The Power of Our Voices

Amplifying the voices of digital rights activists in the Global Majority

Mardiya’s story

Surveillance, censorship, and abuse are some of today’s biggest challenges to free expression online – and marginalised communities typically bear the brunt of these problems more than others.

Yet, because they are underrepresented in strategic spaces, their voices, needs, and wants are absent from debates that seek to address the major challenges of our time. 

That’s where Team CommUNITY comes in.

Housed at ARTICLE 19, Team CommUNITY (TCU) is a network of global digital defenders on the frontlines of the battle against surveillance, censorship, and other challenges at the intersection of human rights and technology. 

Mardiya Siba Yahaya joined Team CommUNITY in 2022 as Africa Community Lead.

Her role was made possible by the team's Global Equity Fund, which elevates traditionally underrepresented voices, who have unique and critical vantage points and expertise, into leadership positions in the digital rights field, where they can serve as beacons and advocates for their own and similar communities. 

In this role, Mardiya learned how to build, nurture, and support digital rights defenders in Africa. But it wasn’t always easy – especially at the start, when she was just 24.

Over time – and with TCU’s support – Mardiya was able to nurture a strong community in the region: 

Mardiya excelled as Africa Community Lead – so much so that, in September 2023, they were promoted to Global Community Manager.

In this new leadership role, which involves organising meetups, outreach, and support, Mardiya uses the skills she strengthened at TCU – complemented by her impressive experience and knowledge – to support the digital rights community worldwide:

And she is using her role to add vital new ingredients to the community: 

By funding her initial role with TCU, the Global Equity Fund gave Mardiya a springboard into leadership, as well as a platform for her creativity and astuteness.

This enabled her to break down structural barriers for other underrepresented digital rights activists:

‘We invest in getting people from the Global Majority to in-person events, where they can showcase their work and build new connections. In 2023, we helped cover some travel for someone from North Africa to attend a TCU event, where we introduced them to a few useful contacts. They built new partnerships there, and they’ve now advanced a pioneering project that protects activists, journalists, and civil society from escalating digital threats.’

As such, the Global Equity Fund has not only amplified underrepresented voices like Mardiya’s, but has also put her in an impactful role where she leads the creation of crucial tools for digital rights activists in the Global Majority.

Through the Global Equity Fund, Team CommUNITY supported 109 high-risk people in 2023.

And it is only with their experience and expertise that we can build an internet for the many – not the few.

Groundbreaking ruling on facial recognition at the European Court 

Back in July 2019, people crowded Moscow’s streets to protest against several independent candidates being blocked from standing in municipal elections. The police and national guard declared the protests ‘unauthorised’, arrested hundreds, and sentenced at least 15 people to years in prison. 

One of those people was Konstantin Kotov, a software engineer and activist who was sentenced to 4 years, sparking international outcry – including from ARTICLE 19.

A month later, Russian citizen Nikolay Glukhin staged a one-man peaceful protest on a Moscow train, carrying a life-sized cardboard cutout of Kotov holding a banner that read:

Police identified Glukhin using facial-recognition CCTV cameras in the metro station, screenshots of which were used to convict him. He appealed, but the Moscow City Court ruled against him. 

But Glukhin didn’t back down. 

He fought his case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights.

And in July 2023, following ARTICLE 19’s intervention, he won.

The European Court found that Russia had violated his rights to freedom of expression and privacy by using facial-recognition technology to arrest and convict him.

This landmark victory established an important framework for further facial-recognition cases in Europe. 

The Court also selected it as a key case of 2023, meaning it was one of the most important cases it dealt with all year. 

Iran

Meeting digital repression with digital resistance

The Iran authorities ramped up their crackdown on protesters in 2023, adding new tactics like weaponised blinding to their brutal arsenal. As usual, marginalised communities were targeted more than others: nearly half of those killed were from the persecuted Kurdish and Baluch ethnic minority groups.

Yet despite this crushing repression, Iranians refused to be silenced.

The authorities also intensified their efforts to create a state of tech-enabled gender apartheid, rolling out AI and facial-recognition technology to identify, target, and punish women wearing ‘improper’ hijab: a horrifying reminder of the dangers of these technologies, especially in the hands of a regime that does not shy away from crimes against humanity. 

