Hi <<First Name>>, 

I hope you are all taking the time to look after your wellbeing and draw inspiration from the positive work countless people are undertaking to drive lasting positive change. Yesterday lunchtime, we held an online tech for good community hangout to hear what you are all up to. It was really encouraging to see the various ingenious ways that people are using tech to stand up to the challenges of today. Here are the crowdsourced notes. 
 

Take care,

Will (Tech for Good Global Team)

What’s happened in the world of tech for good since our last newsletter

You can’t see me: to challenge tech-enabled systemic racism, we can support the resistance against facial recognition technology 👁️

Facial recognition technology has, over the past 12 months, gained a foothold in police forces around the world. Whilst their spread caused dismay, the black lives matter protests have drawn attention to how deeply problematic facial recognition technology is, explained here by the Algorithmic Justice League. Leaders in facial recognition such as Microsoft, Amazon and IBM opted to pause their provision and development of these technologies in response to the backlash. Their action aligns with concerns by politicians over the access police forces have to face-matching tools, as well as city-wide bans in places such as San Francisco. To learn more about the details and issues surrounding facial recognition technology, check out this clarifying report by the Ada Lovelace Institute. 

There are concerns, however, that this is far from the end of the road for facial recognition. The controversial technology remains lucrative, and large contracts - such as the continent-wide Idemia<>EU deal - continue to be handed out. To challenge the rise of facial recognition technology, we can learn from activists such as Hamid Khan, who is fighting to dismantle racist policing algorithms in Los Angeles. We can also call out publicity stunts and double standards around facial recognition by the likes of Amazon. This subject also forms part of broader discussions on how big tech perpetuates racism, how to amplify the voices of black tech leaders calling for systemic change, and how we can abolish ‘Jim Code’ - tech that implicitly upholds white supremacy - and strive for racial equity through tech. 

Tik Tok and tear gas: social media and mass mobilisation in 2020 🤳

Since Zeynep Tufekci published Twitter and Tear Gas in 2017, the role of social media in protests has already evolved a lot (today it may have even been Tik Tok and tear gas). Modern social platforms are the latest medium in a long history of technology being used to document oppression.

Developments over the past few weeks include:

• Incumbent social media giants don’t do enough to protect the privacy of protesters, hence apps such as Signal are growing through the provision of built-in face blurring functionality.

• Citizen looks to be the unofficial app of the protests, but it is unclear whether it is keeping protestors safe or stoking their fears.

• Google Docs became the collaborative chalkboard of the resistance. 

• Formerly fringe ideas, such as defunding the police, have been fast-tracked to the mainstream through social platforms (you can see it happen real-time with a journalist on this Twitter thread), which is enriching the policy debate about police reform. 

• Tik Tok arrived on the scene, and it brings a visual immediacy to the protests.

• Twitter is growing faster than ever before, and it is breaking news and shaping narratives well before legacy media, it is also working to stop the spread of disinformation by prompting you to read articles before retweeting them.

• As we explored last week, platforms such as Twitter and Snapchat are reigning in the US President’s less truthful claims. There is a growing sentiment that free speech does not equal free reach. Facebook remains fairly obstinate in not holding inflammatory misinformation to account. It has budged slightly by suggesting it will review certain posts. However, it’s ‘free speech’ defence is looking increasingly flimsy as it has recently been caught deactivating the accounts of 60 high-profile Tunisian activists. The love-hate relationship between Donald Trump and social media platforms continues to intensify - here’s the story in full.

• Zoom has suspended the accounts of US-based Chinese activists for commemorating Tiananmen Square protests.

• K-pop for good. K-pop fans have become celebrated online vigilantes by flooding anti-protest activity with pictures of their favourite bands 🇰🇷
   

US Antitrust charges may be in the pipeline for Google. Prosecutors are finally looking to challenge Google’s monopoly in digital advertising and its concomitant data infrastructure. The EU Commission is also re-opening consultations on levelling the playing field in digital services. Google has survived several similar efforts through an overwhelmingly powerful lobbying infrastructure, argues Rana Foroohar in ‘Don’t Be Evil’. The hegemony of Google is not total, however, privacy-protecting engines such as DuckDuckGo continue to provide an alternative, here’s how they work.
 

