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RightsCon Tunis 2019

Welcome to the Official Schedule for RightsCon 2019, the world’s leading summit on human rights in the digital age.

Together at RightsCon Tunis, our first summit hosted in the Middle East and North Africa, more than 2500 expert practitioners will come together across over 400 sessions to shape, contribute to, and drive forward the global agenda for the future of our human rights.

Important note: Whether you’re a session organizer, speaker, or participant, you’ll need to login to Sched or create an account in order to get the most out of the program (including creating a profile and building your own customized RightsCon schedule).

Be sure to get your ticket to RightsCon first. You can visit rightscon.org for more information.

RightsCon is brought to you by Access Now.

Megha Rajagopalan

BuzzFeed News
Senior Correspondent
Middle East

International correspondent, BuzzFeed News. I write about tech and society including mass surveillance, accountability for social media platforms, cybersecurity and more. Email me or connect on social media if you want to talk!

My Friends

9:00am BST

Building the First Global Perceptions of Gender and Online Violence Leptis (Laico) Responding to Mass Atrocities in the Digital Age: Challenges and Lessons Learned from Myanmar Hannibal (Laico) Combating Cybercrime Laws in the Middle East and North Africa Region Cyrene (Laico) Smart Cities: Their future or yours? Carthage 1 (Laico)

10:30am BST

Developing New Models for Censorship: The cases of the Russian RuNet, the Great Firewall of China, and Iran’s Filternet Limes (Laico) Machine Learning 101 for Human Rights Activists: Everything you wanted to know about machine learning but were afraid to ask Hannibal (Laico) Defense Against the Dark Arts: Meme Campaigns and Propaganda Elydhafa (Laico)

1:00pm BST

North Koreans Need Real Information Village Stage (Laico) Pegasus Spyware Threatens Press Freedom, From Mexico to Saudi Arabia Biscay (Palais)

3:45pm BST

The Future of Human Rights in the Governance of Artificial Intelligence Carthage 1 (Laico) A Warrant for Your DNA: What the Golden State Killer, Police, and Genetic Testing Services Share in Common Oya 1 (Laico) How Tech Firms Enable Human Rights Violations in Palestine Jelsa (Laico) Getting a Handle on Facial Recognition Tech Elyssa (Laico) Prepare Don't Panic: Strategize a human rights-based response to deepfake technologies, synthetic media, and increasing volumes of visual misinformation Elydhafa (Laico)

5:15pm BST

Biometric Technologies and Data as Tools for the ‘Responsible’ and ‘Proper’ Identification of Terrorists: A human rights inventory El Jem (Laico) If you keep suggesting blockchain, I swear to God I will f—ing scream Oya 1 (Laico) Cyber warfare and defense in a tumultuous Middle East Dougga (Laico) Combating Fake News: Exploring approaches for protecting the messenger and the message Caspian (Palais)

9:00am BST

The Palestinian Cause for Digital Freedom Leptis (Laico) Do Moderators Dream of Electric Sheep? The potential for AI in regulating online content L'Escale (Laico) Law Enforcement and the Internet of Things Cyrene (Laico)

10:30am BST

Do Our Faces Deserve the Same Protection as Our Phones? Regulation and governance of facial recognition technology Oya 1 (Laico) Rights and Ethics: When technology knows how you feel Hannibal (Laico)

12:00pm BST

Lightning Talks: What technology can('t) solve The BeeHive (Palais) Surveilling Dissent: Online spy mechanisms used by police against protestors L'Escale (Laico)

2:15pm BST

It’s the business model, stupid! Targeted advertising and human rights Utique (Laico) It Always Feels like Somebody's Watching You: The impact of U.S. foreign intelligence surveillance on journalists Village Stage (Laico)

3:45pm BST

Fear, Friction, and Flooding: New models of censorship in the MENA region (the case of Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, and Turkey) Carthage 3 (Laico)

5:15pm BST

Lightning Talks: Fighting censorship, surveillance, and disinformation around the Globe The BeeHive (Palais) Between the Silicon Valley-China Spectrum: Towards a democratic regulation to promote a free and open Internet Amilcar (Laico) Business and Human Rights in Africa and South-Asia: Network shutdown and data disclosure requests under conflicting legal frameworks El Jem (Laico) The fight for digital privacy in the face of authoritarianism and surveillance capitalism Village Stage (Laico) Beyond Bots: Anticipating challenges from future tech and disinformation Oya 3 (Laico)

9:00am BST

Online Dissidence in the Global South El Jem (Laico) You're Not Just a Pretty Face: Biometric surveillance has moved beyond face recognition - how do we stop it? Hannibal (Laico) Broadcasting Peace During War: Yemeni community radios Oya 2 (Laico)

10:30am BST

Surveillance Tech and Oppressive Governments: Exploring cases of abuse and avenues for global cooperation going forward Carthage 1 (Laico) How Can We Help Quality Journalism in the MENA Region Be Viable? Celtic (Palais)

12:00pm BST

Protecting Freedom of Expression in a Complex World: The role of courts and tribunals L'Escale (Laico) AI and Privacy: Challenges and ways forward in the Global South Hannibal (Laico) Report, Rinse, Repeat! Learn to report on tech and human rights violations with Global Voices and Ranking Digital Rights Biscay (Palais)

1:00pm BST

Emojis and human rights Carthage 3 (Laico)

2:15pm BST

Refraction Networking: Deploying next-generation censorship circumvention Jelsa (Laico) Addressing Hate Speech Online: Recipes for a rights-based approach Celtic (Palais) Tech Policy, AI and Investment in the GCC: A path to digital development or digital dystopia? Carthage 3 (Laico) Doing Data Journalism Without Data: Against all odds, the "Yemeni Data Journalism Network" Leptis (Laico)