7amleh publishes the agenda and announces the opening of registration for the Palestine Digital Activism Forum 2022

Ramallah, Haifa: 7amleh - the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, is today announcing the launch of the sixth edition of the Palestine Digital Activism Forum and opening the registration for participants. The Palestine Digital Activism Forum 2022 is the largest online event for Palestinian digital rights, and this year's forum will be held over three days between May 17th and May 19th of this year. This year's forum will take place in cooperation with almost sixty partner institutions. The forum will bring together 120 local, regional and international speakers and trainers, most notably Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Ms. Mary Lawler. Government representatives such as Dr Ishaq Sider, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology will also be speaking.

This year's forum is centered on the theme of "Digital Solidarity for Justice" and will focus on digital solidarity in the regional and international context. Palestinian digital solidarity gained momentum in 2021 at the international level, due to Palestinians’ use of the digital space to access justice, particularly during the May 2021 uprising, and also as Palestinians aligned their cause with global solidarity movements. The forum presents a number of policy sessions, digital dialogues, and training workshops that cover diverse topics as well as offering professional capacity-building opportunities for participants working in fields related to digital rights and digital activism.

The forum will provide a platform to study, understand and discuss the aspects of digital solidarity and digital justice in different contexts, and coordinate work efforts at the local, regional and international levels to protect Palestinian digital rights and reach a safe, just and free digital space.

This year's forum will host representatives of technology companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Clubhouse, Wikipedia, and the head of Meta (Facebook previously) Oversight Board. In addition, academics, representatives of civil society and activists at the local, regional and international levels will also participate.

This forum will allow 7amleh to open a platform for Palestinians and their supporters to discuss Palestinian digital rights within the regional and international context, and encourage activists, human rights defenders and workers in various fields to engage in dialogue and exchange experiences and expertise in order to improve the situation for Palestinian digital rights, especially given the rise in digital suppression and targeting of Palestinian content and the imposition of espionage and surveillance on Palestinian human rights defenders during 2021.

7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media renews its invitation to you to register to reserve your place to participate in the Palestine Digital Activism Forum 2022 via our website.

For more details about our program and to register, visit our website through the following link: www.pdaf.ps.

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More information about the Palestine Digital Activism Forum sessions:

Policy sessions will focus on topics such as:

• Content moderation policies for social media platforms.

• The role of digital activism and solidarity in repositioning the Palestinian cause and exerting pressure on companies to adjust their policies to align with human rights principles.

• The impact of spreading misinformation on social media platforms on global solidarity with human rights issues.

• Deplatforming and digital economic discrimination against Palestinians.

• Digital gender-based violence in order to create a safe space for women.

• Espionage techniques and mass surveillance.

• Racial discrimination against Palestinians and depriving them of the right to access the Internet.

Workshop topics will include:

• Digital safety workshops for activists and institutions.

• Mechanisms for harnessing different platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Clubhouse, and WhatsApp in order to build movements, expand solidarity and build digital societies to achieve justice and benefit from the possibilities of building intersectional campaigns and movements.

• Using photography to document human rights violations.

• Visualizing data in campaigns.

• Harnessing "memes" in human rights and political campaigns.

• Verifying false news with a focus on deep fakes.

Inspirational speakers include:

• Rashida Tlaib, US Congresswoman

• Ms. Mary Lawler, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders

• Uffe Elbæk, Danish Member of Parliament

• Linda Sarsour, Palestinian-American political activist

• Dr Ishaq Sider, Minister of Communications and Information Technology

• Mark Owen John, associate professor of humanities and digital societies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University

The forum also concludes its activities for this year by recognizing a movement, and/or a group, and/or an institution that excelled in working on the best digital campaign and/or the best performance in the field of digital activity for 2021 to mobilize, show solidarity, and/or raise awareness, and/or advocate human rights. This award mainly aims to recognize the efforts devoted by institutions, movements, entrepreneurial groups, and activists, who have succeeded in digital campaigns and digital activism to accomplish their missions and achieve social impact.