will be the specific function of such a body: will it review individual appeals on content, or serve as an advisory body to help establish global standards? Should there be a global body, or national- or regional-level bodies?
Combating Fake News: Exploring approaches for protecting the messenger, and the message (ID 1163)
The Future of Media in the Age of Misinformation, Workshop
Speaker: Gabrielle Lim. Moderator: Courtney Radsch.
Details: Wednesday June 12, 2019 5:15pm - 6:30pm, Caspian
Host Organization: Committee to Protect Journalists
Description: The new “fake news” rhetoric is providing a dangerous framework for repression. CPJ has seen “fake news” used globally to justify attacks, harassment, and arrests of journalists. In order to frame the scope of the discussion, the session will share relevant research into where fake news legislation is in place, has been proposed, or in rare cases, been revoked and its impact on journalists and civil society. After a brief overview of existing research and its findings, participants will break into three groups for each of the categories to discuss potential action or approaches that could be helpful to repeal or prevent fake news laws, and to try to understand what led to their revocation in rare cases. How does “fake news” legislation manifest similarly or differently around the globe, and what can be learned? A rapporteur for each group will take notes and will report back to the entire group at the end of the session to share findings. CPJ will collect the findings and put together a lessons-learned and advocacy strategy based upon the discussion to share with participants. The takeaways from this discussion will inform CPJ’s and other organizations’ advocacy with both tech platforms and with newsrooms.
Thursday, June 13th, 2019
Decolonising Cyberpolicy: Developing a Cyberpolicy Framework Relevant to the Global South (ID 1045)
Lock and Key: Cybersecurity and Encryption, Workshop
Speakers: Helani Galpaya, Elonnai Hickok, Isaac Rutenberg and Ruhiya Seward. Moderator Judith Mariscal.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 9:00am - 10:15am, Limes
Host Organization: Research ICT Africa - South Africa, The Centre for Internet & Society
Description: Internet adoption rates in the Global South have expanded significantly, resulting in unprecedented obstacles for national policymakers and regulators in developing effective policies that promote and protect digital rights while enabling digital innovation. Policymakers in the Global South face unique challenges in enabling a dynamic cyberpolicy environment and to create the capacity to respond with appropriate regulations that enforce legislation, protect users and promote effective adoption and innovation. Thus, a key challenge in the Global South regarding cyberpolicy is creating an inclusive digital society that fosters human rights, network openness, cybersecurity and promotes economic growth. The proposed workshop will enable an interactive discussion on national, regional and global approaches to cyberpolicy development while focusing on priorities of the Global South. Each of the participating panelists, invited from regional cyberpolicy centres based in Africa, Asia and Latin America respectively, will share their experiences of developing regionally-relevant research agendas that respond to cyberpolicy challenges that are globally relevant. Thereafter, a selection of stakeholders from various sectors will discuss the interactions between Global North and Global South cyberpolicy challenges and how to improve collaboration to bolster human rights-based policymaking within a global context.
Decolonising Cyberpolicy: Developing a Cyberpolicy Framework Relevant to the Global South (ID 1045)
Lock and Key: Cybersecurity and Encryption, Workshop
Speakers: Helani Galpaya, Elonnai Hickok, Isaac Rutenberg and Ruhiya Seward. Moderator: Judith Mariscal.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 9:00am - 10:15am, Limes.
Host Organization: Research ICT Africa - South Africa, The Centre for Internet & Society.
Description: Internet adoption rates in the Global South have expanded significantly, resulting in unprecedented obstacles for national policymakers and regulators in developing effective policies that promote and protect digital rights while enabling digital innovation. Policymakers in the Global South face unique challenges in enabling a dynamic cyberpolicy environment and to create the capacity to respond with appropriate regulations that enforce legislation, protect users and promote effective adoption and innovation. Thus, a key challenge in the Global South regarding cyberpolicy is creating an inclusive digital society that fosters human rights, network openness, cybersecurity and promotes economic growth. The proposed workshop will enable an interactive discussion on national, regional and global approaches to cyberpolicy development while focusing on priorities of the Global South. Each of the participating panelists, invited from regional cyberpolicy centres based in Africa, Asia and Latin America respectively, will share their experiences of developing regionally-relevant research agendas that respond to cyberpolicy challenges that are globally relevant. Thereafter, a selection of stakeholders from various sectors will discuss the interactions between Global North and Global South cyberpolicy challenges and how to improve collaboration to bolster human rights-based policymaking within a global context.