Online, too, hundreds of people were arrested and persecuted for expressing their views. And that’s when they could get online in the first place. Internet shutdowns continued apace, especially during protests, providing cover for the authorities to murder and maim with impunity. Tech-savvy Iranians used VPNs to circumvent the regime’s censorship – only for the regime to disable those VPNs. 

Throughout 2023, ARTICLE 19 supported the most at-risk people in Iran – including protesters, ethnic religious minorities, and LGBTQI+ people.

We:

• Improved their knowledge of digital security;
• Developed tech to help them evade censorship and internet shutdowns; and
• Provided emergency assistance to arrestees.

In 2023, we provided emergency support to 1,200 people on the ground – more than twice as many as the previous year.

Like the man involved in the struggle for rights for his ethnic religious minority group.

Following his arrest, we secured his social media and email accounts, so the authorities could not access them.

He was released within a few days because the authorities could find no incriminating evidence against him.

And the woman who lost 4 family members on flight PS752, which Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shot down on 8 January 2020, killing all 176 on board.

She was one of dozens arrested at the funeral of 17-year-old schoolgirl Armita Garawand, who died after being assaulted by Iran’s ‘morality police’ for wearing ‘improper hijab’. We secured her social accounts – including group messages between the families of flight PS752 victims – when she was being transported to a detainment centre.

As a result, she was released 3 days later, and the families’ privacy was protected.

We also amplified Iranians’ voices at the international level throughout the year: giving evidence at the UN Human Rights Council, calling on national governments to step up, and supporting the Independent Fact-Finding Mission, which will document violations – and which, together with our partners, we lobbied the UN to create. 

ARTICLE 19 extends our heartfelt thanks to all the anonymous individuals who risk their lives to help us support vulnerable people on the ground. 

Your bravery, generosity, and determination inspire us every day.

Mexico

Victory for surveilled journalists: Supreme Court orders government to make spyware contracts public 

Pegasus is a dystopian nightmare. The powerful spyware tool, developed by Israeli company NSO Group and licensed to governments worldwide, can turn your mobile phone into a pocket-sized surveillance device: secretly harvesting your photos, recording your calls, and spying on you through your camera.

Mexico’s government has invested over USD $60 million in Pegasus, which it uses to spy on journalists, activists, and human rights organisations that investigate government and military abuses of power. Mexico is both Pegasus’s biggest market and the world’s most dangerous country for journalists: a disastrous mix for the journalists who risk their lives to expose the truth – and for the public, who rely on them to deliver accurate information. 

In 2023, ARTICLE 19 Mexico and Central America worked with our partners to expose and challenge this illegal espionage.

In December, we attended court for a case in which the judge acknowledged that journalist Carmen Aristegui’s phone was tapped with Pegasus from 2015–16; that she was targeted because of her journalism, which investigated corruption at the highest levels; and that this spying had put herself, her family, and her sources at risk.

These acknowledgements were welcome progress – particularly given the historical refusal to recognise the truth, let alone deliver justice, in this area – but the judge ultimately had to acquit the accused because the Attorney General’s Office had provided insufficient evidence.

On 6 February 2024, the Supreme Court ordered the Ministry of Finance to make public the contracts used to acquire Pegasus spyware.

The government fought this ruling all the way, filing two appeals stating that they couldn’t publicise the contracts due to national security concerns – a rationale that the Court denied. 

Both of these cases were huge strides forward for Mexico. 

But as long as those responsible enjoy impunity for illegal digital espionage, journalists will remain under threat.

That’s why, in addition to working for justice for individuals, ARTICLE 19 is calling for a moratorium on surveillance technologies until stronger regulations are in place to prevent such abuses.

Amplifying Dalit voices in Bangladesh  

Borna’s story

In Bangladesh and beyond, the Dalit community is relegated to the margins of society, simply for being born on the lowest rung of the caste ladder. 

At school, Dalit children are separated from non-Dalit children, face abuse from both classmates and teachers, and are sometimes even made to clean the toilets.

At work, Dalits are relegated to low-status jobs, from street-sweeping to burying the dead, due to widespread belief that they’re ‘unclean’ – and doing these jobs feeds into this stigma, creating a vicious cycle of poverty and exclusion.

At home, Dalits are forced to live in segregated, overcrowded, unhygienic slums with limited access to basic amenities, like water and toilets. 

Thanks to a triple-whammy of discrimination – caste, gender, poverty – the situation is even worse for Dalit women. 

Women like Borna.

Most Dalit women are illiterate and have no formal education. Of the girls who finish primary school, fewer than 5% complete secondary school.

