APC and partners are hosting their ninth Disco-tech event in conjunction with the 2019 IGF in Berlin, on 26 November. We invite you to join us for this peer-learning event about utilising the potential of ICTs in strategies to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.
APC's 2018 Annual Report is a deep dive into one year of our network's life. It is a compendium of stories about how APC collectively strives for change, from a year when so many deeply-rooted initiatives blossomed.
Myanmar ICT for Development Organisation is an APC member organisations working on ICTs for peace. We talked to programme manager Myo Min Aung about how his recent participation in the African School on Internet Governance will impact their work, and what’s ahead.
Connecting the Unconnected: Supporting community networks and other community-based connectivity initiatives
This project will contribute to an enabling ecosystem for the emergence and growth of community networks and other community-based connectivity initiatives in developing countries. It is part of a multi-year, multi-donor strategy envisaged to address the human capacity and sustainability challenges, along with the policy and regulatory obstacles, that limit the growth of community-based connectivity initiatives.
Challenging hate narratives and violations of freedom of religion and expression online in Asia
This project seeks to protect and promote respect for freedom of religion and expression on the internet, particularly by countering hate speech online on the basis of religion, and generating narratives and discourse that defend secular and diverse opinions touching upon religion. The three-year project focuses on five countries in South and Southeast Asia: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Pakistan.
FIRN: Feminist Internet Research Network
The Feminist Internet Research Network is a three-and-a-half-year collaborative and multidisciplinary research project led by APC, funded by the International Development Research Centre. The project draws on the study “Mapping research in gender and digital technology”, and the Feminist Principles of the Internet collectively crafted by feminists and activists, primarily located in the global South.
Take Back the Tech!
Take Back the Tech! is a call to everyone, especially women and girls, to take control of technology to end violence against women. It is a global, collaborative campaign project that highlights the problem of tech-related violence against women, together with research and solutions from around the world. Take Back the Tech! leads several campaigns at various points in the year, but our biggest annual campaign takes place during 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (25 Nov - 10 Dec).
Everyone agrees the digital economy’s important but not everyone’s agreed on what it is. Twenty years ago, it might have meant only the ICT sector itself. Ten years ago, that and some sectors that were taking most advantage of it. Today, all major sectors, and all firms of any size, in all countries are becoming digital to some significant degree.
I have always been of the opinion that POLICY IS BORING, I say this every time I have the opportunity to be at gatherings where policy discussions, especially tech/internet policies are held and I also ask myself all of these times, what can I do to make these conversations more interesting to the people who the outcomes of these conversations will benefit the most?
This week we'll share a brief summary and some reflections on the Report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation.
Columns
Inside the Information Society
David Souter writes a column for APC twice a month, looking at different aspects of the information society, development and rights. David’s pieces take a fresh look at many of the issues that concern APC and its members, with the aim of provoking discussion and debate. Issues covered include internet governance and sustainable development, human rights and the environment, policy, practice and the use of ICTs by individuals and communities.
The internet of memory: Stories from the APC community
What were information and communication technologies like in the 1980s and 1990s? What are the stories of the genesis and evolution of non-profit computer networks working for social change? Twice a month, this section will take a historical look at the APC community's journey of internet activism and make links to where we are now. Join Jennifer Radloff in this retrospective trip exploring the connections between the past and the present.
A group of human rights activists and organisations from Southeast Asia are calling to stop the attacks on democracy and media activists, as well as other individuals-at-risk, for their expression online.
APC's 2018 Annual Report offers an engaging dive into one year in the network's life. All the 67 stories are clustered under the six priority areas that have informed APC's work from 2016 until 2019: Access, rights, a feminist internet, governance, use and development and APC community.
Changes in access policy and regulation are required, in particular with regard to the management of radio spectrum, which is still largely rooted in 20th century analogue paradigms. This report is intended as a resource for regulators and policy makers tasked with addressing affordable access.
At the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) we are alarmed at the crackdown on Egyptian civil society, which has intensified over the past weeks amidst demonstrations calling for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to resign. Among those arrested is blogger, software developer and activist...
APC welcomes this opportunity to address the OEWG and participate in this informal dialogue with stakeholders. APC and its members are increasingly concerned about state security-centric approaches to cybersecurity policy and the exclusion of civil society from cybersecurity efforts.
A coalition of organisations, including APC, call on the Hong Kong authorities to refrain from the invocation of laws that would authorise the restriction or disruption of the internet and other means of communication and to ensure that the internet, including social media, remains open and secure.
APC condemns the prolonged and intentional disruption of communications services in Jammu and Kashmir by the government of India. Communications blackouts often precede other violations of human rights, and given the history of widespread abuse of rights in Kashmir, this is particularly worrying.
To document the benefits of, and challenges facing, small-scale, community-based connectivity projects, APC researchers visited 12 rural community networks in the global South in 2018 and studied a number of others through desk research and interviews.
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