Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
+Purpose
Without Civil Rights, We Cannot Have a Meaningful Democracy.
The purpose of this initiative is to advance the crucial work of journalists, researchers, activists, and others at the forefront of organizing for civil rights. We know many civil rights leaders are targets of online harassment, both individually and collectively. The Digital Civil Rights Initiative seeks to foster the creation of greater support and legal protections for individuals and groups whose civil rights are under attack – often through online coordination.
Legal protections are the necessary means to combat online harassment and other tactics used to silence civil rights and undermine democracy.
+Approach
We anticipate online harassment to only increase as the US heads into the midterm elections and the next presidential election. Online harassment often impedes our work and prevents us from creating the crucial sociopolitical change that is needed to ensure civil rights our democratic values. Therefore, we believe a coordinated digital civil rights agenda is crucial to the work being organized around democracy-building. We aim to do this by activating a:
Digital Civil Rights Working Group
to identify possibilities for case law and legislation that protects ongoing work and open up new pathways to protect democracy
Digital Civil Rights Fund
to support fellowships and visiting appointments for journalists, researchers, activists, and lawyers at the forefront of this work
Digital Civil Rights Summit
to surface and talk about the most pressing issues as well as to map out the year ahead in proposed research, litigation, and legislation
Digital Civil Rights Law Clinic
to introduce students to current laws and regulations related to digital civil rights as well as significant current pending cases; identify and develop impactful policy initiatives
This work is made possible by the generous support of Archewell Foundation and Craig Newmark Philanthropies.