Coding Rights - Annual Report 2023

Platform and Workshops

Tech Cartographies Map

The Tech Cartographies is a platform to kickstart a debate about technology that goes beyond the field of ‘digital rights’ to encompass the concepts and concerns of feminisms and socio-environmental justice movements. Throughout 2023, the map was presented at RightsCon, in Costa Rica, and at the Global Digital Compact Americas Multistakeholder Consultation held in Mexico, organized by the Mexican and German governments in cooperation with the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology. At the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) at Kyoto, we launched a new interactive online version of the Map, currently available in English and Portuguese. This version was showcased during a Workshop we conducted in partnership with Minha Campinas and Casa de Cultura Fazenda Roseira, in Brazil, with the support of Heinrich Böll Stiftung Brazil.

Access the platform here.

Platform

Why is Artificial Intelligence a feminist issue?

This is the key question of Not My A.I., an ongoing project that seeks to contribute to the development of a feminist toolkit that questions algorithmic decision making systems that are being deployed by the so-called Digital Welfare States. In a partnership of Paz Peña and Joana Varon, and with the support from FIRN - Feminist Internet Research Network - from APC, a series of AI projects that are being deployed by the public sector in Latin America were mapped, and a feminist framework to question these systems was developed. In an attempt to update the research on the implementation of AI in the Brazilian public sector, we submitted a series of FOIA requests to the same 45 federal public entities that we previously consulted in 2022, inquiring about the use of AI systems. With the support of Meedan, the gathered information resulted in the article " Artificial Intelligence: 2023 retrospect and what's to come". Additionally, the Not My AI project provided inputs for discussions and debates at all the events we participated in during 2023.

Access the platform here.

Article

‘The climate change situation is being handled like treating a large, deep cut with a Band-Aid’: An interview with Alana Manchineri

The Branch Magazine published an interview by Joana Varon with Alana Keline, indigenous from the Manchineri indigenous people and communications coordinator at the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations in the Brazilian Amazon - COIAB . The conversation was about topics such as access to the Internet in the Amazon region, big tech exploitation of indigenous knowledge and territories and the struggle against the "Marco Temporal". It also brings many reflections about how addressing climate change depends on protecting indigenous rights and how technology plays a role in it.

Read the interview here.

Seminar

Facial Recognition in Rio de Janeiro: Dialogues and Resistances

Together with legislators, activists, and civil society organizations, we discussed the impacts of the use of these technologies in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro - ALERJ. The seminar was an initiative led by State Deputy Dani Monteiro in partnership with Coding Rights, data_labe, Aqualtune Lab, LabJaca, CESeC, and the campaign "Tire Meu Rosto da Sua Mira" (Take My Face Out of Your Target).

Article

Big Techs in the Financial Sector: The Case of WhatsApp Payment

Article by Joana Varon and Vanessa Koetz in which some results of the research  "Whatsapp pay: The next frontier for the expansion of data monopoly" are discussed. It was originally published in Portuguese in the "Perspectivas e Controvérsias da Inovação Regulatória no Sistema Financeiro de Pagamentos" book, a compilation of articles that offer significant insights into the relationship between technology and the financial system.

Article

Coloniality as an Attempt to Erase Other Ways of Living and Relating to our Bodies and Territories

Written by Joana Varon, this article was published in the book “Resisting Data Colonialism: a practical intervention”, produced by Tierra Comun Network and Institute of Network Cultures.

Research

The Compost Engineers y sus Saberes Lentos

“The Compost engineers and sus saberes lentos” (to be launched) is another research in progress seeking alternatives, led by Joana Varon and Lucía Egaña Rojas. Initiated as a small piece for the Feminist AI Research Network (FAIR), but intended to become a book, it has the goal to flag what is left behind in terms of decolonial imaginaries when we use the term “AI”. A terminology loaded by Hollywood and Silicon Valley industries to historically entail a metallic silver white male-led future. Instead, we propose the figuration of the compost as a reconnection to the land and with ancestral technologies that are regenerative to our territories.

Platform

The Oracle for Transfeminist Technologies

In 2023, we continued to hold a series of workshops using the Oracle: among other meetings, we gathered to play it at the “Gincana Monstra'', organized by the Brazilian Transfeminist Digital Care Network; we also had a play session at the "Platform Cooperativism: what are the possible public policies?" meeting, organized by the National Secretary of Solidarity Economy of the Brazilian Ministry of Labor and Employment. Before that, the Oracle became an interactive installation of the exhibition "Ancestral Protocols and Technologies of Conviviality'' at the “AI: Ancestral Immediacies'' conference held by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt - HKW in Berlin, Germany. Furthermore, a text on the Oracle of Transfeminist Technologies was published in the MIT Press’s book Feminist Designer: On the personal and the political design. The Oracle was used to generate a report speculating on technologies from the perspectives of sex workers in Australia, and also helped the colleagues at NGO Nossas to envision new technologies.
Check the platform here.

