APC priorities for RightsCon 2025

Introduction             

The 13th edition of RightsCon will be hosted by Access Now in Taipei and online from 24 to 27 February 2025. RightsCon is a global summit that is civil society-led and brings together various stakeholders from across public and private sectors, including policy makers, tech companies and technologists, academics, journalists, donors and human rights activists. 

The event, which will be held in hybrid mode, will showcase over 550 sessions across 18 thematic tracks, including:

• Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies
• Business and human rights
• Conflict and humanitarian action
• Content governance
• Freedoms and agency in the age of surveillance
• Global cyber norms and encryption
• Online hate and violence
• Tactics and contexts for activists
• Organisational capacity and funding.

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) considers RightsCon an important space to engage in discussion about critical issues related to internet and digital technologies, share information about changing contexts, and connect with diverse individuals and communities within the APC network and beyond. 

This year’s event is particularly timely: Meta has recently made changes that include removal of restrictions on harmful rhetoric on issues such as gender identity, sexual orientation and migration. It is phasing out its independent fact-checking network and terminating its diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, rolling back years of advocacy related to protection of vulnerable groups in online spaces. This follows similar changes made by X (formerly Twitter) in recent years, with both Meta and X indicating that they will challenge regulations countering the new status quo with support from the US government. These changes reflect the growing nexus between states and tech companies, and the rise of digital oligarchies, where power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, threatening democracy and human rights, undermining the public core of the internet, exacerbating digital inequality and accelerating risk of surveillance, censorship and further exploitation of vulnerable groups. 

Further, the incoming administration in the US has implemented a funding freeze on the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and terminated all diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programming, severely hampering the work of civil society organisations across the world, resulting in an uncertain future for beneficiaries, many of whom are already facing marginalisation. Other public donor agencies have also in the recent past downsized or restricted funding to certain areas of work, increasing the precarity of our work and organisations. 

These changes come in the wake of ongoing conflict and genocide in places like Palestine, Myanmar and Sudan, where the weaponisation of technology through censorship, surveillance, cyber attacks, disruption of services, online hate and mis/disinformation has fuelled new forms of oppression and suffering for many.

APC’s engagement and advocacies at RightsCon will be rooted in this context, and its goals and objectives throughout the event will be to:

• Engage and connect with APC’s network and partners to better understand the impact of recent changes on their work and communities, offer support and solidarity, and discuss joint advocacy efforts to address these challenges.
• Contribute to thematic discussions related to issues such as technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), disinformation and platform accountability, and internet governance through a social justice and rights-based, intersectional perspective.
• Advocate for increased and sustained donor support in the face of growing challenges, and renewed commitment from donors towards digital rights and social, environmental and gender justice.

APC will participate in a number of sessions at RightsCon. The full schedule of APC staff and member sessions can be found here.

APC’s thematic priorities

Reimagining, broadening and expanding TFGBV and transnational solidarity

In continuation of its longstanding work on TFGBV, APC has in its recent cycle of the Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN) fostered a broader comprehension of the discussions surrounding TFGBV, particularly in the context of global conflicts and genocides. With a number of ongoing wars, conflicts and genocides as well as the continued and increasing attacks on gender and sexual rights, there is a need to expand and deepen our understanding of TFGBV by situating it within the nexus of nationalism, patriarchy and feminist framing of violence, oppression and power.

APC has been organising a series of discussions that provide important and critical reflection from the Global South on the need to revisit the current framing of TFGBV to take into account the extreme and varied manifestations of gender and sexual-based violence in conflict-affected environments. At RightsCon, APC will continue this conversation through a satellite event on day 0, 24 February, titled “Expanded notions of technology-facilitated gender-based violence”.

The day-long event will expand the understanding and notions around TFGBV, explore a timeline of activism and recognition of online GBV/TFGBV in the past decades, as well as to connect it to the ongoing social and political realities, especially of war, conflict and repression in different parts of the world. It will feature speakers from Palestine, Sudan and Myanmar, and will seek to address the links between TFGBV, online violence and dehumanisation of particular communities, including violence against journalists and women human rights defenders and the ways in which transnational solidarity can be expressed in such instances.

APC will also engage with donors at RightsCon to advocate for the need for continued broadening of the definition of TFGBV and to reconsider shifting priorities of donors and states on issues related to gender and conflict. 

Charting a path for platform accountability on gendered disinformation and other gender-based harms

While gendered disinformation has been understood as a subset of both online disinformation and gender-based violence, APC has been advocating for the need to recognise it as a separate and specific phenomenon, as it relates to a specific type of violation of women’s and gender-diverse people’s rights, in particular their freedom of expression, which is not properly encapsulated by other concepts. Gendered disinformation gives rise to particular situations of abuse that require specific and targeted responses, and social media platforms in particular have responded inadequately.

