WITNESS at the Allied Media Conference
WITNESS is excited to be attending the Allied Media Conference in Detroit this year! AMC takes place from June 15-18,2017 at Wayne State University. AMC “brings together a vibrant and diverse community of people using media to incite change, ” and it offers a lot of exciting, collaborative workshops, panels, and meetups. WITNESS team members Senior Coordinator for Tech+Advocacy Dia Kayyali, US Program Coordinator Pali Makam, and US Program Manager Jackie Zammuto will be representing us at the conference.
Here’s a line up of where we’ll be:
Friday, June 16, 11:00am – 12:30pm
“Facebook warfare: sharing stories, staying safe”
This lunchtime meetup will provide space for participants to learn from real-world, publicly known cases, such as:
- The doxing, surveillance of, and threats against anti-fascist activists in the United States;
- The recent case of a trans comic book artist who was forced to relocate and cancel a book launch in Canada following doxing and threats.
- The 2016 case of a Brazilian Army officer who infiltrated a group of activists on Tinder and Facebook; and
The 2015 case of a fake Facebook page used to endanger Maré Vive, a group of community activists standing up to police and military violence in the Maré community of Rio.
In this informal session, Dia Kayyali will talk about how doxing and threats to physical safety, as well as other forms of harassment and surveillance, are being leveraged by the “alt-right” and the government. We’ll use this background, which will include case studies from the US and Brazil, to brainstorm community security practices, both digital and physical. Participants will leave with a knowledge of these tactics and ways to make their own community safer.
State Hall: Room 1215
Hands-on Session
- Track Securing Our Spaces
- Audience Intermediate
- Hashtag #CommunitySecurity
- View Track Info Securing Our Spaces
Friday, June 16, 4:00 – 5:30pm
“Video for Revolution”
The whole WITNESS team at AMC, including Pali, Jackie, and Dia, will be adding to the conference’s hands-on offerings with this panel. This session will help participants create videos for advocacy and evidence. We’ll be providing exercises and materials, so come ready to participate and learn!
From the Arab Spring to Ferguson, video has amplified voices and exposed human rights abuses. This session will explore how we utilize video for revolution. We’ll facilitate a discussion on how activists around the world are using video now, and provide practical tips on the right to record, filming the police and protests, basic digital and physical security, and media preservation. Participants will walk away knowing how to safely, ethically and effectively use video for evidence and advocacy.
State Hall: Room 118
Hands-on Session
Sunday, June 18, 1:00 – 2:30pm
Dia will also be participating in “Collaborative Security.” This panel, organized by digital security trainer Sarah Aoun, is an iteration of a similar session that happened at the Internet Freedom Festival in Valencia, Spain. This panel brought together digital security trainers with experience working outside the US and Europe but often dealing with security resources created from those perspectives. At AMC, we’ll be talking about similar issues of “security colonialism,” including the failure of digital security to integrate physical security issues.
Security education should ideally be a collaboration between people with technical knowledge and those with lived experiences. This isn’t often the case. The reality is that cis, male, white trainers continue to train folks who couldn’t be more different from them. We will learn how to re-center security trainings around communities, empower movements, and adopt a participatory approach to digital safety.
State Hall: Room 125
Strategy Session
- Track Securing Our Spaces
- Audience Intermediate
- Hashtag #CollabSecurity
- View Track Info Securing Our Spaces