NEW YORK (June 1, 2022) – The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is excited to announce its participation once again at the 2022 RightsCon Online, which will be held from June 6-10! Now approaching its 11th edition, RightsCon is one of the leading international summits dedicated to exploring human rights in the digital age. This summit has served as a unique and impactful platform to further highlight the global struggle for freedom and human rights.
HRF is thrilled to come back with two insightful sessions on deck this year — view them below!
In December 2021, HRF launched the “Uyghur Forced Labor Checker,” a Google Chrome extension plug-in that helps keep Uyghur forced labor out of your online shopping carts. This tech demo features an HRF staff member and Uyghur advocate, Jewher Ilham, to speak about the Uyghur crisis, the thought process behind planning this plug-in, and to encourage those in tech to also creatively use their skills toward advancing human rights.
➔ Check out this tech demo with Uyghur advocate, Jewher Ilham; and HRF Senior Strategy & Research Associate, Jenny Wang.
The internet is now the most important tool authoritarians use to stifle dissent and suppress freedom. Vast censorship operations like the great firewall in China allow governments to monitor and censor all content, while sophisticated software like Pegasus grants dictators the ability to hack into the phone of any activist or journalist. Authoritarian regimes can also use blunter tools, like overwhelming social media with propaganda or shutting the internet off during contentious periods like election cycles or military coups, in order to spread misinformation, mistrust, and impede communication. This panel will explore what tools regimes use to discredit, censor, intimidate, and silence people, the challenges activists specifically face from authoritarian regimes, and how activists can use technology to get around censorship under a dictatorship.
➔ Join this panel discussion moderated by CNN multimedia producer Melissa Mahtani, with Iranian journalist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad; President of The Campaign for Hong Kong Samuel Chu; and Venezuelan activist, journalist, & Executive Director of RedesAyuda Melanio Escobar.