Welcome to the Official Schedule for RightsCon Toronto 2018. This year’s program, built by our global community, is our most ambitious one yet. Within the program, you will find 18 thematic tracks to help you navigate our 450+ sessions.
To createIf you’ve created a profile with a picture and bio, please allow a few hours for the RightsCon team to merge it with your existing speaker profile.
Internet shutdowns cost globally about $2.4 billion USD and cause untold harm to trade, industry, and communities that rely on the free flow of information for growth and prosperity.
In this session, we will discuss and develop a concrete roadmap for the introduction of economic arguments into the day-to-day campaigning and policy-work using COST, a new data-driven policy tool that will automate the task of economic estimation. Our international panel brings together experts from legal, technology and policy backgrounds and invites active participation from the audience to better understand how a next-generation policy tool can impact internet freedom and digital rights community. How can we make policy work more visible to under-represented communities? How can we build advocacy tools that empower the general public?
Economic arguments have already proven to be a powerful tool to combat shutdowns in contexts where freedom of expression and other fundamental human rights are too often ignored, yet the numbers are difficult to produce hence rarely used when most needed.
COST, the Cost of Shutdown Tool, is a new technology initiative announced at the African Union Commission meeting in Addis Ababa by the Internet Society and NetBlocks.org built within the framework of the #KeepItOn campaign. It seeks to empower journalists, researchers, advocates, policy makers, businesses, and many others with economic arguments that make authorities listen.
Join us in the spirit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Internet Universality and as we find new ways to promote and leverage unrestricted Internet access as a driver of opportunities worldwide.
Arzu Geybulla is a columnist and writer, with a special focus on digital authoritarianism, and member of the Forum 2000 Foundation Program Council. She has written for Al Jazeera, Eurasianet, CODA, Open Democracy, and RFE/RL, with a byline on CNN International. Ms. Geybulla is also... Read More →
Isik Mater is Director of Research at NetBlocks and at Turkey Blocks, and vice president of the Alternative Informatics Association. She is a digital rights activist and commentator on internet censorship, cyber-security and information warfare. Isik contributes to Turkish press agency... Read More →
Nicolas Seidler is Senior Policy Advisor at the Internet Society. He joined the organization in February 2010 and currently leads ISOC’s work on Internet and Human Rights issues. He also engages in key global Internet governance issues and processes. Nicolas works with a broad spectrum... Read More →
Alp is founder of the netblocks.org digital rights initiative and award-winning Turkey Blocks collective, and Sakharov Fellow for Freedom of Thought with the European Parliament. He works on freedom of expression online, digital transparency and policy tooling for internet governance... Read More →
