Decolonising Data

During its Annual Strategy Meeting 2021, DFF hosted a panel on Decolonising Data, as part of the broader decolonising process led by DFF and its partner European Digital Rights (EDRi).

The panel took place on 17 February 2021 at 18.00 CET and can be viewed below.

The “digital age” has brought great innovation, opportunity and connectivity. Nonetheless, a closer look at how data-driven technologies are built, used and maintained exposes how technology can reproduce colonial paradigms of oppression, domination and harm.

This session takes a critical look at how data infrastructures centralise power while dispossessing and disenfranchising certain groups and communities. The session also explores strategies that can be adopted by activists and organisations to push and fight for the decolonisation of data and broader infrastructures.

Moderator: Sarah Chander, Senior Policy Advisor, EDRi

Sarah leads EDRi's policy work on AI and non-discrimination with respect to digital rights. She is interested in building thoughtful, resilient movements and she looks to make links between the digital and other social justice movements.

Evin Incir MEP

Evin Incir is a Member of the European Parliament since 2019 and is serving on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Development and Committee on Foreign affairs. In addition to her committee assignments, Incir is part of the Parliament’s delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, the European Parliament’s Rapporteur in charge of the relations with Palestine and a member of the lgbti intergroup. She is also a co-president of the European Parliament Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup (ARDI). The ARDI exists to promote racial equality, counter racism, and educate about non-discrimination in the work of the European Parliament.

Gracie Mae Bradley

Gracie Mae Bradley is a policy expert, writer and campaigner with expertise in civil liberties, state racism and surveillance. She was appointed Interim Director of Liberty in October 2020. She first joined Liberty in 2017 as a Policy and Campaigns Officer leading work at the intersection of tech and human rights, and subsequently spent two years co-leading the Policy and Campaigns team and advocacy across policing, counter-terror, and migration. Her career has spanned a broad range of research, policy and casework roles in the UK NGO sector, including at Room to Heal, Freedom from Torture, the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law, and Migrants’ Rights Network.

Dr Irene Fubara-Manuel

Dr Irene Fubara-Manuel is a Lecturer at the University of Sussex. They are a Brighton-based media artist and academic working in animation, game design, and installation art. Their most recent works include a doctoral research project on biometric surveillance, its colonial histories and its contemporary applications in migration. Their artworks include an animated video that traverses through the biometric border — Dreams of Disguise (2018) — and a sequel walking simulator video game — Dreams of Disguise: Errantry (2018). They are interested in Black and African technofutures, with a focus on radical possibilities.

Yaseen Aslam

When Yaseen was made redundant from his IT job in 2006, he turned to the driving industry working as a private hire driver in London while he looked for another IT job. However he stayed in the trade and was one of the few drivers who worked for Uber when they launched in London in 2013. He first started organising drivers in 2014, which led to the first case in the UK against the gig economy in 2015 for the worker right in Aslam Vs Uber. Yaseen is currently the elected president for App Drivers & Couriers Union and is involved with drivers organizing in 23 different countries in his role on International Alliance of App-based Transport Workers.