Event: ISIS vs. The Arab Spring – From Social Media Utopia to Dystopia

Together with the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung we’re organising an event on Friday as part of our series on Digital Development. The event will still take place on 12 December, 11am -1pm.

The Arab Spring unleashed western governments’ enthusiasm regarding the power of the Internet for political mobilization and campaigning. The role of Social Media in giving a voice to repressed activists was widely celebrated and promoted. Today, ISIS is headlining as the social media savvy terrorist group recruiting young people from across the world to fight for their cause via Social Media. The same power of social media is now causing very different reactions amongst governments, many calling for censorship to help combat ISIS media outreach.
The event will explore different uses of social media for mobilization in different contexts as well as government responses. In doing so it will take a global perspective and attempt to understand how and why governments seem so schizophrenic in their responses. The discussion is supposed to help us figure out take-away lessons for the development of a better Internet policy.

Speakers:
– Ben Wagner, Director Centre of Internet & Human Rights (CIHR) European University Viadrina
– Jillian York, Director for International Freedom of Expression, EFF & CIHR Fellow
– Kavé Salamatian, Professor of Computer Science at Savoie University & CIHR Fellow

Moderation:
Geraldine de Bastion | Fellow stiftung neue verantwortung

Location: Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, Berliner Freiheit 2,  10785 Berlin