Research carried out by APC indicates key concerns in relation to platforms’ responses to gendered disinformation, with respect to their content moderation policies, opaque algorithmic models that privilege attention over safety, and expropriation of personal data that renders women and gender-diverse people particularly vulnerable. Recent policy changes by social media platforms on both gender protections and countering mis/disinformation have exacerbated these concerns and brought up important questions related to platform accountability more broadly. 

APC will organise a session at RightsCon titled “Missing the full picture: Challenging gender-blind responses of platforms to disinformation” that will provide a space for discussion on possible shared strategies and common pathways forward for CSOs and other actors advocating for protection of marginalised groups, particularly gender and sexual minorities, on social media platforms. It will also aim to collect concrete suggestions from participants for immediate and medium-term actions that could seek to reverse the negative trends. This discussion will inform APC’s ongoing work and advocacy related to platform accountability.

Countering weaponisation of technology against environmental defenders

The use of technology to attack environmental defenders – including many Indigenous leaders and women – is part of a continuum of violence that includes targeted disinformation and smear tactics, surveillance and death threats. Identity-based disinformation and smear tactics are disproportionately impacting women defenders, and research suggests that online attacks do not only target climate and environmental defenders, but also their families, friends and colleagues – creating a chilling effect on their communities.

Since 2021, APC has called attention to the risks of environmental disinformation, including through the Global Information Society Watch report. In 2022, APC published a briefing paper that outlined the issue of climate disinformation, and the role and impacts of the tech industry in disinformation and disruption of environmental advocacy. The paper points to the need for collaborations between digital rights organisations and environmental justice actors to understand and address environmental disinformation in a nuanced way.

The currently ongoing project Resistance and Resilience: Collaborative Responses to Online Attacks on Environmental Defenders supports in-depth research into the scope and impacts of online disinformation and attacks against environmental defenders in Brazil, Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines. 

During RightsCon, APC and partners will be sharing preliminary research findings and discussing strategies to address the issues of concern identified during the research during a session titled “Resistance and resilience: Collaborative responses to online attacks on environmental defenders”. The goal is not only to raise awareness about how digital rights challenges are seen and experienced from the point of view of grassroots communities and Indigenous peoples, but also to call for further commitment from digital rights groups, tech companies, donors and other stakeholders to the safety of environmental defenders and environmental justice.

WSIS+20 and global digital governance

Almost 20 years ago, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) articulated a vision and key values that still today are key for the configuration of the digital future as well as digital global policies, governance and cooperation. There is broad agreement on the need for common principles to make the internet and other digital technologies and their governance more inclusive, human rights-based and compliant with environmental justice goals. In 2025, as the WSIS vision and values are being reinterpreted at the WSIS+20 Review to respond to the constantly changing digital society, there is an opportunity to re-secure commitment to these key principles and to make progress in bringing them into practice meaningfully.

APC’s priorities in this regard are to advocate for continued adherence to the WSIS principles of participation and to push for acknowledgment that significant progress in multistakeholder participation is needed, in a way that is meaningful, empowering of civil society, partnership-oriented and inclusive, and with recognition that the interests of big tech and authoritarian regimes may be disrupting such processes in many respects and need to be countered. 

APC's priorities also include advocating for action towards addressing urgent global challenges such as persistent and in some instances growing digital inequality, acceleration of social and economic injustice due to current data governance frameworks and AI, and climate change and degradation of our natural environment exacerbated by digital transformation, as well as establishing new priorities such as the urgent imperative to operationalise meaningful connectivity.

APC will seek renewed commitment to the WSIS principles of participation within the context of these new developments, and towards truly transparent, inclusive, accountable and democratic governance of digital technologies at all levels, drawing on the NETmundial+10 São Paulo Guidelines and integrating Global Digital Compact (GDC) and WSIS follow-up and implementation. 

RightsCon presents an important opportunity for civil society to come together to strategise and plan for key interventions in the lead-up to and at the WSIS+20 Review towards these goals. APC will be part of a series of conversations at RightsCon that will form part of APC’s broader strategy for WSIS and other global digital governance processes in the coming year.

Advocating for decentralised, feminist, community-driven alternatives to mainstream technology platforms

Dominance of tech companies continues to rise with dangerous consequences for many communities. Social media platforms have contributed significantly to the degradation of rights and safety of people online, while lending themselves to political influence and the manipulation of democratic processes. These platforms operate as closed ecosystems, limiting user control and autonomy while allowing algorithms to dictate visibility without transparency. Further, AI companies are also increasingly more involved in military development, raising concerns about their role in global conflicts. As tech giants push back against regulatory measures, particularly in the EU, their influence continues to expand unchecked. This consolidation of power not only undermines user rights and democratic institutions, but also fuels interconnected global crises, including militarisation and environmental degradation. 

There is an urgent need for feminist political engagement and the development of decentralised, community-driven alternatives that prioritise transparency, user rights and digital democracy. This is not only as a challenge to the current power wielded by big tech, but also to provide opportunity for feminist engagement in technology and its transformative potential for advancing the leadership of movements and actors. 