Antitrust, consumer protection, and the digital economy (ID 1387)
Forging Alternative Models for Business and Human Rights, Strategic Roundtable
Speakers Vinicius Marques de Carvalho, María Paz Canales, Diogo Moyses and Charlotte Slaiman. Moderator: Marcela Mattiuzzo.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 9:00am - 10:15am, Oya 2
Host Organization: Public Knowledge, VMCA.
Description: Dialogue with experts from the US, Europe, and Latin America on how we can use antitrust and consumer protection law to defend an open internet and govern technology.
Tackling Takedowns: Building platform transparency and accountability (ID 677)
Forging Alternative Models for Business and Human Rights, Strategic Roundtable
Speaker: Faiza Patel. Moderator: David Kaye.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 10:30am - 11:45am, Dougga.
Host Organization: Brennan Center for Justice.
Description: While debates continue about the standards that platforms should use for content moderation, there is broad agreement on the need for greater transparency and due process mechanisms. These include the Santa Clara principles, as well as more specific proposals on transparency and the building of institutions to bolster due process, such as a social media council, and Facebook's proposals for an oversight board and/or a "Supreme Court" to adjudicate takedowns. While overall pressure has led to some improvements, we need a broader strategy to force change. The organizers will circulate a paper with key proposals and questions ahead of the session, with the aim of identifying their strengths and weaknesses. The session will inform groups working in this space, and begin the process of developing at least some principles for civil society's approach to these issues.
The humanitarian cybersecurity and privacy problem (ID 114)
Privacy and Surveillance and Individual Security, Fireside Chat
Speakers: Fabien Leimgruber and Charlotte Lindsey-Curtet. Moderator: Tina Bouffet
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 2:15pm – 3:30pm, Oya 1
Host Organization: ICRC
Description: In this session, participants will have the opportunity to learn and interact with ICRC experts on important aspects related to the use of technologies and data in humanitarian action in particular through the following prisms or angles: 1 – The ‘traditional’ cybersecurity angle: Do you know how to protect affected people's data? do you do it? This part will focus on understanding what data flows surround humanitarian worker, why they should pay attention to them, and how they can help to protect them where needed. 2 – Opening the Pandora box of the data economy? Moving the conversation beyond the purely 'data protection' discourse to include certain actor's positive obligation not to collect or create business models that could put people at risk in warzones. More than words, what can be done? 3 - Shifting from a discourse of risk mitigation to one of positive responsibility Can we create a safe digital space for humanitarian action? what does it take? What a humanitarian purpose approach to data look like and what does it take to truly make happen?
Beyond Dating Apps: LGBTQ people in other online platforms (ID 1475)
Intersectionality on the Internet: Diversity and Representation, Fishbowl
Speakers: Thiago Oliva and Soudeh Rad. Moderator: Dennys Antonialli.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 2:15pm - 3:30pm, Oya 3
Host Organization: InternetLab
Description: This session addresses pressing issues faced by the LGBTQ community in the digital environment. The panel will explore the promises and opportunities of the internet for enabling the development of a strong and thriving LGBTQ community, as well as the challenges and perils posed by new telecommunications technologies when it comes to those users. The primary goal is to move away from discussing dating apps, inviting speakers from civil society and other internet platforms in order to identify other specific issues that have proven to be particularly sensitive for the LGBTQ community and the internet. Considering the “meetup” format proposed by the organizers, participants will engage in more active conversation. At the beginning of the session, speakers will start the conversation by presenting their perspectives on the topic, based on relevant work, research and/or personal experience. They will make a mapping effort in order to identify issues that have proven to be particularly sensitive for the LGBTQ community, such as anonymity and tools for discovering sexuality and gender identity online; access to information, particularly sexual health information; digital security and surveillance, hate speech, harassment and online gender-based violence; advocacy and movement building; and so on.
#DigitalPolitik and the Internet's Warring States Period (ID 1708)
Democracy and Conflict and Shrinking Civic Spaces, Workshop
Speakers: Sean McDonald and Jonnie Penn. Moderator: Rohinton Medhora.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 2:15pm - 3:30pm, Carthage 2.