Meanwhile, an Anti-Discrimination Bill has languished in parliament for years. Dalits desperately need it to become law, but the powers that be – like the rest of Bangladeshi society – refuse to listen to them.  

We think voices like Borna’s are worth listening to.

That’s why ARTICLE 19 Bangladesh and South Asia, in partnership with Plan International and funded by the EU, is delivering an ambitious new project.

Our Voices, Our Choices empowers women, young people, and marginalised groups like the Dalit community to raise their voices together, demand the change they deserve, and take their place as equals in society.

After taking part in our training, 25-year-old Borna took part in a radio show about Dalit struggles. She was so impressive that three more radio stations invited her to share her story on air. She even spoke truth directly to power at our event with MPs.

In summer 2023, we organised a workshop in which 22 civil society organisations – including the Dalit rights NGO that Borna works for – came together to network, share ideas, and pitch for funding. 

Borna’s NGO won funding at the workshop – and, after that, she got a promotion at work.

But Borna is more interested in promoting her community than promoting herself. 

And the funding she secured has enabled her to do just that.

Due to widespread illiteracy and a lack of outreach, most Dalits in Bangladesh are unaware that, as citizens, they have rights. Just 3% of Dalits accessed the government support they were entitled to in 2022.

That’s why Borna set up a new project to show fellow Dalits how to access benefits and get their voices heard.

Borna recruited 100 Dalit volunteers to educate their community about their rights – the very rights that she learned about in our training.

In other words:

We handed the mic to one woman, and she used it to amplify 100 voices from her community.

If Borna’s story shows one thing, it’s this:

Empowerment is exponential.

Are we #FreeToProtest?

Across time, history, and geography, protest movements have been central to change. From #MeToo to the Arab Spring, when people unite to demand justice, the power of our voices can change the hearts and minds of millions.

Yet instead of listening to our voices, many governments are trying to silence people, attacking those who march and preventing us from coming together. 

Weak laws. 

Stigmatising media coverage. 

Police brutality. 

These trends affect everyone who protests, but especially those who are ignored or silenced, like women, LGBTQI+ people, and racial, ethnic, or religious minorities. 

That’s why ARTICLE 19 is campaigning to ensure that all people, especially those who face discrimination, feel empowered to use their right to protest.  

At the UN…

ARTICLE 19 amplified the voices of protesters on the ground in discussions around advancing accountability for serious human rights violations related to protest, calling on governments to investigate and prosecute all such violations. 

In Kenya...

ARTICLE 19 Kenya and Eastern Africa worked with our partners to advocate for amendments to two laws, the Public Order Act and the Penal Code, which restrict people’s right to protest and disproportionately affect marginalised groups. 

Our advocacy resulted in ARTICLE 19 being invited to train new police officers in Mombasa County on protesters’ rights and the Public Order Act. 

This was a crucial step forward – and one sorely needed, given the increase in police brutality against protesters in 2023, in which at least 10 people were killed and over 200 arrested.

In Poland...

We launched new research on protests against the near-total abortion ban and anti-LGBTQI+ discrimination, as well as the violent response from law enforcement. 

The increasingly authoritarian rule of the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), which sparked huge popular resistance, finally came to an end in 2023, when people in Poland voted to usher in a new government. 

Victory for 'Arctic 30' environmental protesters at the European Court

Back in 2013, Russian authorities arrested and detained 28 Greenpeace activists and two journalists for taking non-violent direct action against oil-drilling plans in the Arctic. 

A decade later (June 2023), following an intervention from ARTICLE 19, the European Court of Human Rights found that this violated their rights to liberty, security, and freedom of expression.

Hot on the tails of this victory, the Court ruled that, by using facial recognition to convict peaceful protester Nikolay Glukhin (see above), Russia had violated his right to freedom of expression.

ARTICLE 19 intervened in that case, too.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that, in February 2024, Russia designated ARTICLE 19 an ‘undesirable organisation’.

This means that any Russian who dares to hold a relationship with us through partnership or programme work, or to access the materials we produce, is considered a threat to national security. 

But we will not be silenced by a state that stoops so low as to kill its political opponents and arrest those who mourn them.

We will continue our work for a world where all people, everywhere, can realise the power of their voices without fear or discrimination.

And we will always stand in solidarity with the Russian dissidents, exiles, and protesters who – despite unimaginable risks – are bravely fighting for a fairer future.

