Public Panel Discussion: What You See Is What You Get? The Present and Futures of Digital Activism
November 15, 2019 – 19.00h. TU Berlin, Hauptgebäude, H1012 Straße des 17. Juni, 10623 Berlin
Moderation: Thorsten Thiel (Weizenbaum Institute)
with Anastasia Kavada (University of Westminster, London), Nhi Le (Freelance journalist and speaker, Leipzig), Peter Ullrich (Technische Universität Berlin, IPB)
Participation is free and open to the public. No registration required. The discussion is held in English.
Digital platforms provide a common user interface for contemporary forms of political protest and resistance. Protest movements organize and mobilize via these interfaces, whereas media activists and online subcultures aim to impact public discourses through hashtags and visual strategies. Still, new pathways to visibility of protest are accompanied by an ecosystem of opaque selection mechanisms, content moderation policies and a battle over attention. While national and transnational regulations reinforce the communicative power of digital platforms, below the interface, private-public surveillance endangers free speech and privacy. In digitalized societies what we see may thus not always be what we get. Collective action and digital communication infrastructures rather tend to form a relationship of tension. The panel discussion aims to uncover current perils and future possibilities of digital activism through bringing together knowledge from the academia and practitioners alike.
Part of the Annual Conference for Social Movement Studies (IPB): Social Movements in the Digital Age