Host Organization: Digital Public, Centre for International Governance Innovation.
Description: The global internet continues to fragment. Governments, in particular, are using their influence to shape the ways that digital companies, markets, and rights connect us online. This new form of realpolitik, which we call “digitalpolitik,” is an emerging tactical playbook for how governments use their political, regulatory, military, and commercial powers to project influence in global, digital markets. This session will, building on an early, initial effort, begin a conversation on identifying, categorizing, and tracking the strategies and tactics, and their divergence, among the world's most influential digital actors.
Show and Tell: Skill-building for Advocacy and Campaigning, Meetup
Speakers: Mehwish Ansari and Deborah Brown. Moderator: Gus Rossi.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 2:15pm - 3:30pm, Elydhafa.
Host Organization: Public Knowledge, Association for Progressive Communications.
Description: A discussion on how civil society advocates can influence and participate in multilateral processes such as the UN and the WTO.
Ethical AI Career Pathways: Preparing tomorrow’s leaders to innovate ethically (ID 876)
Artificial Intelligence and Automation and Algorithmic Accountability, Meetup
Speakers: Hibah Kamal-Grayson, Jessica Dheere, Jessica Fjeld and Ernani Cerasaro. Moderators Amar Ashar and Hannah Hilligoss.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 3:45pm - 5:00pm, Oya 2
Host Organization: erkman Klein Center for Internet & Society - Harvard University
Description: To respond to the challenges around disinformation, data misuse, and the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI), tech companies are hiring Chief Ethics Officers and launching ethics and society teams; governments are creating departments dedicated to technology and innovation, and scores of civil society and research organizations on AI are popping up. In parallel, higher education institutions are developing new curriculum and multidisciplinary pedagogical approaches to prepare students to solve these complex problems. This session will explore novel programs that create better interfaces between the academic, private, and public sectors. Representatives from industry, government, civil society, and higher education will briefly share their work and what they are looking for in new hires or how they are preparing students to enter the field. All participants in the meet-up will use post-it notes to map out the educational backgrounds, skills, and core competencies required for these new roles with an emphasis on ethics and values. The session format will enable productive conversation about designing the right jobs, departments, and teams to solve the most pressing tech challenges. It will also illuminate where higher education institutions should dedicate resources to equip students with the tools required to thrive in the field.
Big Data strikes back: building the data protection rebellion (ID 377)
Data Trust and Protection and User Control, Strategic Roundtable
Moderator: Diego Naranjo.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 3:45pm - 5:00pm, Dougga.
Host Organization: European Digital Rights (EDRi), IPANDETEC.
Description: During this strategic roundtable we aim at having to build an alliance with data protection activists worldwide that would like to advocate for their countries to sign and ratify (and implement) Convention 108 of the Council of Europe on data protection and implement national data protection laws. Convention 108 is open to signing and ratification from any country in the world (not only CoE countries) and it sets the highest standards for data protection worldwide. However, not many countries have signed and ratified the Convention.
Detecting, Understanding, and Countering Censorship of Wikipedia (ID 776)
(un)Censored: The Future of Expression, Panel
Speakers: Sukhbir Singh, Maria Xynou and Emna Mizouni. Moderator Jan Gerlach.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 5:15pm - 6:30pm, Adean
Host Organization: Wikimedia Foundation
Description: This panel will provide an overview of how a global and open internet platform like Wikipedia can detect and respond to threats to access to information. Censorship of Wikipedia has been observed in twelve countries, preventing a large swath of the world population from accessing the free online encyclopedia. Wikipedia's global audience presents both an opportunity to track internet accessibility around the world, as well as a challenge to quickly identify and respond to censorship events that affect the platform. First, we will review the historical efforts to detect and understand censorship on Wikipedia. Second, we will identify some of the opportunities and challenges that an open platform faces when responding to censorship. Third, we will present and seek input on some possible ways to help everyday internet users learn about censorship and overcome obstacles to access. We present our tools and findings in this session with the hope of strengthening the relations between such projects and civil society groups working in the field of digital rights towards the common goal of making the Internet free and accessible for all.
