Undoing Digital Discrimination

Undoing Digital Discrimination

Digital discrimination is an extension and reflection of prejudices pervasive in society and/or the physical world, in other words, digital discrimination reproduces the discrimination we experience in the real world. We can define digital discrimination as treating marginalized and/or vulnerable individuals or communities unfairly and/or immorally or differently based on their nationality, colour, race, and/or gender identity, and/or any other characteristics that distinguish them. 

Technological neutrality is a myth, where emerging technologies and technologies reinforce pre-existing forms of discrimination. Whether it is the use of predictive policing systems that systematically discriminate against communities that are racially categorized as potentially more criminal, or content management algorithms across social media platforms that discriminate in the way content management policies are enforced against specific communities that may be politically or socially persecuted, to the facial recognition technologies that discriminate mostly against people of color and dark skin, in addition to many other examples that compound discrimination against marginalized and vulnerable communities.

In the Palestinian case, Palestinians suffer from systematic digital discrimination against them, which is an extension of the existing state of discrimination and apartheid on the ground. Over the past few years, Palestinians have been subjected to surveillance and espionage that is used against them to repress and thwart attempts to organize and gather in Palestinian society, in addition to increasing self-censorship and the effect of deterrence that frustrates the work of activists, journalists, and human rights defenders.

All these discriminatory practices against the Palestinians require that the Palestinians and their allies from around the world meet with representatives of these companies, governments, civil society and human rights and media institutions to discuss the impact of these discriminatory policies in normalizing the discrimination against Palestinians and its inclinations. Not to mention the importance of discussing ways to harness the tools of mobilization and digital mobilization in order to gather forces to stand firmly against this systematic discrimination against Palestinians and other oppressed and marginalized communities in the world. Accordingly, the seventh edition of the Palestine Digital Activism Forum (PDAF 2023), aims to offer a platform for discussion and dialogue and come up with constructive policy and practical proposals to end digital discrimination against Palestinians and other minorities around the world.

We will meet for the seventh year at the Palestine Forum for Digital Activism 2023, in an attempt to network and dialogue between Palestinians across the diaspora and to gather forces between Palestinians and advocates of the Palestinian cause, activists, human rights defenders, journalists, civil society workers, social media companies and governments. Furthermore, to study, understand and discuss the different effects of digital discrimination against Palestinians and other marginalized communities around the world, with the aim of unifying ways of putting pressure on technology companies and governments to end this systematic discrimination against them.