This year's Global Gathering took place on September 4, 5 and 6, and brought together 1,000+ defenders working at the intersection of rights and technology.
The report captures key information about the event, along with takeaways and highlights from conversations spanning topics such as autonomous infrastructure, surveillance and censorship, the impact of artificial intelligence on digital rights and open source, and secure communications, amongst others.
🌿 The Need for Community Spaces Has Never Been Greater
This year’s Global Gathering made something clear: the need for community spaces that allow us to learn, connect, and build together has never been greater, especially for defenders working at the intersection of rights and technology.
Half of our participants were first-time attendees, 40% identified as being from the Global Majority, and more than 50% as being part of one or more marginalized groups.
These numbers tell an important story: civil society spaces are shrinking across regions, while oppression, particularly against marginalized groups, continues to rise. This includes the dwindling number of spaces where defenders can come together in solidarity, exchange knowledge, and build collaborations across borders and areas of expertise.
🌿 The Funding Crisis Continues to Take Its Toll, but Defenders Remain Committed
Across regions and areas of work, the funding crisis continues to take a toll on both projects and the people behind them. Yet defenders continue to show up for the issues affecting their communities and allied movements, demonstrating a remarkable commitment to sustaining this work under increasingly difficult conditions.
🌿 Collective Action Is More Urgent Than Ever
Collective action has become particularly urgent as so many organizations and networks are stretched to their limits.
For many participants, this year’s gathering was an opportunity to learn from communities facing similar threats. As history has shown, tools and tactics tested in one corner of the world - often first deployed against the most marginalized communities - are adapted and exported to other regions.
The threats we collectively face demand cross-border action and strategy: they are transnational in scope, and adversaries have proven highly effective at coordinating and sharing strategies amongst themselves. We, too, must become more effective at coordinating and sharing knowledge, resources, and strategies.
🌿 The Accelerating Development of Harmful Technologies are Strengthening Authoritarian Movements
Conversations throughout the Global Gathering repeatedly returned to the accelerating development of harmful technologies that are strengthening authoritarian movements, and the widening gap between the pace of these developments and the field’s ability to understand and respond to them.
New threats are emerging faster than people can learn about, understand, and teach others to address them, while the number of affected communities continues to grow. These challenges are unfolding as the field’s own capacity is being eroded: financial precarity is pushing people out of the sector, while foundational infrastructure, tools, and resources face increasing risks of closure - all while AI continues to impact all area of digital rights.
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Joy and solidarity are at the heart of the GG. Building trust and revitalizing our collective spirit are among the most important things we can do when we come together
🌿 What This Mean for the Future: A Gap that Must Be Addressed
If left unaddressed, the widening gap between the pace of technological change and the field’s capacity to respond will have serious consequences for the future of digital rights—and, ultimately, for civil society’s ability to protect itself.
Those with expertise urgently needed by at-risk groups are often the very people with the least time, opportunity, and resources—particularly amid historic funding cuts—to deepen their understanding of how emerging technologies are developed and used, develop effective strategies to address new threats to civil society’s safety and security, and build the capacity of affected communities.
At Team CommUNITY, we remain committed to supporting our community through this turbulent time. We will continue to foster solidarity and mutual support, and cultivate safe, secure spaces filled with joy, so that we can confront these challenges together.
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What is Team CommUNITY?
Team CommUNITY works as a community-based network focused on providing the services, community spaces, and capacity building programs needed to strengthen networks around the world. These networks are focused on the most urgent tech-related challenges and threats impacting rights defenders, civil society, and journalists at the global, regional and local levels. TCU is also known for their safety, security and trauma-informed approaches to community spaces, programs and events, and their commitment to cultivating solidarity and collaboration across borders and disciplines.
The Global Gathering is TCU’s annual in-person event. It provides a restorative environment, a celebratory spirit, and weaves both the cross-border and cross-discipline solidarity needed to address historic transnational tech and security challenges. The gathering has been celebrated for its humane design, unique outdoor venue, and robust security and safety protocols.
Check out what the report covers
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