Disco-tech 2019 - Internet shutdowns in Africa: "It's like being cut off from the world"

Internet shutdowns in Africa: "It's like being cut off from the world"

You may also RSVP to discotech@apc.org

The Association for Progressive Communications,  Columbia Global Freedom of Expression, and the Columbia Global Centers | Tunis, and Digital Defenders Partnership are hosting their seventh Disco-tech event in conjunction with the 2019 RightsCon Summit in Tunis.

“Disco-techs” are a series of informal evening events that are designed as learning exchanges, to bridge the gaps between technical and political solutions to attacks on internet rights and freedoms

Discotech in 2019 will focus on internet shutdowns in Africa, and will take place as an evening event. Awareness and condemnation of internet shutdowns has increased in recent years from the United Nations, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Freedom Online Coalition, and the Internet Society and African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), alike. This is in a large part due to efforts by civil society to send a clear message that internet shutdowns violate human rights, harm communities, and undermine economic development.

Nonetheless, shutdowns continue to plague the continent, especially around key political moments like elections, and can signal further human rights violations to come.

Disco-tech 2019 aims to:

• explore the meaning of a shutdown and forms that it could take through personal stories of those who studied or lived through shutdowns
• bring to light stories of the shutdown’s effects on human rights at an individual, national or regional level.
• share strategies and techniques to avert or lift shutdowns, including tech demos, policy ideas, advocacy strategies, or litigation. Tunisian activists, who lived through these problems for decades before the Revolution, can talk about their experience.

Disco-tech is proactive. Presenters and participants will share best practices, visionary ideas and make connections that will have direct impact on their work.

Provisional list of speakers:

• Alp Toker, NetBlocks
• Anriette Esterhuysen, Association for Progressive Communications
• Arsene Tungali, Rudi International
• Ashnah Kalemera, Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)
• Bakhtiyor Avezdjanov, Columbia University
• Befekadu Hailu, Zone 9 Blogger
• Emilar Vushe-Ghandi, Facebook SADC
• Koliwe Majama, African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG)
• Lisa Vermeer, Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Netherlands
• Natasha Mszonga, Digital Defenders fellow
• Robert Muthuri, Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology (CIPIT)
• Saba Ashraf, Media Legal Defense Initiative

Refreshments will be served at 6:30 pm and a light dinner during the break.