Large tech companies like Meta or Google are dividing the world among themselves. And not just the digital world. The often invisible side of a globally connected world is the exploitative conditions that accompany it, mostly in the Global South. Digital technology and tools require enormous amounts of raw materials, energy, and (click) labor, for example, for AI or for the mentally extremely demanding content moderation for social media. People around the world are fighting for a just, self-determined digital future. What would this look like? What would be different? What does this require in civil society and the educational landscape here locally?
Speaker: Esther Mwema is an award-winning artist and digital inequalities expert on Internet governance, Internet Infrastructure and Internet Freedom. Her practice intersects art and technology, interrogating hidden systems of power in digital society ranging from fiber optic cables, digital colonialism and gender equality. She has over ten years commitment to social impact at the grassroots via her non-profit Digital Grassroots; and has done extensive work within the UN system. She is an Open Internet for Democracy leader who centers African feminist and decolonial praxis.
Languages: English with simultaneous interpretation into spoken German