Europe: Protecting whistleblowers who exposed tax avoidance 

In February 2023, we welcomed the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in a case known as ‘LuxLeaks’, in which two PriceWaterhouseCooper employees leaked information about international tax-avoidance schemes to journalists. 

The Court ruled in the whistleblowers’ favour.

It found that their disclosure was in the public interest because it contributed to public debate. Importantly, the Court also found that the penalties imposed on one of the whistleblowers by a Luxembourg court were disproportionate and ‘had a chilling effect on freedom of expression.’

The Court also selected this case – which ARTICLE 19 intervened in – as a key case of 2023, meaning it was one of the most important cases it dealt with all year. 

Ecuador: Digital rights activist Ola Bini found innocent

In April 2019, Ola Bini – a Swedish digital, privacy, and human rights activist living in Ecuador – was arrested on trumped-up charges of ‘non-consensual access to a computer system’. He was jailed for 70 days and, following his release, barred from leaving the country.

This sparked a four-year campaign for Bini’s freedom, led by Latin American civil society organisations – including both of ARTICLE 19’s offices in Latin America.

Following our campaign, an Ecuadorian court finally found Bini innocent on 31 January 2023, ending a long and frustrating legal battle.

Tunisia

Defending civil society from existential threat

In November 2023, ARTICLE 19 Middle East and North Africa launched In Its Presence: a campaign promoting civil society organisations as essential enablers of people’s right to freedom of association in Tunisia.

The campaign aimed to mobilise activists, politicians, and the public to defend civil society from government attacks – most notably Decree 88/2011, a proposed law that, by controlling their access to resources, would pose an existential threat to civil society organisations.

Our campaign successfully decelerated the passage of the decree, creating breathing space for further debate and advocacy. 

We will continue to work with our partners to relegate this damaging proposal to history.

‘Express Yourself’: Empowering marginalised young people to combat hate speech

In collaboration with young people in Tunisia, ARTICLE 19 Middle East and North Africa co-designed a guide, Express Yourself (عب), on how to combat hate speech wherever they see it – be that online, at school, at home, or in their neighbourhoods. 

We then worked with independent radio stations to amplify the guide’s message to their listenership: young people living in impoverished, deforested, and otherwise marginalised communities. In a show called Essayda’s Children, the radio stations engaged in open dialogue with youth about what hate speech is, why it’s harmful, and how to address it.  

And we created a podcast out of these discussions, featuring young people’s own stories, which reached an even wider audience.

ARTICLE 19-trained lawyer secures students’ release

In Nabeul, Tunisia, students Dhia Nassir and Youssef Chalbi were arrested and detained in May 2023 for posting a satirical song on Facebook that criticised the police and anti-drug regulations. The case instigated widespread public debate about artistic expression, sparked outcry among civil society organisations, and even attracted the attention of the President. 

The Tunisian authorities accused the students – who were preparing to sit their exams – of insulting others through social networks and imputing illegal acts to a public official, which could have landed them in prison for four years.

But thanks to their defence lawyer – who had recently received expert legal training from ARTICLE 19 – the students were released.

The lawyer, Imen Souissi, convinced the court to decline to hear the lawsuit – even after the court had initially denied that request. In her pleading, she referred to international standards on freedom of expression and other arguments with which ARTICLE 19 equipped her, impressing her colleagues – and, clearly, the court itself.

ARTICLE 19 Middle East and North Africa is planning to invite Souissi to share her experience with other lawyers in our training programmes, with the aim of securing more victories for Tunisians who are persecuted for expressing themselves. 

‘After benefiting from the training provided by ARTICLE 19, something changed in my way of thinking, methodology, and approach to freedom of opinion and expression.

In court, from the first moment, I felt as if ARTICLE 19 was sitting next to me to support me and direct me.

There was a hidden happiness in applying what I learned with you and persuading not only the court, but societal and political public opinion. I defended the principle without accepting any concessions.

It was a wonderful experience – thank you.’

– Imen Souissi (Tunisian lawyer trained by ARTICLE 19)

Amplifying quilombola voices in Brazil

Raimundo’s story

Raimundo José da Silva Leite is one of over 1.3 million quilombolas: Afro-Brazilian descendants of slaves who escaped from plantations and established remote settlements (quilombos), where they built proud communities of resistance. 