APC is well positioned to drive change through its network of open source developers and civil society internet service providers (ISPs), which prioritise human rights, including environmental rights, over profit. Over the past few years, APC has built significant expertise through initiatives like the Local Networks project and the Infrared partnership, a coalition of non-profit ISPs providing resilient, ethical alternatives to monopolistic systems, and has contributed to thinking around alternative feminist infrastructure through initiatives such as the Feminist Principles of the Internet.

At RightsCon, APC plans to engage directly in conversations advocating for the need for developing alternatives to mainstream technology platforms that are rights-based, anti-oppressive and developed by individuals and communities most affected by them, particularly in the context of genocide and war and the current anti-gender backlash. A key part involves identifying and unpacking challenges or barriers to the resourcing of this work that includes collective care for the communities they support, regular security monitoring, and resources required for physical tech infrastructure and transitioning into alternative tech solutions. 

Other key priorities

Connecting with the APC network and partners

RightsCon will be a meeting space for a number of APC members and partners. It presents an opportunity for network members to come together, to reconnect with one another and share their work, information, support and solidarity. For APC, it is an important platform to engage with members and partners both to learn about their ongoing work as well as to better understand how they are navigating the current complexities within their own contexts, the kinds of support that APC can provide, and how this should shape APC's strategic priorities moving forward.

APC will have different opportunities to connect with its network at RightsCon. We will have an all-day booth on day 1, 25 February, at the RightsCon Community Village, which will serve as a space for interaction and sharing of APC’s work. APC will also organise, along with its members OCF and eQualitie, a “get together” dinner on 26 February for APC staff, members and partners. 

Finally, APC will also engage with members and partners at the regional level by co-facilitating the Asia-Pacific civil society meet-up on day 0. The meet-up, which will be co-facilitated along with member organisation EngageMedia, will be a space for civil society from the region to connect outside the regular programme and learn about each other’s work and advocacies.

Donor advocacy strategy

RightsCon 2025 will be a space where a diverse number of funders will participate, including APC’s existing funders and those we aim to build new relationships with. Funding suspensions and cutting of aid by governments and institutions in North America and Europe pose significant risks to progressive social work and activism, as civil society actors rely heavily on such funding, both public and private. In the context of funding cuts, the rise of anti-rights movements and the decrease in international solidarity, APC aims to engage with members, partners and funders to explore alternative pathways for support and resources. 

At RightsCon, APC will advocate to the funding community − government funders, private foundations and philanthropists − to come together and step up support and resourcing to help the civil society movements and communities we serve to navigate the current uncertain circumstances. Key priorities in this regard are as follows:

Need for short-term emergency funding

In the short term, emergency support funding is needed to fill in gaps that have been left by the US (and other bilateral aid) funding halts, especially for local groups and organisations that relied heavily on such support and are facing existential crisis. Ensuring that resources reach these groups directly is not only more effective and ethical, but also essential for supporting frontline efforts.

Need for longer-term, flexible core support

In the longer term, there is a need to move towards flexible core support grants that shift power to communities and movements and allow them to be more resilient and impactful, allowing them to invest in systemic change, build resilient ecosystems, and reduce dependence on top-down and often harmful funding structures. There is a need for easing restrictions by offering more unrestricted grants, easing reporting requirements, and increasing the flexibility of grant funds, particularly for organisations in the Global South, who due to power dynamics have fewer opportunities for such support compared to their Global North counterparts.

Support for movement building, political organising and advocacy

There is a need for support for intersectional and inter-movement collaborations, and sustained, flexible funding strategies that prioritise long-term advocacy and grassroots organising. Funders must invest in building political power, particularly for feminist, environmental, anti-colonial, Indigenous, LGBTQI+ and local grassroots movements that are already leading the fight against structural inequality and defending the values of rights, democracy, equity and justice.

Covering the true cost of our work

A key concern is for donors to increase their contributions to core mission support and salaries, and to cover the true costs that organisations incur in relation to indirect costs, so that organisations are able to achieve sustainable financial health without negative organisational impacts. 

Exploring alternative models of funding 

Dependency on Global North funding keeps local organisations vulnerable to political and donor-driven shifts, rather than resourcing self-determined futures. There is a need to focus on approaches that address historical injustices and promote self-sufficiency among marginalised communities. Some of these approaches are:

• Reparative justice models that recognise historical exploitation and prioritise redistribution of wealth to formerly colonised communities.
• South-South funding and support networks that build financial resilience and capacity within Global Majority movements, reducing dependence on Global North donors.
• Diaspora-led and grassroots funding and organising that channel resources from local people as well as their diaspora directly to frontline movements.
• Mutual aid networks that operate outside traditional philanthropy, fostering horizontal solidarity rather than hierarchical grant-making structures.
• Social impact investing and alternative financing mechanisms. 

Funders can provide direct financing to these movements and efforts, support ecosystem strengthening efforts so that movements can organise together and strategically, and use their political, economic and social influence to promote these approaches in the mainstream as not only viable but actually more effective strategies for long-term systemic change at all levels, from local to global.