Forging Alternative Models for Business and Human Rights, Strategic Roundtable
Speakers: Joan Barata, Gustavo Gomez, Juliana Nolasco, Wolfgang Schulz and Carlos Affonso Souza. Moderator: Jamila Venturini.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 5:15pm - 6:30pm, Amilcar
Host Organization: Intervozes
Description: The aim is to discuss proposals for a democratic regulation of the Tech Giants to guarantee a free and open internet and the promotion of the freedom of expression online, helping to stop attempts of abusive and anti-democratic state Internet regulations frameworks - taking as extreme points the two models suggested by the French President Emmanuel Macron at the Internet Governance Forum 2018 (see session description. The intention is to promote an informed debate about the wished scope of regulation in order to safeguard users and platforms without harming freedom of expression. The foundations and limits of this regulation should be the internationally recognized human rights standards, contained in documents like the statements of the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression and those built in multistakeholders forums, like the Manila Principles and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We should also take into account asymmetries, encompassing large platforms without being an obstacle to innovation or for small businesses or non-profit initiatives. Thereby, our goal is to foster and promote the participation mainly of the voices from the Global South, generally excluded from large international fora and from multilateral decision-making spaces.
The global fight for digital privacy in the face of authoritarianism and surveillance capitalism (ID 697)
Privacy and Surveillance and Individual Security, Panel
Speakers: Kushal Das, Juliana Guerra, Gus Gustavo, Alison Macrina and Wieke Mielink. Moderator: Silvia.
Details: Thursday June 13, 2019 5:15pm - 6:30pm, Village Stage.
Host Organization: Library Freedom Project, The Tor Project.
Description: In the last few years, privacy initiatives have gained strength and recognition in the broader human rights space. But while there are more opportunities than ever for human rights defenders to learn about protecting their digital footprint, the threats have also become more powerful. The rise of right wing governments and the continued influence of surveillance capitalism means that more people around the world face grave risks to their privacy and free expression. How do we scale digital privacy efforts globally in the face of these threats? This panel features speakers engaged in answering this question. They represent The Tor Project, Derechos Digitales, the Hivos/Digital Defender Partnership, Freedom of the Press Foundation, and Library Freedom Project. Each panelist will take a few minutes to talk about their own work and discuss their approach to this challenge. We will share information about the communities we each focus on, the ways we've tried to build networks of trainers, the particular challenges in our regions, and our successes. Then the moderator will engage the panel in a discussion of ideas for engaging the broader community. We'll leave time for questions from the audience as we want to be thinking about these issues collaboratively.
Friday, June 14th, 2019
The Tone from the Top: Setting responsible regulation for tech (ID 947)
Forging Alternative Models for Business and Human Rights, Panel
Speakers: Moira Oliver, Vivek Krishnamurthy, Andy O’Connell and Megan Metzger. Moderator: Michaela Lee.
Details: Friday June 14, 2019 9:00am - 10:15am, Cyrene
Host Organization: BSR (Business for Social Responsibility)
Description: As the pace of technological development accelerates, consumers are interacting with smart devices, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and online platforms on an increasingly frequent basis. This has led to a parallel, but delayed, upswing in regulatory efforts from governments keen to protect citizens from potential negative impacts. Business leaders and policy makers face major questions about how to foster innovation, protect human rights, and ensure fair markets. We believe companies play an important role in informing and influencing regulation for new technologies, and that they should do so in a manner consistent with commitments they make to respect human rights and be responsible corporate citizens. Companies can also encourage policy frameworks that are able to adapt to rapid changes in the development and use of technology. This session will discuss how businesses and governments can best collaborate to develop responsible regulation. We will use two key cases to illustrate these opportunities: -The advent of facial recognition, and how companies are calling for regulation to protect consumers against biased decision-making and privacy violations. -Regulation intended to restrict misinformation, hate news, and harmful content online, and how companies proactively advocate for policy that balances security, privacy, and freedom of expression.
Where will your values take AI? Co-designing a Moral Labyrinth (and taking one home!) (ID 1200)
Artificial Intelligence and Automation and Algorithmic Accountability, Workshop
Speakers: Mindy Seu and Jie Qi. Moderator: Sarah Newman.