Elsewhere in tech for good 🔭

• An open call to use technology to build more resilient post-COVID health systems, by ThinkWell. 

• YSYS set out the different ways you can champion diversity and inclusion in the tech startup world.

• Want a step-by-step guide to lowering your carbon footprint? Check Giki Zero, a great tool to assess, track and improve your impact 👣 

• The Big Data for Migration Alliance has launched.

• One way to strive for diversity in the tech industry is to take matters into your own hands. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has stepped down and asked to be replaced by a black candidate. 

• The climate crisis is still ongoing and clean energy tech needs re-invigorating, this also means shining a light on what tech firms mean when they say carbon neutral. 

• Despite a moratorium on facial recognition technology, Amazon is still not your friend. Here’s how you can break free during lockdown. 

• Tech for good tools are a lifeline for self-isolating elderly people.

• Crisis events demand decision-making networks that are dynamic, not static, and respond to frequent feedback. Here’s how governments can make use of remote collective intelligence tools for decision making.

• Just published: An Introduction to Ethics in Robotics and AI.

📣 Opportunities 📣

• Applications are open for BGV’s flagship tech for good programme. They offer £30k investment and a 12-week intensive support programme 🚀 (Jun 21st).
• Nominations are open for the Tech 4 Good Awards - get your applications in by June 30th. 
• Tech Nation launched Net Zero, a programme providing support to tech companies paving the way to carbon neutrality (July 20). 
• The Resourcing Racial Justice fund is providing financial support to people working to redress the impact of COVID-19 on those who identify as People of Colour (June 15).
• DFID is providing up to £200,000 in grants for digital health solutions that build resilience in global health systems (June 18). 
• Team 4 Tech are looking to provide nonprofit tech for good partners with $15k grants (June 30).
• CAST opened applications for grant funding and 12 week support programme for charities and not-for-profits to explore digital service delivery challenges (Jun 22)
• Solve MIT opened a series of challenges addressing global problems, up to $1m available in prize funding. Include a challenge on how to beat pandemics (Jun 18). They have also opened applications for their $5m Elevate Prize (Jun 29). 
• Data.org launched a $10 million Inclusive Growth and Recovery Challenge (Jul 17).

What’s going on? 📅

Check out the tech for good near you map. 

• Join a Webinar by HustleCrew on how to navigate race discussions in your role (June 15).
• Remote Yoga platform Breathe Happy is hosting an expert discussion on how to take care of your wellbeing in a world post-COVID (June 20).
• The first global virtual conference about FemTech will take place on June 25th. 
• Digital Agenda is hosting the 2020 Impact Awards online  on June 17th. 
• Tech for Good Live are hosting a Digital Trustees Meetup on June 24th. 

Reply here to let us know what’s going on in your corner of the tech for good community. We’ll make sure to add your tech for good events onto the list.

Working in tech for good 💼

• Second Nature is hiring a Senior Product Designer, an Associate Product Manager and a Dietician (all rolling)
• Tech Nation is looking for a Head of Commercial (rolling).
• Language-learning platform Chatterbox is hiring a UI/UX Freelance designer and up to 50 French-speaking refugees (rolling).
• Earwig - a worker voice platform empowering tradespeople to own their work culture - is hiring a CTO/Tech Co-founder (rolling).  
• Organise - a workplace campaigning startup - is hiring a software engineer (rolling).
• Lingua 54, an online platform set up to preserve and promote African languages, culture and history, is hiring a Growth Hacker/Marketing Manager (rolling).
• NextDayBetter is looking to fill five communications and design roles (all rolling).
• My Society is hiring an Account Manager (June 15)
• Samaritans are looking for two Data Scientists to help them ascertain insights to better support people (Jun 17)

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