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Nepali organisation Body and Data is calling on netizens to condemn online harassment against TikTok and Instagram user Nikisha and women and gender and sexual diverse individuals.
Shita Laksmi, Executive Director of the Tifa Foundation, chats with EngageMedia about internet intermediary liability, particularly in regards to disinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of the state in regulating content.
Maung Saungkha and Kyaw Lynn are members of the Coconet community. Prior to his July 27 sentencing, Kyaw Lynn had published on Coconet.social articles on how the Myanmar internet shutdown is contributing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s attempts to censor information on the Arakan (Rakhine) conflicts. Both members were arrested for participating in protests against the internet shutdown in Rakhine and Chin states, currently the longest shutdown in the world.
In Part 2 of our series exploring existing artificial intelligence ethics and their shortfalls, we find that ethical principles and guidelines currently in use have limited substance in their content and also a high possibility of being used mainly as window dressing while diverting us away from more structural solutions such as legal regulations.
In the digital era, AI ethics are not enough to stop tech companies from generating huge amounts of profits amidst negative impacts on the environment and society. In this blog post, we have discussed the substance of ethical guidelines that have mushroomed in the recent years and found that the contents of these guidelines are mostly focused on narrow fixes and carry with them problematic blindspots which do not help with systemic solutions.
What does it mean when technologists say “you can code anything”? In her inaugural article for The IO Foundation, Maryam Lee shares her thoughts on why human rights perspectives have the potential to move technological innovation to greater heights. She also argues that people do not need to choose between enjoying the latest technologies and human rights, and how they both could co-exist in our lives.
The second episode of Pretty Good Podcast delves deeper into the Philippine court cyber libel ruling against journalists Maria Ressa and Reynaldo Santos Jr. of Rappler, a Philippine news organisation known to be critical of incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte. We ask John Nery, a columnist for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and co-founder of the Consortium on Democracy and Disinformation: What does this case mean for press freedom, and what are the wider implications of this ruling for freedom of expression online?
Aside from producing the pilot episode, EngageMedia’s Pretty Good Podcast Team also took the challenge of only using free and open-source software to record the podcast’s episodes.
On the pilot episode of Pretty Good Podcast: Discussions on Digital Rights, EngageMedia chats with the Association for Progressive Communications executive director, Chat Garcia Ramilo, on the past, present, and future of digital rights in Asia-Pacific region. The pilot also tackles how the COVID-19 pandemic relates to digital rights and the importance of building and staying in touch with our communities to further the digital rights movement in the region.
