RightsCon Tunis 2019

Participants will hear about the dangers of using counterproductive rhetoric when discussing personal, non-commercial, and other human rights issues, values, and interests. The main goals are (1) to sensitize the audience to the strategic importance of using an appropriate vocabulary in discussing public and human-rights interests in free expression, (2) to educate the audience regarding vocabulary options, and (3) to empower the audience members to develop the best messaging for their own efforts in public debates. A principal point is to move discourse away from vocabulary that frames free expression in mercantile, entertainment-industry terms relating to "consumption" of "content" and "moderation" towards more accurate (and more frank) discussions of "expression," "knowledge," "learning," "participation," "community," and "censorship."