Platform

M.A.M.I. Musea

A museum from the future, set in 3021 to exhibit pieces of feminist resistance against different forms of patriarchal violences. The idea for this project emerged in a workshop in Santiago, Chile, with a group of feminists artists and activists and support from Hivos.

Check the platform here.

Article

Facial Recognition: 10 Years of Resistance and Creative Partnerships to Bring the Topic into Public Discourse

For nearly a decade, Coding Rights, alongside other activists, researchers, and organizations, has been analyzing Facial Recognition technologies and sounding the alarm about potential dangers in their implementation. In this article, we bring together some of the initiatives we have promoted or supported to resist and inspire the debate in recent years. The text is currently available in Portuguese.

Article

Between the Past, the Now and the Future – An interview with Joana Varon

Published by Superrr Lab, the interview "Between the Past, Present, and Future" with our executive directress, Joana Varon, is an inspiring conversation with Julia Kloiber on possible futures and technologies based on transfeminist values. Joana shares the story of the Oracle for Transfeminist Technologies, a tool to foster imagination for the development of alternative, transfeminist, and decolonial technologies. The Oracle is a collaborative project created by Joana Varon and Clarote, from Coding Rights and Sasha Costanza-Chock, from Design Justice Network.

Read the interview here.

Article

On envisioning alternative transfeminist futures

The Oracle for Transfeminist Technologies is the central theme of the article "On envisioning alternative transfeminist futures” written by our executive directress, Joana Varon, and published in the MIT book on design and feminism titled " Feminist Designer: On the personal and the political design."

Project

Safersisters

In 2023, we observed an increase in online violence with serious consequences for the people from the global majority. In Brazil, particularly, there have been several cases of deep nudes involving girls, created by their schoolmates, and deep fakes of famous individuals circulating on social media. In other words, there has been an increase of AI-manipulated videos and images that attribute non-existent speech and behaviors to individuals. Therefore, throughout the year, we increased the dissemination of Safersisters gifs, especially episode number 7, a short educational video addressing the differences and how to recognize Deepfakes and Cheap Fakes (published in both English and Portuguese).

Meet the project Safersisters

Network

Transfeminist Network for Digital Care Trainers

Coding Rights continued the engagement with the Transfeminist Network for Digital Care, training Digital Security trainers for rapid responses to attacks; developing project proposals together and adapting methodologies and actions to the pandemic context.

Report series

Quem Paga a Conta

Do you know who profits and who is penalized by the explosion of facial recognition systems for security purposes in Brazil? Alongside Centro de Estudos de Segurança e Cidadania (CESec) and Intercept Brazil, Coding Rights launched the project "Quem Paga a Conta" (Who Pays the Bill), a series of four investigative reports that shed light on how and where this highly biased technology is being implemented in public security activities in the country.

Campaign

Tire Meu Rosto da Sua Mira — Banning facial recognition in public spaces

In 2023, Coding Rights continued to engage in the campaign Tire Meu Rosto da Sua Mira, which advocates for the general ban of Facial Recognition Technologies in the Brazilian public security field, given the evidence of their abusive and non-transparent use. One of the main initiatives of the campaign is the struggle for the suspension of the Smart Sampa’s implementation, a video monitoring and facial recognition program for public security in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Coding Rights and other organizations of the Campaign submitted a representation against the Smart Sampa program to the Audit Court of São Paulo. Several legislative initiatives are currently underway to regulate and prohibit the use of facial recognition technologies in public spaces, such as Municipal Bill No. 419 of 2022. We also brought together legislators, activists, and civil society organizations in the Seminar: Facial Recognition in Rio de Janeiro: Dialogues and Resistances, to discuss this topic at the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro - ALERJ.

Advocacy

Banning facial recognition in public spaces

State Deputy Linda Brasil (PSOL-SE) presented Bill 470/2023 to the Legislative Assembly of Sergipe in November 2023. This bill is one of the outcomes of the #SaiDaMinhaCara initiative, a collaboration with over 50 parliamentarians who introduced bills in 2022 calling for the ban of facial recognition in public spaces, in coordination with civil society organizations and researchers. At that time, Linda Brasil served as a city councilor in Aracaju and submitted a bill addressing mechanisms to restrict certain uses of this technology.

Coalition

Platform Regulation and Misinformation: Engagement at SAD

Coding Rights is part of SAD (Sala de Articulação contra a Desinformação), a network of researchers and activists that monitor far-right groups and narratives in social media channels that threaten elections integrity and pushes for violence against vulnerable groups. During 2023, we had regular meetings for exchanging experiences, research and diagnoses. In April, we released a statement in which highlighted six essential points for the development of a regulatory framework for digital platforms in Brazil. In a new document released in June, SAD synthesized recommendations for platform regulation in Brazil and advocated for the establishment of an independent regulatory institution separate from the government. In December, Coding Rights participated in the last meeting of SAD in 2023 at Bahia, where we discussed the current political scenario and coordinated next steps to promote safer, healthier, and more democratic digital spaces in 2024.