Fighting Nazis on the Internet: Free Speech in the Age of Hatemobs
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Saturday, Aug. 4 3:00 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Saturday, Aug. 4 4:15 PM (Eastern)
https://www.facebook.com/NetrootsNation/videos/10156400117419827
While we use the internet to do crucial work bringing voices from the margins to the mainstream, the tactics of the reactionary right are unforgiving and make our work incredibly difficult. Sociologist Zeynep Tufecki suggests that in this “golden age of free speech,” it’s inexpensive to speak, but attention is dear. In today’s media environment, organizers must rise to the challenge of finding people, building trust and moving them to effective action. This panel will examine these shifts for activists working online. We will consider the future: What can we do now to strengthen our organizing? What can, or should, we ask the state or the platforms to do? What are our responsibilities for new practices for action?
Moderator
Cayden Mak
Cayden Mak is Executive Director at 18 Million Rising, organizing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) and their allies online. As part of 18MR’s founding staff, they were an integral part of developing the organization’s vision, voice, analysis, and playbook. In their previous role as Chief Technology Officer, they were the driving force and product manager behind community-centered design for civic tech project VoterVOX, a community-designed matching tool to help find personalized volunteer translation assistance for limited English proficient voters.
Their organizing history also includes cofounding grassroots media startups (youngist.org), cofounding a statewide student organizing network (New York Students Rising), serving as a union officer and staff organizer (CWA 1104, Education Division), and contributing to organizing the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, MI.
In addition to their day job, they serve as the chair of the advisory board for the Kairos Fellowship, and enjoy powerlifting and Magic: the Gathering.
Other sessions: New Tools Showcase hosted by New Media Ventures and Netroots Nation, Digital Sanctuary: Engineering Tools and Models for Racial Justice