Bits of Freedom is pleased to announce that Evelyn Austin will be the new director of Bits of Freedom, starting September 23rd. Evelyn has played a key role in the Bits of Freedom team over the past couple of years.

As Bits of Freedom’s ‘movement builder’ Evelyn has led important projects and has secured funding to make them happen. Among other things, she was responsible for the last three editions of the Big Brother Awards, she produced and hosted our Insert User podcast, and last year she secured a presence for Bits of Freedom at all fourteen Dutch Liberation Day Festivals. In addition, she has made the news multiple times, working on our freedom of communication dossier. She demanded attention for the completely arbitrary way in which YouTube blocks the accountWomen on Waves’ three YouTube suspensions this year show yet again that we can’t let internet companies police our speech of Dutch women’s rights organization Women on Waves, and proved that Facebook lied to the Dutch ParliamentFacebook lies to Dutch Parliament about election manipulation about their efforts to fight election manipulation. Because of her initiative, the group of regular Bits of Freedom volunteers has skyrocketed (now 750 strong) and our first local chapters were launched.

Until now, Evelyn was the business and shared creative lead of The HmmThe Hmm's website, a successful platform for contemporary visual culture. She is also a member of the advisory board for the Grant Programme for Digital CultureRead more about the Grant Programme for Digital Culture of the Stimuleringsfonds. Before her time at Bits of Freedom, she was a curator and Head of Communications for MediamaticMediamatic.net, an institute researching the relationship between art, society and new technologies. She was also an editor for the academic journal KunstlichtTijdschriftkunstlicht.nl/.

With Evelyn, the board has found the ideal successor for Hans de Zwart, who has successfully led the organization for the past six years. Together with the current and past team, and with our volunteers and broader movement, we have had many successes during his tenure. The open recruitment process for Hans’ succession was started at the beginning of the year and was recently finalized. We had multiple very strong candidates for the role. It was Evelyn’s strong vision, financial insight, and her heart for personnel issues, that convinced us that she is the right person for the organization. Hans will stay on until the 1st of January 2020 to facilitate a smooth handover. We wish Evelyn much luck and look forward to our collaboration.