„Das ist Netzpolitik!“-Conference/ Party 7 Oct Berlin: For our English-speaking friends

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Das ist Netzpolitik!-Conference/ Party, 7 October Berlin: Fight for your digital rights!

We are pleased to announce the “Das ist Netzpolitik!”-Conference, a yearly meeting of Internet activists coming together to discuss the most important digital rights challenges in Germany, Europe, and the world, and to share their knowledge with researchers, journalists, and politicians. The conference is taking place for the 3rd time, the 7 October in Berlin, Maschinenhaus of the Kulturbrauerei.

During the day, about 32 speaker will introduce into current internet political issues and potential solutions. In the evening, the 12th birthday of netzpolitik.org, the leading digital rights medium in Germany, is celebrated with a party in another place, including a reading of comments, an Internet policy quiz, and a deliberate selection of djs.

!Please note: Though many but not all of our talks will be in German, we warmly welcome all international guests, especially in the evening when we are going to celebrate the 12th birthday of netzpolitik.org which will include a deliberate space for networking, digital rights fun, and dancing!

https://12.netzpolitik.org

The conference will start with current debates: Markus Beckedahl, chief editor of netzpolitik.org, will give an overview about current and future challenges of digitization for democratic societies. Anna Biselli, editor of netzpolitik.org, will summarize the proceedings of the Bundestag’s NSA investigation committee (the parliamentary committee concerned with the extent and background of foreign secret services spying in Germany, established March 2014) and will sketch out potential consequences of the ongoing reform of the national secret service, the BND.

Internet Policy Debates amongst the European Union
The member of the European Parliament Julia Reda (Pirate Party) will report on the EU-copyright-reform which just began and which currently includes the proposal for an EU-wide, so-called ancillary copyright for press publishers (German: Leistungsschutzrecht für Presseverleger) concerning even short snippets of news made available by platforms and search engines. Kirsten Fiedler, managing director of the European, non-governmental umbrella organization European Digital Rights (EDRi), will structure the multiplicity of developments related to the EU directive on combating terrorism. She will explain how and why the voluntary cooperation between commercial platforms and security agencies endangers our fundamental civil liberties, and demonstrate its risks for the freedom of expression and privacy. Ingo Dachwitz, editor of netzpolitik.org, will close the panel with an introduction to the new debate concerning the reform of the EU directive on privacy and electronic communications, which surprises by tackling issues like cookies or platform regulation.

With no end in sight: old debates and political progress
Peter Schaar, our former Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI), will critically report on the national implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Good news, on the contrary, will be presented by Thomas Lohninger, managing director of the Austrian NGO AKVorrat und key player of the campaign savetheinternet.eu: Thomas will explain how the new EU net neutrality guidelines protect the open web, and how civil society can and should guard their precise enforcement and interpretation, now. Finally, the famous ‚darknet‘ will be addressed: Dr. Constanze Kurz, editor of netzpolitik.org and spokesperson of the Chaos Computer Club, will present technical innovations improving encryption and the protection of the private sphere which have been developed in the aftermath of the Snowden revelations.

Maximilian Schrems, the Austrian lawyer that complained successfully against Facebook Ireland Ltd., thereby quashing the so-called Safe Harbor Privacy Principles (2015), will report on his ongoing proceedings as well as the Privacy Shield, the new EU-US-agreement regulating the transfer of personal data (2016). A completely new perspective will be given by Volker Gassner, team leader of press and strategic communications at Greenpeace Deutschland, who will introduce to tricks and dodges of the environmental movement, and discuss potential lessons for internet activism.

Further talks will address e.g. international approaches to combat hate speech that are protective to fundamental civil liberties, options and prospects of civic tech, reform proposals regarding the EU directive on the protection of databases, or the potential impact of a content ID for platforms (EU copyright reform).

Workshops will accompany the talks, covering topics such as content moderation, anti-burn-out-strategies, new community-based technologies for broadband access in rural areas, the protection of the public domain, or how to use the Freedom of Information Act to enforce effective law.

https://12.netzpolitik.org/schedule/

Party! Dance for your digital rights!
Having discussed the serious challenges for digital rights, all day, we want to dance for digital rights with you, all night: We are happy to announce the 12th birthday celebration of netzpolitik.org starting at 9pm in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

We will have a beautiful venue for networking and partying, including different floors. We will offer a reading of the latest and best comments collected throughout the year, an internet policy quiz, and a deliberate selection of djs. Participants of the conference will have free admission, the regular admission for new guests will be 6 EUR (and an option for charitable contribution). The exact party venue will be announced later on.

https://12.netzpolitik.org/party/

Tickets for the conference are available for 50 EUR (regular) and 20 EUR (reduced: pupils, students, and unemployed people) which can be bought in advance and on site. A special activist-ticket for 15 EUR is available for people engaged in the protection of digital rights, please e-mail: konferenz@netzpolitik.org.

https://12.netzpolitik.org/anmeldung

The “Das ist Netzpolitik!”-Konferenz is organized by netzpolitik.org and financially supported by Federal Agency for Civic Education, the Chaos Computer Club, and Wikimedia Deutschland.