Details: Friday June 14, 2019 9:00am - 10:15am, Elyssa
Host Organization: Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society - metaLAB (at) Harvard University
Description: This workshop, led by artists and designers from Harvard University and the University of Tokyo, will bring together participants to think through difficult questions questions about human relationships to technology, and create a visual work that each participant will get to take home. The session is inspired by the Value Alignment Problem: the challenge of assuring that the goals embedded in intelligent systems (or the secondary goals they subsequently form) are aligned with the values of the society they serve. The session will include: discussion morality across cultures, creative exercises geared toward generating diverse questions, and compiling the participant-generated questions into "moral labyrinth." The labyrinth will include as many voices as there are workshop participants, in as many languages as possible. The session will conclude with participant-generated labyrinths, and each participant will get to take one home. After RightsCon, the collective Moral Labyrinth will be posted online to share with others, and visitors to the site will also be able to submit their own moral questions for reflection. The workshop encourages collaborative reflection on value alignment in the 21st century -- emphasizing the necessity of asking questions as we co-create and steer toward our shared technological future.
Platforms, free speech and pluralism: Is there a role to play for media authorities? (ID 1266)
Forging Alternative Models for Business and Human Rights, Workshop
Speakers: Xianhong Hu, Elda Brogi, Mario Viola de Azevedo Cunha, Lubos Kuklis and Carlos Affonso Souza. Moderator: Iva Nenadic.
Details: Friday June 14, 2019 10:30am - 11:45am, Adean.
Host Organization: Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom, European University Institute.
Description: Digital technologies and online platforms have provided space and tools for more diverse voices and viewpoints to be heard. They have also amplified risks, including to exposure diversity by algorithmically filtering and personalising news on offer, and of disinformation and hate speech due to the viral potential of the network. Globally, different regulatory, co-regulatory and self-regulatory initiatives are attempting to combat these threats. Many of them have faced criticism for entrusting private companies with responsibilities to police online speech, without timely public auditing and an efficient appeal mechanism. Often it is very difficult, if at all possible, to unilaterally decide whether or not certain content should be categorised as illegal, intended to deceive, or fall under the protection of freedom of expression. So far, the role of media authorities has been very limited if at all visible in relation to the above-mentioned challenges. This session aims to understand whether the existing media authorities are capable and well positioned to take over a challenging task of monitoring platform behaviour when it comes to free speech and pluralism? Or do we need a specific multidisciplinary authority to perform this role?
The Future of Media in the Age of Misinformation, Fishbowl
Speakers: Chinmayi Arun, Rob Faris, Ben Supple and Mariana Valente. Moderator: Fabro Steibel.
Details: Friday June 14, 2019 10:30am - 11:45am, Oya 3
Host Organization: ITS Rio, InternetLab.
Description: Propaganda and misinformation are on the radar of activists, academics, the private sector, and government agents. In different countries, electoral and political processes unveiled a sensitive relationship between social media and democracy, bringing attention to the dynamics of polarization, media mistrust, manipulation, and hateful speech. In these different realities, economic, political, cultural and even information diet patterns shape context, presenting particular aspects of these phenomena. This fishbowl will be focused on sharing experiences and perspectives about how to discover and tackle these dynamics through different techniques and perspectives. The main questions to be addressed are: what is general and what is contextual? How global platforms should deal with these differences? Which research findings can and cannot establish common ground in policy discussions about the subject? The session will be structured as a frank conversation between five observers from different standpoints, promoting exchange between Global North and South approaches (such as Harvard’s study on US “Network Propaganda” on one side and research about political propaganda on WhatsApp in the 2018's Brazilian election on the other side). Is a space for the construction of shared diagnoses among participants on how to balance diverse conceptions regarding the protection of human rights and democracy.
Protecting digital communities in democracies from the global reach of authoritarian countries (ID 301)
Democracy and Conflict and Shrinking Civic Spaces, Panel
Speakers: Arzu Geybullayeva, Arthur Gwagwa, Gabrielle Lim, Grace Mutung'u and Valentin Weber. Moderator Lisa Garbe.