Over 6,000 quilombos still exist today, like Quilombo Rampa, founded in 1818 and now home to around 500 people – including Raimundo.

Quilombolas use their ancestral knowledge to expertly defend their lands – yet they live under constant threat. More than 1,200 enterprises operate in their territories, wreaking environmental devastation and exacerbating climate change. And quilombolas pay the price: they are targeted, harassed, even murdered.

‘There’s a real problem with contamination here… we can’t plant, harvest or sell crops. Each new generation is born and dies, and every day we die a little too, from the mining companies’ heavy metal poison in our blood.’

– Socorro do Burajuba (Quilombola leader, Barcarena, Pará)

96% of quilombolas live on land with no official recognition, meaning they have little protection and no access to state benefits, exacerbating centuries of racism, poverty, and exclusion.

75% of quilombolas live in poverty – triple the rate in the general population.  

A defining experience of poverty is the inability to speak out against the injustices you face, collectively organise for your rights, and make your voice heard.

It’s a vicious cycle: people in poverty have no voice – and having no voice keeps them trapped in poverty. 

But quilombolas are refusing to be silenced.

Including Raimundo.

In 2017, frustrated by the media’s failure to cover his community’s lives, traditions, and struggles, Raimundo co-founded Rádio e TV Quilombo.

Raimundo empowers community members to tell their own stories, on their own terms, fusing modern and traditional tools to create a truly bespoke alternative.

To capture aerial images of community drum circles, he created the Bamboo Drone: a 10-metre-long bamboo pole with a mobile phone attached to the end with a vine.

To capture the stories of elders, he created the Cardboard Camera: a donated smartphone inside a cardboard box.

Raimundo fuses traditional and modern technologies to truly democratise communication. Then, to broadcast quilombolas’ voices to the rest of the world, he uses social media. 

In this way, he has created a powerful platform for the community to raise their voices – and be heard. 

ARTICLE 19 Brazil and South America amplified those voices, along with the voices of 10 other grassroots groups, throughout 2023.

We funded the Peripheral, Favela, Quilombola, and Indigenous Media Coalition with BRL 60,000 (approx. USD 12,000).

The collective, which includes Raimundo’s Rádio e TV Quilombo, came together in 2023 to document their struggles and defend their lands together. Our donation made their work viable.

We took Raimundo José and Gizele Martins (a journalist and activist from the Maré favela) to Kyoto, Japan, for the Internet Governance Forum.

At this annual meeting, governments, the private sector, and civil society representatives come together to discuss digital public policy, share best practices, and debate critical issues. 

Under the banner The Internet We Want: Empowering All People, the 2023 meeting attracted over 9,000 people from 178 countries. Raimundo and Gizele used the opportunity to push for better connectivity for their communities.

In 2023 – nearly two centuries after Raimundo’s ancestors founded the quilombo where he lives today – Brazil took two historic steps forward. 

Quilombolas were finally recognised in Brazil’s official census, which is used to allocate resources and tailor policies.

And the government issued over 100 land certifications, guaranteeing them rights and recognition.

These huge steps forward are testament to a chorus of quilombolas raising their voices, together, for nearly 200 years.

But to preserve their communities and the lands they call home, Brazil’s quilombola and Indigenous communities need more.

So we’re turning up the volume.  

ARTICLE 19 is campaigning for Brazil to ratify the Escazú Agreement, a groundbreaking treaty that obliges governments to:

• Involve the people most affected by resource extraction in decisions about planned projects and environmental policy.
• Require companies to disclose information about planned projects and their impact on the environment.
• Prevent, investigate, and punish crimes against environmental human rights defenders. 

For quilombola and Indigenous communities, Escazú could be a game changer. But while 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have ratified it, Brazil has been dragging its feet since 2018.

In May 2023, following years of advocacy by ARTICLE 19 and others, President Lula sent the Agreement to Congress.

But the fight is far from over.

Congress – in which agribusiness is strongly represented – still hasn’t ratified the Agreement. In the meantime, environmental defenders like quilombola and Indigenous communities continue to suffer.

That’s why, to amplify their voices, we launched the Escazú Brazil Movement.

And we’re involving the communities most at risk from environmental destruction – who stand to gain the most from Escazú – every step of the way.

In 2023, we trained the Coalition of Peripheral, Favela, Quilombola, and Indigenous Media on how the Escazú Agreement would benefit them. They are now organising in their communities to raise awareness of its protections, building a groundswell of demand to shift the Agreement from promise to policy.

