Strategic use of the internet

Fifteen years ago, two youngsters met in a small house in Melbourne with the idea to build an online space for social issue documentaries from the Asia-Pacific. Today, the idea may seem a little banal. But the internet is no longer the free and open space it once was.

Rreport by the Association for Progressive Communications and Derechos Digitales prepared for the 66th Pre-Sessional Working Group meeting of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for Chile’s Compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

“Human Rights in the Age of Platforms”, published by the MIT Press, examines the human rights implications of today's platform society. APCNews interviewed Rikke Frank Jørgensen, editor of the publication, who provided insight on the reflections and recommendations captured in this book.

While pointing to the positive use of AI to enable rights in ways that were not easily possible before, this edition of GISWatch highlights the real threats that we need to pay attention to if we are going to build an AI-embedded future that enables human dignity.

APC and partners are hosting their ninth Disco-tech event in conjunction with the 2019 IGF in Berlin, on 26 November. We invite you to join us for this peer-learning event about utilising the potential of ICTs in strategies to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.

A damning new report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, raises alarm about the rise of the digital welfare state, which uses data and technologies to automate, predict, identify, surveil, detect, target and punish the poor.

As an organisation that has worked at the intersections of human rights and technology for nearly three decades and fully recognises the critical importance of ICTs for the fundamental right to protest, APC welcomes the focus of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights on this topic.

APC's 2018 Annual Report is a deep dive into one year of our network's life. It is a compendium of stories about how APC collectively strives for change, from a year when so many deeply rooted initiatives blossomed.