Taking Action
Digital technologies and platforms can be useful tools to promote justice. As you have discovered in this session, they can also be used as weapons to commit crimes, harm people, cause destruction, destabilize democracy, and oppress groups of people. Now it is the time to learn how you and your organization can act to help prevent the weaponization of digital resources.
Side Quests
The interactive Side Quests below will help you explore these topics in greater depth- and have a bit of fun along the way.
Bad News Game
Bad News is an interactive game that lets players take on the role of a fake news mogul, using manipulative tactics to gain followers and build credibility while avoiding obvious lies that could expose them.
Designed as a media literacy tool, the game helps players recognize misinformation techniques, thus serving as a psychological “vaccine” against online manipulation. Research has shown that the game improves people’s ability to spot and resist disinformation.
(Source: Developed by Tilt and the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab, Bad News is used in educational settings to enhance critical thinking about digital media.)
Space Shelter
Space Shelter is another interactive web-based game, designed to educate players on essential online security practices. In this game, players assume the role of astronauts navigating their spacecraft toward the Space Shelter.
Throughout the journey, players take actions aimed at enhancing digital safety skills, like creating strong passwords, implementing multi-factor authentication, and identifying phishing attempts.
(Source: Space Shelter was developed by Google in collaboration with Euroconsumers, a private independent multinational corporation that defends consumer interests.)
Deepfake Detector
Detecting deepfakes (highly realistic AI-generated content) is going to become more and more difficult, even for the most digitally savvy among us.
Tools like Deepware Deepfake Detector can help you navigate AI-generated online content. The website offers an easy-to-use scanner, to help you analyze the content you come across online.
The site also provides a good knowledge base about AI and deepfakes to help you learn more about how they are made.
(Source: Deepware.ai is a cybersecurity company specializing in detecting deepfake videos through their primary tool, Deepware Scanner, which identifies AI-generated synthetic media.)
Tools You Can Use
Learning about how digital devices and tools can be used for bad things is a great first step – but you want to see real change. Here are some advocacy tips and tools that you can use or adapt for your context to take your digital justice efforts to the next level.
This article gives activists practical recommendations to enhance digital security, including using password managers, secure email services like Proton Mail, encrypted messaging apps such as Signal, and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to protect online communications.
(Source: The Commons Social Change Library, an Australian-based online resource dedicated to providing educational materials on activism, campaigning, and organizing to bolster the effectiveness of social movements.)
AI and Online Harassment
The Data Detox kit includes guides on digital topics. This guide explores how AI can make online harassment far worse through the creation and dissemination of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), almost always of women.
(Source: Tactical Tech, an “international non-profit organization working at the intersection of technology, human rights, and civil liberties.”)
The Defense AI Observatory (DAIO) at Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg studies the military use of artificial intelligence. It focuses on innovation, conflict dynamics, and defence industry trends. Its research spans military culture and transformation, AI’s role in conflicts, and the impact of emerging technologies on defence ecosystems.
(Source: Helmut Schmidt University, a German military research university.)
Congratulations
You’ve done it! This is the last part of this session in Just Digital Level 2: Taking Control, Making a Difference.
Together we are working to ensure that digitalization is a force for good in the world. Thank you for joining us along the way! Click the button below to finish this session and head to Session 8, “Big Brother is Watching.”