The Digital Fabric of Political Violence

How are social media companies failing to prevent and respond effectively to tech-facilitated violence against marginalized and underrepresented groups?

Online platforms have become powerful tools for the construction of political narratives. They help form our beliefs and reshape how we think and feel. However, platforms like X, Facebook and Instagram are also frequently misused to spread hate and harmful ideologies which fuels tech-enabled violence against marginalized communities. Despite the growing evidence of harm, social media companies fail to address the damage that occurs on their platforms. Together with Amnesty International, we create a space to talk about these forms of tech-enabled violence and platform accountability. How can content be moderated? And more importantly, how can human rights be secured online? Join us in the discussion, where we will draw from A Thousand Cuts, an Amnesty report on how X failed to protect Poland’s LGBTQIA+ community.

Please note: you can register here to follow the livestream for this programme.

You can attend this event physically or online. When making your reservation, choose between a physical spot or an online reservation. In conversation with Alia Al Ghussain Researcher and Advisor on Technology and Human Rights at Amnesty International Ramsha Jahangir Tech Journalist & Policy Expert Magdalena Dropek Human Rights Activist Danny Lämmerhirt Lead of Future Internet Lab at Waag Futurelab

About the speakers

Alia Al Ghussain is researcher and advisor on technology and human rights at Amnesty International. She specifically focuses on Big Tech Accountability, working primarily on algorithmic amplification and online hate. She recently worked on Project Rainbow, a research project on X’s failure to prevent and adequately mitigate tech-facilitated gender-based violence targeting Poland’s LGBTI community and contributions to human rights abuses perpetrated against the community.

Ramsha Jahangir is an Associate Editor at Tech Policy Press. Previously, she led Policy and Communications at the Global Network Initiative (GNI). As an award-winning journalist, Ramsha has extensively reported on platform power & politics, internet governance, and digital authoritarianism. She holds a Master’s in Journalism, Media, and Globalisation from the University of Amsterdam.

Magdalena Dropek is a graduate of Polish philology and journalism at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, for ten years she was working in the largest and oldest LGBTQIA medium in Poland. Since 2012, co-organizer of the Queer May Festival and the Equality March in Krakow. Board member of the Equality.org.pl Foundation since 2013. In recent years, she has supported LGBTQIA communities locally, also advocating for equality and diversity in Krakow. She has co-organized many demonstrations, researched the situation of LGBTQIA communities in southern Poland, and implemented projects on such issues as monitoring freedom of assembly and advocacy at the local level. From 2020 to 2023 she worked with MP Maciej Gdula, and since February 2024 she has been working with Minister of Equality Katarzyna Kotula.

Danny Lämmerhirt is the lead of the Future Internet Lab at Waag Futurelab. His research explores democratic experiments with data and digital technologies to address public problems. As lab lead, he lays out the strategy of the research lab, developing methods to publicly design, use, make decisions over, and contest internet technologies, as well as how digital technologies can facilitate dialogue and collaboration around issues of public concern.

About the moderator

Dr. Akudo McGee (PhD) earned a PhD at Maastricht University, where her research focused on civic mobilization in Poland in defence of the rule of law and human rights. She’s an expert in civic mobilisation and autocratic legalism and has closely followed the rule of law crisis in the EU. She completed her master’s degree at the University of Amsterdam, where she focused on refugee integration in challenging social and economic environments. Her interests include the rule of law, civic mobilisation, digital rights, anti-discrimination, and human rights.

Lees meer Poland: ‘A Thousand Cuts’ technology-facilitated gender-based violence against Poland’s LGBTI community on X

This report is an investigation into X’s contribution to harms suffered by the LGBTI community in Poland between 2019 and 2025. It reveals the toll that X’s engagement-based business model has taken on LGBTI individuals, and particularly those targeted with hate on the platform. It shows that, despite the company’s proclaimed desire to protect freedom of expression, online abuse on X has contributed to the LGBTI community in Poland living in fear of being their true selves – both online and offline.

Inclusief online: naar een ontwerp van apps en omgevingen waar mensen vrij en veilig kunnen zijn

Wie ontwerpt, bepaalt. Dat is in drie woorden de conclusie van het rapport 'Inclusief online' dat het Rathenau Instituut vandaag publiceert. In het rapport geeft het instituut handelingsopties die moeten zorgen voor apps, platforms en andere online omgevingen waar mensen zich vrij en veilig voelen. We bestudeerden meer dan 130 publicaties en spraken met dertig deskundigen. Daaronder waren ontwerpers, wetenschappers en medewerkers van online platformen. Ook hielden de onderzoekers ontwerpsessies met lhbtiq+-personen. Die groep heeft online overmatig te maken met schadelijk gedrag, met uitsluiting en met ontwerpkeuzes die hun zeggenschap beperken.