This is how change happens:

A whisper becomes a handful of voices, which becomes a chorus, which becomes a demand too deafening to ignore.

EU: Media Freedom Act promises to protect media plurality and independence 

In December 2023, after over a year of civil society advocacy – including by ARTICLE 19 – the European Council and Parliament reached a political agreement on the European Media Freedom Act. 

Our advocacy contributed to making sure this landmark law includes a stronger media pluralism test to assess whether mergers are in the public interest, as well as an independent board of national regulators to ensure the Act is implemented effectively. 

These huge wins for editorial independence and media pluralism will improve access to accurate, diverse, and reliable sources of information for millions of people across Europe.

2024 has been dubbed ‘Super Election Year’: half the world’s population will go to the polls.

During elections, everyone has the right to accurate, reliable, clear information about candidates, parties, and policies so they can decide who to vote for.

Yet across the globe, authoritarian leaders are undermining people’s ability to exercise their rights at the ballot box. From censoring the internet to disseminating deepfakes, in a conniving attempt to cling onto power, they are increasingly trying to stop voters from accessing reliable information.

The problem is not confined to autocratic rulers. Politicians in democratic countries are increasingly adopting the same tactics, posing grave threats to our right to know, to the integrity of elections, and to democracy itself. 

In this pivotal year, access to accurate information has never been more important – or more at threat.

ARTICLE 19 will pull out all the stops to defend people’s right to know the truth about policies, parties, and politicians, and to share their views online and off. 

Central America

Supporting journalists who cover elections

Journalists are central to elections: their reporting ensures we can cast an informed vote. Yet in regions like Central America, they face violence and harassment just for doing their jobs – risks that intensify during election time.

• Guatemala went to the polls in Summer 2023. On 19 August – the day before the second round of elections – the San Marcos Municipality denied a journalist access to the vote count. ARTICLE 19 Mexico and Central America and our partners alerted the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, resulting in the journalist being able to cover the count on polling day.

• El Salvador’s presidential election took place on 4 February 2024. The preceding few weeks were marred by at least 11 acts of aggression against journalists – with perpetrators including public officials and soldiers – sparking concerns about their safety on polling day. ARTICLE 19 and our partners therefore travelled to El Salvador to accompany journalists covering the election. Acts of solidarity like this are essential to discourage serious violence.

• Mexico’s election is in June 2024. We spent 2023 preparing, including conducting research on content moderation during elections. Our findings, which will help journalists to challenge content takedowns, will be published as a guide in Spring 2024.

Digital democracy saves the day: Lessons from Taiwan for 2024

Taiwan was one of the first countries to go to the polls in 2024. On 13 January, the country voted in a presidential election that China bombarded with coordinated disinformation and deepfakes, spanning Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.

Yet despite China’s best efforts, democracy won out: the people of Taiwan showed resilience and upheld the integrity of the electoral process.

This was particularly impressive because, of all the countries in the world, Taiwan is the most targeted by foreign disinformation operations. Indeed, due to China’s global pressure campaigns, Taiwan is not even recognised as a sovereign country. 

In 2023, ARTICLE 19 Asia Pacific hosted our first workshops in Taiwan, strengthening our relationships with civil society. We discussed China’s negative influence over internet freedom in the Indo-Pacific, developed strategies to resist digital authoritarianism, learned from a country at the forefront of foreign information manipulation, and co-convened a training on information threats and freedom of expression with Taiwanese NGO Covenants Watch. 

In this crucial Super Election Year, what can we learn from Taiwan about protecting democracies from foreign information manipulation?

The world’s governments should follow Taiwan’s example, prioritising:

• open data,
• radical transparency,
• genuine public participation, and
• digital and democratic literacy. 

Yet when it comes to solutions, the Taiwan case suggests that the civic tech community is at least as important as government initiatives. 

From creating fact-checking chatbots to running media-literacy workshops to organising disinformation-disrupting hackathons, organisations like Taiwan FactCheck Center, Cofacts, g0v, the Open Culture Foundation, and DoubleThink Lab have been central to resisting China’s interference.

And – crucially – Taiwan’s government worked closely with these organisations to embrace and scale these solutions.

A key lesson from Taiwan this Super Election Year is this: 

In our connected world, no one can resist digital authoritarianism alone. 

The whole of society – public, private, and the people – must unite to ensure our right to quality information is fulfilled.