Our work is community-based research, corporate accountability, and technology design interventions that aim to reduce the mass-scale harms of existing and emerging technology.

Statement: The Forced Cancellation of the Design from the Margins Workshop in Lusaka

💡The cancellation of RightsCon – which was to bring nearly 3,000 people together – mere days before it was set to begin, is itself a serious concern for the digital rights community. As we could not determine how that decision might be enforced, and what scrutiny our digital rights work might

Urgent Statement: Threats of war crimes and genocide in Iran must face accountability

The US’ rhetoric threatening essential systems in Iran raises acute legal concerns. Under international law, both what is said and what is done carry legal consequences. From the US to inside Iran to the region, read about the implications of this moment.

Unplugging a Nation: Iranian Digital Workarounds in the Face of Total Blackout

When the State plunged Iran into darkness, cutting the web, texts, and even landlines, Iranians leaned on a hard-won toolkit. Decades-old tactics are now encoded into the digital front. 

The year ahead: How decentered stories can counter tyranny

Normalization and numbness are inevitable when those in power nudge the needle of morality each week, writes Roja, our communications director. But we have lived through this before, and the decentered have the answers. We do not have to re-invent the wheel.

The Body as a Password: The Cost of Face ID

Convenience is costing people their freedom. Research shows that features like Face ID and fingerprints enable violent, forced phone access by police and authorities, writes Afsaneh Rigot.

Secure Tech Cannot Be a Luxury Item

Millions in crisis rely on ubiquitous tools that betray them: from social media to Starlink. The deeper shock comes when secure tools also exclude them through everyday hurdles like phone verification. In order to have real alternatives, we must reclaim hyper-accessibility.

How to Ensure Tech Does Not Reproduce Our Worst Selves: Meet the Decentered

Identifying decentered communities is not a niche concern, but a method for uncovering how systemic violence operates.

Calling All Technologists: The Era of Neutrality Is Over

Movement technologists should join movement lawyers – like me – to reconnect with their social justice values and harness their skills to build tech that is futureproof against abuse by authoritarians and oligarchs, writes Jessica Fjeld. “Movement lawyering” is the idea that lawyers can go beyond just representing clients to work with

Dehumanized by Design: Autocratic Tech and Immigration

Understanding a regime’s mechanics – like repression of speech on Palestine movements  and migrants’ rights – is key. These times call for movement technologists to know how criminalization actually works, including the low-tech tactics, writes Afsaneh Rigot. 

We Lost a Leader, His Work Lives

We mourn the shocking death of Imam Muhsin Hendricks, writes Azza Nubi, who advocates through her work with us and her new LGBTIQ+ regional org, LooM SWANA. Plus, RightsCon and a new publication.

Can We Build Tech That Is Not Oppressive?

With a Trump presidency and the rise of global authoritarianism, we must see that the antidote to our techno-harms are found in communities framed as “dangerous” or the "other," writes Afsaneh Rigot.