Surveillance, Safeguards, & Strategy
Channel: New America
Date: 2020-12-01

Surveillance, safeguards, & strategy: campaigns for surveillance reform in North America, Latin America, and Africa

New America's Open Technology Institute hosted a conversation at RightsCon 2020 featuring surveillance reform experts Including OTI's Sharon Bradford Franklin and Lauren Sarkesian) from North America, Latin America, and Africa discussing and comparing campaigns for surveillance reform in their respective countries. A full description of the panel is available below.

Panel:
Lauren Sarkesian | Senior Policy Counsel, New America's Open Technology Institute
Luis Fernando Garcia Muñoz | Director Ejecutivo, Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D)
Sharon Bradford Franklin | Policy Director, New America's Open Technology Institute
María Paz Canales | Executive Director, Derechos Digitales
Gbenga Sesan | Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative

With increasingly sophisticated technological tools available to governments, advocates are pressing for surveillance reform to rein in broadscale monitoring and to reform the rules regulating government surveillance. In the United States, as of the end of June 2020, the Congress has not yet completed its review of provisions of the Patriot Act that expired in March 2020. Groups have been pressing for meaningful reforms to U.S. surveillance laws as part of this debate, and have also been pushing to rein in surveillance more generally, including monitoring of protesters. In Mexico, advocates have launched Gobierno Espía, a campaign to demand an end to impunity for the surveillance of journalists, human rights defenders and activists, especially those attacked with NSO Group malware “Pegasus.”

In Chile, civil society groups are pushing back against monitoring of expression through social media and surveillance of social leaders by police forces, which has included surveillance of environmental organizations, worker’s unions, political organizations, and human rights defenders. And in Nigeria, advocates continue to press for implementation of the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill, which was enacted by the two chambers of Nigeria’s National Assembly and sent to the President for assent in early 2019, but has not yet been signed into law.  

These concerns have only increased in recent months as governments around the world have turned to surveillance tools as part of their response to the coronavirus pandemic. Panelists from each of these countries will discuss their current and recent efforts to rein in government surveillance, highlight lessons learned, and compare strategies for what works and what doesn’t work. 

====================================

We are dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation's highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change, and seizing the opportunities those changes create.

Subscribe to our channel for new videos on a wide range of policy issues: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=newamericafoundation

Subscribe to The New America Weekly and other newsletters: http://www.newamerica.org/subscribe/#

Visit newamerica.org