Speakers
Dialogues & Debates is MozFest’s space for fiery keynote talks and compelling panel discussions.
2019 Speakers
The MozFest speaker series, “Dialogues & Debates,” will unfold across Saturday, October 26 and Sunday, October 27.
The program features TED-style talks and compelling panels about the intersection of the internet and society. Speakers are engineers, researchers, lawmakers, and activists from Kenya, Poland, the U.S., and beyond.
Solo talks run 20 minutes, and panels run 40 minutes. This year’s moderator is technology journalist Xavier Harding, reporter at The Markup.
TALK: On Data and Exploitation
Saturday, October 26, 11:15–12:15 time block
Katarzyna Szymielewicz
@szymielewicz
Katarzyna Szymielewicz is a lawyer and activist specializing in human rights and technology. She is Co-Founder and President of Panoptykon Foundation, a Polish NGO defending human rights in today’s surveillance society.
PANEL: The Algorithmic Gaze
Saturday, October 26, 11:15–12:15 time block
Algorithms spread bias at gigabit speeds. What does this mean for society? And who can fix it?
Safiya Noble
@safiyanoble
Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California and author of “Algorithms of Oppression”
Guillaume Chaslot
@gchaslot
Founder of AlgoTransparency, former software engineer at Google/YouTube, and Mozilla Fellow
Francesca Bria
@francesca_bria
Francesca Bria is Chief Technology and Digital Innovation Officer of Barcelona, and Founder of the Decode Project.
PANEL: Great Code, Great Responsibility
Saturday, Oct. 26 during the 12:45–13:45 time block
How do we fix the internet? Teach the next generation of coders ethics right alongside computer science
Kathy Pham
@kathytpham
Computer scientist and Mozilla Fellow co-leading the Responsible Computer Science Challenge. Kathy teaches Product Management and Society at the Harvard Kennedy School, co-leads the Ethical Tech Working Group at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center, and founded the Ethical Tech Collective.
Marietje Schaake
@MarietjeSchaake
Marietje Schaake is a Dutch lawmaker who served as a Member of European Parliament from 2009 to 2019. The Wall Street Journal dubbed her “Europe’s most wired politician.”
PANEL: The Future of Disinformation
Saturday, Oct. 26 during the 15:15–16:15 time block
What will fake content look like in five years? In 10?
TALK: On Litigating for Digital Rights
Sunday, Oct. 27 during the 11:00–12:00 time block
Courts have played an essential role in protecting and promoting human rights over the years — we can see this in groundbreaking judgments from equal marriage and abortion to freedom from torture and the right to protest. Judicial precedent can be an effective means of obtaining change for the better in policy, law and practice, and can empower minorities and others under-represented in the political system to vindicate their rights.
As our lives are increasingly playing out in online and digital spaces, we are seeing an erosion of many of our human rights, including our rights to privacy, free speech, and freedom from discrimination. We need the courts as much as ever to protect our rights in these new and evolving contexts. What are the opportunities that lie in strategic litigation in the digital age, and how can court cases shape and safeguard our digital futures?
Nani Jansen Reventlow
@interwebznani
Nani Jansen Reventlow is the Founding Director of the Digital Freedom Fund, which supports partners in Europe to advance digital rights through strategic litigation. She is a recognised international lawyer and expert in human rights litigation responsible for groundbreaking freedom of expression cases across several national and international jurisdictions.
PANEL: Content Moderation’s Toll
Sunday, Oct. 27 during the 11:00–12:00 time block
A hidden workforce tries to keep platforms free from violence and pornography. How do they cope?
Hans Block
Director of “The Cleaners”
Moritz Riesewieck
Director of “The Cleaners”
PANEL: Governing AI
Sunday, Oct. 27 during the 12:45–13:45 time block
How do we create policies that keep companies accountable and enshrine human rights in automated systems?
Gry Hasselbalch
@mediamocracy
Co-Founder of the think-do tank DataEthics.eu. Gry is a member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on AI and was a member of the data ethics expert group appointed to provide the Danish government with recommendations in 2018. Gry is also co-chair of the IEEE P7006 standard on personal data AI agents
Fanny Hidvegi
@infofannny
Access Now’s Europe Policy Manager based in Brussels. Fanny is appointed to the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, serves on the board of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), and is a Marshall Memorial Fellow.
Matthias Spielkamp
@spielkamp
Co-Founder and Executive Director of AlgorithmWatch, and an award-winning journalist
PANEL: The Future of Digital Policy in Europe
Sunday, Oct. 27 during the 15:15–16:15 time block
What comes after the GDPR?
Guillermo Beltrà
@gbeltra
Guillermo Beltrà leads Access Now’s policy team globally, providing strategic vision, guiding and coordinating the operations of experts in Latin America, North America, Europe, Middle East and North Africa, and Asia-Pacific.
Xavier Harding
@iamxavier
Xavier Harding is from New York City and started his journalism career at International Business Times/Newsweek as a tech and gaming reporter. From there he went onto Popular Science. As tech editor of Popular Science’s Now section, he continued to write about gadgets and the companies that make them, both in print and on the web. After Popular Science came Mic, where he was able to write culture stories pertaining to race/inclusion, the tech industry and user privacy online. Now Xavier writes for The Markup, where he focuses on user privacy and the tech industry’s larger effect on society.