Speakers
Paul Biggar
Founder of Tech For Palestine, CircleCI and Darklang
Zelda Montes
MA student in Digital Humanities, CUNY Graduate Center; Labor organizer with No Tech for Apartheid
Nadim Nashif
Executive Director and co-founder, 7amleh: The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media
Moderator
Shilpa Jindia
Freelance Journalist and Lawyer
About the Webinar
Amid growing global concern over the use of technology by authoritarian and oppressive regimes, the complicity of major technology firms remains widely underexamined by policymakers, the media, and the tech industry itself. From the suppression of speech on social media platforms to the development of AI-driven weaponry, technology has become a key tool in the broader struggle over human rights and information integrity. This is evident in Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, where big tech companies have not only censored Palestinian and anti-war voices and perspectives but have also reinforced Israeli military and political dominance by supplying technologies for surveillance, autonomous weapons, and disinformation campaigns that enable Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.
Arab Center Washington DC and the National Writers Union are convening a panel of experts to discuss the role of technology and big tech companies in the occupation of Palestine,
enabling digital repression and censorship of pro-Palestine content, supplying advanced military technologies, and aiding AI-assisted atrocities in Gaza. The panel will explore urgent questions, including: How are content moderation algorithms weaponized to silence Palestinian narratives? What role do tech companies play in militarizing AI and expanding surveillance infrastructure against Palestinians? What AI and surveillance technologies are currently being deployed in Gaza and the West Bank? What legal, political, and grassroots strategies could challenge corporate complicity in tech-driven genocide and occupation? What are the broader implications for free expression, access to information, international law, and human rights if these practices are allowed to continue unchecked in Israel’s war on Palestine?
Featured image credit: Shutterstock/Gorodenkoff
