European Digital Rights (EDRi)
“Stories of resistance and reclaimed future” is a project developed by European Digital Rights (EDRi), the biggest European advocacy group defending human rights and freedoms online. The project revolves around creating and promoting stories featuring elements from different cultures around Europe centred around rights, solidarity and common public values. The collection of stories will support EDRi’s efforts of promoting a world in which people live with dignity and vitality in the digital age.
Market-driven dominant actors such as online platforms rely on personal information to maintain a position of power, and to track, influence and exclude people. This unhealthy and broken technological industry leaves people trapped and vulnerable and contributes to the homogenisation of public discourse and the spread of disinformation. This storytelling project hopes to counter a narrative and reality around the huge power imbalance between those creating and deploying the technology, and those impacted by it.
These fictional stories would show a glimpse into what our collective futures could look like by reimagining and reinforcing alternatives to the current Big Tech model or oppressive state deployment that emphasises challenging power imbalances and showcasing healthy alternatives. The stories aim to enable EDRi’s vision of change by activating public mobilisation, and contributing to advocacy and coalition building efforts.
Storytelling will address incentives that make disinformation profitable and promote alternative, imagined futures of solidarity. The set of speculative utopian stories we are developing is inspired by real–life cases reflecting the lived experiences and grassroots activism of those who have been excluded, oppressed and marginalised in the digital era. The stories will be using elements from different cultures across Europe and the choice of topics for the stories will reflect the foundational pillars of an open and inclusive democracy: media freedom, civil rights and liberties, elections, racial, social justice and a healthy civil society landscape.
EDRi’s network of 45 civil rights organisations, observers, affiliates and individuals based across EU countries (and beyond) will amplify dissemination efforts by promoting the stories at a national level and via translations to other European languages.
EDRi will also publish a booklet with stories (in English) complemented by illustrations and record an audio series.
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