Meredith Whittaker of Signal, disinformation expert Camille François to speak at Social Good Summit 2024
MANILA, Philippines – Two international experts on harms posed by big tech and ways to protect democracies from such dangers are joining Rappler’s Social Good Summit 2024 on October 19.
Meredith Whittaker, president of The Signal Foundation, and Camille François, co-lead of the AI and Democracy Innovation Lab at Columbia University, will be part of a panel on “Tech and Its Harms” at the summit.
Both will be joining virtually. The summit will be held in-person at De La Salle University Manila.
Rappler CEO and 2021 Nobel laureate Maria Ressa will moderate the panel discussion.
Whittaker is a longtime advocate of privacy protections and encryption, a cause she champions every day as president of The Signal Foundation, a nonprofit which developed secure messaging app Signal.
She first became known for co-organizing the so-called Google walkouts, in which 20,000 employees of the search engine giant protested the company’s stance on state surveillance and how it dealt with sexual harassment cases.
Since then, she has testified in US congressional hearings, advised federal government agencies, and taught in universities. She has long defended encryption as “deeply threatening” to regimes that use information and surveillance to wield power against ordinary citizens and users.
Amid the rush to adopt generative artificial intelligence, the Signal app has resisted, believing it goes against their primary mission to protect the privacy of its users and enable secure communications.
Camille François has spent years researching digital disinformation and the harms it poses to individuals and societies. She was formerly chief innovation officer at Graphika, an American social network analysis company that has done groundbreaking work on tracking online disinformation, including the phenomenon of “patriotic trolling.”
She is known for her work on cybersecurity and building research and safety teams. Most recently, she headed the trust and safety team of Niantic Labs, the augmented reality and gaming company behind Pokemon Go.
François, an associate professor of practice at Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics (IGP), also co-leads its AI & Democracy Innovation Lab with Rappler’s Ressa.
The lab was established to address the challenges and dangers posed by AI to democracies, through research, roundtables, and consultations.
A summit for solutions
Whittaker and François will bring their international perspective to a summit full of critical voices and expertise steeped in the Philippine context.
Other speakers at the summit include Education Secretary Sonny Angara; Maria Mercedes Rodrigo, an expert on AI in education; Save The Children Philippines CEO Alberto Muyot; Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte; Muntinlupa Mayor Ruffy Biazon; Isabela City Mayor Sitti Hataman; Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong; Commission on Elections chairperson George Garcia; Office of Civil Defense administrator Ariel Nepomuceno, and more.
While coming from various sectors and fields, all will come together at the Social Good Summit to discuss how technology can be used to address some of the country’s, and the world’s, most pressing problems.
Front and center are the challenges in the education sector, local governance, quality of life, climate resilience and disaster management, disinformation in the time of elections, and more.
Rappler will also be launching its 2025 election coverage and related collaborations during the summit.
Interested in attending? Tickets can be purchased here.
Those also interested in Rappler’s exclusive membership program, Rappler+, can get a free Social Good Summit ticket if they subscribe for an annual membership any time from September 8 to October 8. – Rappler.com