Digital Colonialism and Palestinian Resistance

In the context of settler-colonialism, the Internet, once celebrated as a force for liberation, becomes a site of digital authoritarianism. Palestinian activists and communities have been exercising resilience both on the ground and in cyberspace in the face of Israel’s settler-colonial project, which systematically aims to obliterate all forms of Palestinian life and being. The Internet, as a globally governed space, has become a refuge for Palestinians to politically organise, narrate their stories, and resist. Palestinian digital activism was met with censorship, algorithmic bias and discrimination, and invasive surveillance, turning these safe and free pockets of online space into a battleground for narratives and presence. In this lecture, we will discuss Israel’s attempts to occupy and colonize Palestinian online space, forms of censorship and control, and Israel’s military industrial complex. We will also discuss ways of Palestinian resistance against these forms of digital repression, and how we can re-imagine and re-claim the short-lived story of the Internet as a free and safe space for liberation.

Marwa Fatafta (she/her) is a feminist killjoy, a painter, and a chocolate addict. She leads Access Now’s work on digital rights in the Middle East and North Africa region as the MENA Policy Manager, and serves as an advisory board member of the Palestinian digital rights organization 7amleh, and a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka. Before joining Access Now, Marwa worked as the MENA Regional Advisor at Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin, Germany, and coordinated regional and global efforts to mainstream gender into anti-corruption policies and norms. She was a Fulbright scholar to the U.S.A., and holds an MA in International Relations from Syracuse University, New York, U.S.A., and an MA in Development and Governance from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

This lecture is part of the Coding Resistance lecture series:

September 24, 2021 | 3 pm CEST
Outing and Outsmarting Discriminating Algorithms
with Nakeema Stefflbauer

October 01, 2021 | 3 pm CEST
Back to the Future of the African Village
with Minna Salami

October 08, 2021 | 3 pm CEST
Gender and Technology Beyond W.E.I.R.D.
with Maryam Mustafa

October 15, 2021 | 3 pm CEST
Glimmering Opacities: From Queering The Map to QT.bot
with Lucas LaRochelle

October 22, 2021 | 3 pm CEST
Emancipation Through the Virtual
with Iyo Bisseck

October 30, 2021 | 4 pm CEST
Make Time to Take Time
with Morehshin Allahyari

November 05, 2021 | 3 pm CEST
Interdependence as a Political Technology
with Aimi Hamraie

November 12, 2021 | 3 pm CEST
Digital Colonialism and Palestinian Resistance
with Marwa Fatafta

November 19, 2021 | 6 pm CEST
Towards Justice, Equity and Accountability in AI
with Timnit Gebru