Together with 39 European civil society organizations, we are organizing the Tech and Society Summit in Brussels on October 1st. This event will facilitate conversations between (newly elected) European policymakers and digital civil rights experts. The topics of the event include technology, society and environment.

 

Why?

Last June, the European elections took place. The newly elected MEPs are the ones that get to decide on European policies in the coming years in Brussels, including laws about technology. In recent years, a significant part of the legislation that Bits of Freedom works on came from the EU. Our privacy law, the GDPR (AVG in Dutch), is a European law, but so are the AI Act and the new platform regulations DSA and DMA. You get the point: European policymakers are of great importance when it comes to protecting our digital civil rights.

That is why we find it important that the (new) policymaker gets to know us, our partner organizations but most importantly the issues we are working on, at the beginning of their term. They are the ones who get to decide on them, so it is good if they know about the current challenges and of course the solutions we come up with. The event is invitation only. If you have not received an invitation but would still like to attend, please email us at info@bitsoffreedom.nl.

Program

During the Tech and Society summit, EDRi facilitates panels, round tables and networking opportunities with partner organizations (including us). In addition to policy makers, panels are filled with civil society, academics and other authorities in our field. There are a number of topics on which sessions are organized. We co-organize the sessions "Limiting Big Tech power" and "From broken by design to building a better internet from the ground up". These topics are a great fit to the work we will be doing in the coming year. There are also sessions on topics such as the impact of technology on climate, the European legislative process and security.

The most up-to-date information about the event can be found on the EDRi websitecheck out EDRis website