The Digital Fabric of Political Violence
The global impact of social media is undeniable—reshaping how we think, feel, and form beliefs. These platforms have become powerful tools for shaping political narratives and influencing public opinion. However, platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram are also frequently misused to spread hate speech and harmful ideologies, fueling tech-enabled violence against marginalized and underrepresented communities. Despite the growing evidence of harm, social media companies continue to fall short in addressing the damage occurring on their platforms. In collaboration with Amnesty International, we invite you to an evening of critical conversation about tech-enabled online violence and platform accountability. We will draw from A Thousand Cuts, Amnesty’s report on how X failed to protect Poland’s LGBTQIA+ community. And we will explore practical tools for better content moderation, platform governance, and protecting human rights online.
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 FuturelabAbout 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 the Jagiellonian University, she has been the editor of Queer.pl, the largest and oldest LGBTQI media outlet in Poland, for almost ten years. Since 2012, she has co-organized the Queer May Festival and the Equality March in Krakow. A board member of the Równość.org.pl Foundation since 2013, she has been supporting the LGBTQI community locally, also advocating for equality and diversity in Krakow. She has co-organized numerous demonstrations and conducted research on the situation of the LGBTQI community in southern Poland, and has implemented projects including monitoring freedom of assembly and advocacy at the local level.
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.
