TECH ACTIVISM

Interesting

Practitioners identified the following six key threats to the communities they work with: state violence and surveillance; politically-motivated targeted digital attacks; marginalization based on race, class, gender identity, and sexual orientation; unequal access to digital technology; unaccountable corporate infrastructure; and limited resources. Additionally, practitioners pointed out that these threats, for the most part, are not new: they are long-standing systemic issues, amplified by new tools and platforms. For example, in the case of surveillance, practitioners noted that well-meaning white technologists have secured most of the available resources with narratives about “new” threats, even though Black, Indigenous, Muslim, Latinx, and Queer/Trans communities have always faced state surveillance in the United States. 

“Who do we put up on our 'rockstar' pedestals? How does genius status and disruption ideology in the tech sector create the conditions for workplace harassment and abuse? "Move fast, and break things" was Facebook's motto -  does the attitude include people too? We interview whistleblower, security expert and all-round badass Leigh Honeywell for her wisdom on these challenging questions, and talk about our experiences with power dynamics in the tech sector. Content warning: This episode contains discussions of sexual abuse and bullying.”

A quick guide of internet safety tips before sharing your #MeToo story to protect against hacking, doxxing and other online harassment. 

What do you call it when employers use Facebook’s advertising platform to show certain job ads only to men or just to people between the ages of 25 and 36?

Most of the people running social media platforms are well intentioned and interested in protecting people, Galerpin said, but just aren't sure how to go about doing that. Too often, Galperin said, only middle-class white men are in the room when major privacy, security or user protection decisions are being made, resulting in tools that predominantly address risks faced by that demographic group. 

Wylie doesn’t see it as a topic for debate. “Data produced by the public should be publicly owned and managed transparently,” she said. “A lot of the urban problems that smart-city projects propose to address don’t require a technological solution. Toronto’s affordable housing crisis isn’t going to be solved with more data — it’s political will that’s lacking.

From mass surveillance of political dissidents in Thailand to spyware attacks on journalists in Mexico, cyberattacks against civil society organizations have become a persistent problem in recent years,” says Steve Weber, Faculty Director of CLTC. “While journalists, activists, and others take steps to protect themselves, such as installing firewalls and anti-virus software, they often lack the technical ability or capital to establish protections better suited to the threats they face, including phishing. Too few organizations and resources are available help them expand their cybersecurity capabilities.