RightsCon Tunis 2019

Landmark sessions cover the core trending issues that have emerged from the RightsCon Program. These sessions elevate issues that deserve greater attention to support creating the most impactful programming possible. Landmarks are hosted in the RightsCon main stage at the Palais and benefit from greater production support, including translations.

Digital media ecosystems increasingly influence every aspect of our lives, from the education of our kids to the purchases we make. One feature of our modern information diet is a practice known as microtargeting — a marketing strategy that uses people’s data to segment them into small groups for content targeting. In elections around the world, microtargeting is changing the landscape of national and global politics and campaigning. Further, the collection and use of data for commercial purposes remains largely unregulated, leading to the rise of the surveillance capitalist system.  The responsibility rests squarely on our shoulders — as citizens and as voters — to understand these dramatic shifts in the nature of our digital media ecosystems and protect ourselves from manipulation and exploitation.

This Landmark session will explore the risks, effectiveness, and impact of microtargeting on political processes, elections, and human rights, with discussion in its role in global campaigning and the challenges in securing evidence via social media and other ephemeral platforms to support regulatory change.