Details: Friday June 14, 2019 2:15pm - 3:30pm, Oya 1
Host Organization: University of Oxford
Description: The session will be divided into four parts. The first part will be dedicated to an examination of case studies where censorship of one country has been applied abroad. These case studies will be matched with potential solutions proposed by the panel members and audience. The second part will proceed similarly and explore what kind of surveillance countries have instituted most commonly. How can we prevent equipment built by China from being exported globally and used for human rights abuses? Shall countries impose sanctions on companies? Thirdly, the panel will explore how to approach information influence operations abroad. Many countries have experienced Russian and Iranian propaganda. However, it has been difficult to counter this subtle kind of information controls. While the audience is encouraged to interject remarks or ideas at any point of the session, the last part is particularly designed to stimulate their interaction. The moderator will encourage the audience to voice their opinion and give examples that the panel may have missed or deserve attention. The audience will be also invited to introduce the platforms, channels or organisations that they work for if any of them can contribute to tailoring counterstrategies and make a lasting impact.
Routes of Technology Production: Maps and narratives to build our collective future (ID 520)
The Impact of Technology on the Sustainable Development Goals, Workshop
Moderator: Paola Ricaurte.
Details: Friday June 14, 2019 2:15pm - 3:30pm, Hannibal
Host Organization: Tecnológico de Monterrey, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society - Harvard University, Sursiendo
Description: We conceive technology as an assemblage of materialities, norms, flows, actors, practices, territories, bodies, and subjectivities: something inextricably related to what we are, think and feel. In many indigenous and non-urban or alternative communities, the respect of nature, the attachment to the land, the preservation of memory and traditions, shared goals and a strong organization are crucial to surviving. However, these imaginaries are not compatible with the dominant and corporate technological rationality that takes advantage of people’s lives and environments and produce narratives that separate the land, the people and their affections. For these communities, digital colonialism, the datafication of the self, and the capture of life produce poverty, exclusion, the loss of natural resources, and, in some cases, death. In this workshop, we would like to analyze the implications of digital colonialism in our quotidian lives and in relation to our traditional cultures.
Turn It On and #KeepItOn: Connectivity and Shutdowns, Workshop
Speakers: Emilar Gandhi, Alison Gillwald, 'Gbenga Sesan. Moderator: Deborah Brown
Details: Friday June 14, 2019 2:15pm - 3:30pm, Caspian
Host Organization: Research ICT Africa - South Africa, Association for Progressive Communications
Description: Increasing incidents of taxing popular Internet services have occurred recently, including on social media use and voice of IP (VoIP) calls. While such measures are proposed for a variety of reasons, they could pose a significant threat to digital rights and make it more difficult for people to gain Internet access. This, in turn, can limit developing countries’ ability to harness the potential of the Internet for sustainable development. For example, a daily levy in Zambia applies to VoIP calls, while in Uganda online content providers must register and pay an annual fee, while users must pay a daily social media tax levy to access social media platforms. The session will examine recent work by APC and RIA, as well as other practitioners, to understand the impact of such mechanisms on digital inclusion, sustainable development, and human rights. Stakeholders from different communities will reflect on evidence from their respective regions on how taxations and deployed, and for what reasons. Finally, stakeholders will investigate the potential harms that may arise from imposing such levies in developing regions in particular, with the aim of making general recommendations for policymakers considering the use of such levies in Africa in the future.
Tech Policy, AI and Investment in the GCC: A path to digital development or digital dystopia? (ID 1177)
Forging Alternative Models for Business and Human Rights, Strategic Roundtable
Speaker: Afef Abrougui. Moderator: Jessica Dheere.
Details: Friday June 14, 2019 2:15pm - 3:30pm, Carthage 3.
Host Organization: SMEX, CYRILLA Collaborative, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society - Harvard University, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy - Harvard Kennedy Center
Description: Data might not be the new oil, and the Middle East isn't China, but Gulf Arab states are seeking a new global role in technology policy and investment. Their efforts are being embraced by international organizations encouraging digital development without confronting current digital dilemmas, as well as by global companies, who are both investing in and seeking investment from these states. Despite repressive cybercrime laws and a dismal record of human rights protection online in the Arab region, few in power seem to be asking what the implications of the Saudi government's $3.5 billion investment in Uber might be. Or how Bahrain's new data protection law will affect data stored in Amazon's new data center there. Or how the UAE's prioritization of applied artificial intelligence to advance citizens’ “happiness and wellbeing" could possibly go wrong. At this strategic roundtable, we will pose these and other questions to illuminate underexplored relationships between global technology companies and governments in the digitally developed GCC and interrogate their impact on human rights. We hope to highlight the dilemmas raised when tech companies do business in these countries and/or receive investment from them and will discuss strategies to keep human rights top of mind.