Join us at Rightscon – register today!
Register today for RightsCon 2022, the world’s leading conference on human rights in the digital age, June 6 – 10! The 11th edition of Rightscon recognizes the importance of whistleblowers in holding power to account. Tickets to Rightscon – both paid and free – are now available (through Friday, June 3). There are more than 500+ sessions over the week.
The Signals Network is working with Whistleblowing International Network to host two sessions.
Event 1:
On Monday, June 6, at 3:45 pm, EST, The Signals Network will sponsor and participate in a session entitled, “Preparedness is Power: How to Achieve Impact When Speaking Out in Tech.”
This panel discusses and demystifies how tech workers can create meaningful impact by speaking out. Big Tech companies are not only defining how we communicate, work, and learn now, they are also defining a future in their own image. It’s a future with more data collection, connectivity, amplification, automation, and risk of increasing inequality. In a world with slow regulation and massive corporate power, the single most important action we can take, as Dr. Timnit Gebru puts it, “is we need to increase worker power… That’s the only way we can have checks and balances.” One of the best ways to increase worker power is to ensure workers, of all levels, can speak out about harms and wrongdoing. Workers who speak out can protect the public, but it is a scary, uncertain act. The Tech Worker Handbook was created to support tech workers who are considering speaking out about wrongdoing at their companies. The panelists in this event contributed to the handbook’s development and their backgrounds span a diverse range of perspectives, all dedicated to maximizing the impact of and protection for tech workers who speak out. Panelists will discuss how tech workers can build a team to achieve impact from revelations. This will be followed by a discussion with the audience where attendees will both share their own stories of impact and also ask panelists questions about their experiences. Overall, this will be a learning opportunity for all involved, and attendees will come away with more knowledge they can use to hold companies accountable and stay safe when doing so.
Event 2:
On Tuesday, June 7, at 3:45 pm EST, we will host a private meeting for tech workers who are interested in speaking with past whistleblowers and organizations that assist whistleblowers. This invitation-only meeting will be faciliated by our Executive Director, Delphine Halgand-Mishra, and will include Theranos whistleblower, Tyler Schultz and Kickstarter union organizer, Clarissa Redwine. Please note: If you are interested in this session, you must request participation by June 2nd.
Please email our Technology Accountability Project Manager, Ben Grazda, to request a spot.
This session will connect tech workers who are curious about the process of speaking out with whistleblowers who have gone toe-to-toe with powerful and well resourced corporations (Tyler Schultz of Theranos and Clarissa Redwine of Kickstarter). The aim is to provide tech workers with an opportunity to directly ask whistleblowers questions about their experience, share expertise, and help workers make more informed decisions about speaking out in the public interest. This informal session will allow participants to understand the pathways, hear about the risks, and discuss what the potential outcomes could be. The meeting will follow the structure of a story circle to open, facilitated by The Signals Network’s Executive Director who has worked with whistleblowers for several years, allowing each whistleblower to share their experience fully and for participants to better understand their background. Participants may pose questions publicly for group learning or privately in the chat. The objective of this social hour is for workers to build connections with allies for future support and they come away with a sense of solidarity and a better understanding that positive change within the tech industry can come from worker-led movements.
Event 3:
On Monday, June 6, at 11:45 am, EST, The Signals Network’s Executive Director will participate in a fireside chat entitled, “Whistleblowers, activism, and accountability in the tech sector.”
Sophie Zhang, John Githongo, and Delphine Halgand-Mishra will join in conversation with facilitator Itika Sharma Punit for a fireside chat on the role of whistleblowers in advancing trust and transparency in the technology sector. They will discuss the ways in which whistleblowers can collaborate effectively and advocate in partnership with civil society actors, investigators, and journalists to build more open, accountable business and labor practices, and protect the rights of users and consumers around the world. The event will broadly focus on deconstructing the roles and responsibilities of whistleblowers and discussing ways in which whistleblowers can collaborate effectively with civil society actors, human rights defenders and journalists, beyond the US and Europe, to maximize the impact of the information revealed on users around the world.
Tickets to Rightscon – both paid and free – are now available (through Friday, June 3). There are more than 500+ sessions over the week. Register today!
