Call for NFPs to deploy tech to defend democracy

Tech Soup CEO Marnie Webb in a keynote address to the Infoxchange Technology for Social Justice conference in Melbourne this month said that civil society was under “unprecedented and coordinated attack” across the world.

Webb said it was imperative like-minded organisations co-ordinate their efforts to fight back against the trend or face dire consequences for society at large.

“It is not just urgent. It is existential,” she told the Institute of Community Directors Australia ahead of her keynote.

Webb said that the sector's resilience was always being tested in response to pressures such as natural disasters, changes in funding and increased need.

However, given the current unsettled state of the planet, exemplified by the highly adversarial approach being adopted by US president Donald Trump, the defences of civil society were being severely tested.

“Organisations all over the world are all dealing with this all the time,” she said.

“What we are seeing now is an unprecedented and coordinated attack on civil society at the same time we are experiencing increased need.

“This means we need to coordinate and use the resilience that we’ve honed over decades.”

Founded in 1987, Tech Soup is a not-for-profit international network of non-government organisations that provide technical support and tools to other for purpose organisations.

Webb said Tech Soup’s mission is to "build a dynamic bridge that leverages technology to enable connections and innovative solutions for a more equitable planet."

She said one of the reasons it was becoming harder for the sector to advance social justice in many jurisdictions, was because many governments were deliberately rolling back progress and inhibiting civil society at scale.

These tactics included:

• limits to government funding and increased reporting burdens

• the targeting of organisations to discredit their work

• bureaucratic hurdles that hinder operations

• monitoring, threats, and violence directed at activists

• the weakening of democratic institutions.

Webb said the playbook used by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán to achieve these ends was well documented and has now been copied by others beyond Hungary’s borders.

“It is being put in place in other countries with a systemic vigour that is frightening,” she said.

“This puts organisations into a bunker mentality. That makes them shut down collaboration, restrict their own speech and efforts, and reduce the communities they serve. It’s hard, in that environment, to make and defend progress.”

Democracy must be actively defended

Speaking after her keynote, Webb extended her warning to Australia, urging charity and not-for-profit leaders to remain vigilant about their democratic infrastructure.

“You can’t take democratic institutions for granted,” she said. “What are you all doing to keep those institutions from being undermined?”

She cautioned that while Australia may have recently voted in a “more progressive government”, no population is immune from rising polarisation.

US progressives, she said, had been caught off guard by the dismantling of democratic safeguards such as judicial independence.

“It’s turned out [that] we don’t have the muscle of protecting that judicial independence. Because we so took our democratic institutions for granted, we did not notice where they were being undermined.”

Webb urged Australian organisations to bolster civic engagement and counter disinformation. “One of the biggest things that organisations can do is they can make sure that they’re sharing truthful information,” she said.

It was alarmingly easy for "negative, populist messages of oppression" to be reshared by people who believed they were true.

“I think it’s really important for organisations to be diligent about what they’re sharing with their community members.”

Instead, she encouraged groups to share stories of those they support to demonstrate “an alternative view of the world that we wish to build."

Webb's call to arms comes as The Australian reported media rights group RSF warned of "an alarming deterioration in press freedom" in the United States under President Donald Trump as well as "unprecedented" difficulties for independent journalists around the world.

RSF highlighted the role of economic pressures in undermining fact-based reporting, with many independent outlets forced to close because of funding difficulties.

The organisation said Trump had made things worse by axing financial support for state-backed broadcasters such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, cutting public funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as well as US foreign development aid that assisted media outlets overseas.

Webb said technology can play an important role in the sector’s efforts to push back against threats to civic freedoms and advocacy.

“Technology can be such a force for coordination. It can stabilise organisations and, used well, it can help protect them.”

Successful examples of this included using technology to document and advocate for Indigenous land rights and cultural preservation, working to bridge the digital divide for marginalised communities and using digital tools to document human rights abuses and support activists.

Technology could also be a force for good, and nominated the power of artificial intelligence to enable civic-minded organisations to quickly analyse data for anomalies, including falsehoods.

Online platforms were also being harnessed to raise awareness about climate change and advocate for stronger environmental policies, while grassroots movements are using technology to improve local services and empower communities.

In her Infoxchange presentation titled Strong, Resilient, Confident: Strategies for Civil Society Webb outlined five ways to help for purpose organisations fight the good fight:

• Prioritising security to ensures civil society organisations can continue their vital operations

• Organising data using standards simplifies co-ordination and supports resilience

• Before sharing information confirm permission, verify accuracy, and strip tracking links

• Use narrative power to be a model of sharing truthful information that is capable of broadening everyone’s perspective

• Collaborate with a diverse set of groups that goes outside your domain area and crosses borders.
  

“Technology can be such a force for coordination,” said Webb.

“It can stabilise organisations and, used well, it can help protect them.”

In her post-keynote comments, she said technology enabled collective action.

“We want to use that technology to be able to take collective action and make collective decision-making, so that we can understand how the pressures that we face—from climate change, or the cost of living, or the needs of our community members—[can be met],” she said.

She also called for greater use of public libraries as trusted community spaces to host civic technologies.

“They provide access to resources. You don’t have to take your wallet out of your pocket to go in and use them. They’re community treasures and to my mind, very much are democratic institutions.”

- with Matthew Schulz