"Civil society engagement towards the OECD Ministerial Meeting on Digital Economy in Mexico 2016"
ID: 61 —Suso Baleato (CSISAC), Alberto Cerda (Ford Foundation), Katitza Rodriguez (Electronic Frontier Foundation), Carolina Botero (Karisma), Luis Fernando Garcia (R3D/Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales), Claudio Ruiz (Derechos Digitales), Miguel Morachimo (Hiperderecho), Jazmin Acuña Cantero (TEDIC), Carolina Rossini (Public Knowledge), Michael Baak (Public Knowledge), Antonio Martínez Velázquez (Horizontal), Luca Belli (Center of Technology and Society at Getulio Vargas Foundation), Paulina Gutierrez (Article 19), Fanny Hidvegi (EPIC)
The goal of the session is to facilitate civil society engagement with the OECD Ministerial Meeting on “Digital Economy: Innovation, Growth and Social Prosperity” in Mexico, 2016. The main themes of the Ministerial are very relevant to Rights Con’s community including Internet openness and innovation, Internet of Things, metrics on privacy and security, and broadband access. We would like to encourage the participation in the civil society event that will be held in advance of the OECD Ministerial.
Civil society is represented in the OECD by the Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council (CSISAC). Our goal is to effectively represent civil society’s interest with regard to Internet policies and ensure the presence of a broad variety of NGOs with a special emphasis on Latin America in 2016. Organizations that are not CSISAC members yet would learn more about the process and the discussion could attract new participants. We would like to expand the CSISAC network, to enable ongoing participation by civil society organizations in the work of the OECD.
"Reinforce alternative media in Brazil: the successful case of collaborative coverage by the Youth"
ID: 264 — Florence Poznanski (head of Brazilian Desk, Internet Without Borders), TBA (Midia activist, Midia NINJA)
Freedom of expression is often subject to violations in Brazil. The media system is centralized and subject to a monopoly by the private sector. This does not allow a diversity of narratives. For several years now, numerous alternative media initiatives emerged on the Internet, in order to offer another perspective on the news. Other initiatives aim at helping young citizens develop their critical thinking on the news they read or watch, thanks to "educommunication" programs developed in schools. In this context, we have developed a methodology that associates these two important actions: content creation through collaborative coverage. This allows not only to create unseen information content that reflects preoccupation of the youth, but also to train these youth to become opinion shapers. Our aim with this workshop at RightsCon is to introduce our methodology and create a worldwide network of activists who practice or are interested in this approach. The 3 hours long workshop will consist in two parts: presentation of the methodology and discussion among participants on perspectives to enrich the methodology, based on discussions with participants.
"Digital Rights in Civil Society"
ID: 315 — Andrew Woods (University of Kentucky), Rob Reich (Stanford University), Lucy Bernholz (Stanford University), Heather West (Mozilla Foundation), Marcio Vasconcelos Pinto (Porticus Foundation), Mitchell Stevens (Stanford University), Kevin Gallagher (Freedom of the Press Foundation)
Nonprofit organizations employ close to 10% of the U.S. workforce and deliver billions of dollars of services every year. The so-called “independent” sector is entangled with business and government in myriad ways, and often largely indistinguishable from its corporate and government partners. Yet the independent sector is often missing from debates about the proper scope of digital rights. A growing literature outlines what customers ought to expect from Internet companies and what citizens ought to expect from their government, or conversely, what rights customers and citizens have over the use of their own data. But what should we expect of nonprofits and NGOs that provide web services and collect or aggregate data? Are those rights different from the digital rights one might demand of a public or private sector organization?
"Censorship by Proxy – Making Intermediaries Liable for Internet Cleanse"
ID: 304 — K.S. Park, Nanjira Sambuli
Intermediaries such as social media and blogging platforms, on-line marketplaces and review forums are indispensable to the functioning of the Internet as we know it. Most of the countries across the world provide intermediaries immunity from liabilities that arise out of unlawful content posted on these platforms. However, recent instances of online hate speech and radicalizaton have led to demands on these platforms, often by political leaders, to monitor content and to cleanse them. The monitoring and cleansing of online content results in these platforms being made responsible for adjudicating on the lawful nature of content. There is a counter argument that these platforms are best placed to remove content quickly before it creates any damage. The panel will discuss the following issues: Monitoring and Content take-down – is it censorship by proxy? Safe-harbor provisions for intermediaries Recommendations for a balanced intermediary liability regime
"Local Color: Harnessing art to articulate and confront human rights issues"
ID: 241 — Henry Peck (Legal Coordinator, Human Rights Watch), Meara Sharma (Cultural writer, editor and radio producer, Guernica/WNYC)
Can political art can be harnessed to further human rights objectives? In this session, we will discuss collectives and individuals (ie. Abounaddara: Syrian video collective; Nao Bustamante: Chicana performance artist; Theaster Gates: Chicago-based social practice artist) who are using art and performance as a tool for communication and advocacy. We’ll examine the role of art in revealing human rights violations as well as putting pressure on power systems and creating change. The session will also consider how technology can facilitate political art and help amplify its impact.
