2025:Program/The global
Session title: The global #KeepItOn campaign and coalition's fight against internet shutdowns
- Session type: Workshop - 40 minutes
- Track: Community Engagement
- Language: en
đ„ Session recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/rNkYCPHPMoM?feature=shared&t=1387 đ„
The workshop seeks to introduce participants to the worldâs leading network pushing back against internet shutdowns. Participants will learn about the history of the launch of the #KeepItOn campaign and coalition, our strategies and approaches to fighting internet shutdowns and how we mobilize efforts in detecting, verifying, documenting and reporting internet shutdowns around the world.
Description
Internet shutdowns are spreading across the world and impacting peopleâs lives negatively. In 2024, Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition documented at least 296 internet shutdowns in 54 countries worldwide. Since 2016, the coalition has documented over 1,750 internet shutdowns around the world. This workshop would build the capacity of participants on the definition of shutdowns, why and when they happen, their impact on people and communities and what civil society groups have been doing to draw attention to these acts of digital authoritarianism in every corner of the world.
Goals/objectives: To raise awareness about internet shutdowns and their impact on human rights. To learn about the various strategies adopted by the global #KeepItOn coalition in the fight against internet shutdowns. To equip participants with tools and resources on how to advocate against shutdowns in their communities To inform participants about how they can become members of the coalition and support our campaign against internet shutdowns around the world. To inform participants about what to expect from an internet shutdown and how to prepare and respond.
- How does your session relate to the event theme, Wikimania@20 â Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?
Internet shutdowns widen the digital divide and exclude voices in important discourse. Shutdowns also regress digital transformation and connectivity efforts. This resonates with the theme for Wikimania@20 which focuses on inclusivity, impact and sustainability.
- What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?
Everyone can participate in this session
Resources
Speakers
- Felicia Anthonio
- Felicia Anthonio has been at the forefront of championing media and internet freedom in Africa and around the world over a decade. Her work challenges despotic regimes and amplify voices of activists and dissidents in countries where media and internet freedom remains a tool in the hands of government officials. Felicia Anthonio is #KeepItOn Campaign Manager at Access Now, a global campaign of over 345 organizations that fights against internet shutdowns. She has authored and co-authored several publications on internet shutdowns featured on Access Now, Yale University, CIPESA and Bloomsbury Collections websites. Felicia hosted The Kill Switch podcast and was featured on The Shutdown documentary by BBC World Service. Felicia is an Advisory Council member of the US-based Open Technology Fundâs (OTF) and a board member of the World Expression Forum (WEXFO), in Norway.
- Before joining Access Now, Felicia worked as Programme Associate, press freedom and free speech advocate, at the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) where she coordinated the African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX).
- She is a member of the Ghana Internet Governance Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group, the African Digital Rights Network and a 2019 Fellow of the African Internet Governance School (AfriSIG). She holds a Masterâs Degree in Lettres, Langues et Affaires Internationales from lâ UniversitĂ© dâOrlĂ©ans, France and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in French and Psychology from the University of Ghana.
- Sandra Aceng
- Sandra Aceng is the Executive Director of the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), where she champions the integration of gender perspectives into digital rights and ICT-related policies. She is a gender and ICT researcher, policy analyst, writer, and Wikimedian. Sandra is an outspoken and energetic human rights defender (WHRD) who advocates for the integration of gender perspectives in ICT policy and analyses threats to free expression in Africa introduced by regulatory initiatives. She was recognised by DefendDefenders as the Human Rights Defender of the Month in February 2021. Notably, she contributed to the book "Technology and Domestic and Family Violence: Victimization, Perpetration, and Responses" in 2022. She is a Global Voices contributor, an Impakter Magazine contributor, a former Associate Editor at the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), a 2020 Global Network Initiative (GNI)/Internews Fellow, and a 2021 OPTIMA Data-Driven Activism Fellow, where she researched the impact of Internet shutdowns on women. Sandra is also an advocate for copyright and intellectual property within the Wikimedia ecosystem and beyond. She was selected as one of the 40 fellows for the 2021 virtual edition of the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG) class. Sandra leads efforts to advance data justice research and practices in Uganda, engaging policymakers, developers, and marginalised groups, including women and persons with disabilities.