Pilot Workshop from Digital Freedom Fund: Demystifying Technology
DFF is piloting an idea for a workshop series. DFF wants to help digital rights litigators and activists to unpack and deconstruct some of the technologies that are prominent in their work.
Technology – what it does, how it is made, how it works, whom it serves, whom it harms – is central to digital rights litigation.
By answering these technical questions, lawyers can begin to fully comprehend the kinds of individuals who can bring a case relating to the technology, the type of legal arguments they would be entitled to make, who they can hold responsible for the impact of the technology, and the types of evidence that they would need to support their legal arguments.
In short, if digital rights advocates are able to make sense of the underlying technology in their cases, they will be in a stronger position to assess and challenge its harmful effects on society.
To support our network in using the law to its best effect in cases that are related to the use of technology, on 7 December 2021, DFF will hold a half-day virtual workshop in what will hopefully turn out to be a series of events designed to “demystify” a range of different technologies.
The events will consist of a 2-hour training session, delivered, in each case, by an expert in the relevant technology, followed by a 2-hour hands-on session that will allow participants to try out what they’ve learned in a practical “sandpit” setting.
This first workshop will focus on automated content moderation. In addition to providing participants with useful skills and information, it will also serve as a proof-of concept for all future events.
Participants in this event must work for an organisation working on digital rights within Council of Europe jurisdictions and should ideally be involved in or looking to work on strategic litigation concerning online content moderation.
If you are interested in joining DFF for this experimental/pilot event, please send an email to with “DFF Understanding Tech Workshop” in the subject line and an outline of how you meet the above criteria.
Because this is a pilot workshop, we also expect participants to contribute by providing us feedback on the structure of the workshop and what other technologies we should focus on for future workshops.
To be considered for the event, you must email DFF by 30 November 2021. To keep the workshop interactive and participatory, we have limited places available, so we will allocate those places on a first come, first served basis.
More details can be found here.