Let’s Hear from the Experts
This part of the session introduces you to some expert content to further your understanding of the technology behind digital marginalization. The case study illustrates how communities are choosing to say “no thanks” to the seemingly inevitable advance of digital technologies.
Case Study
The Indigenous women who are rewriting the rules of technology
Who: The Cabécar women of Alto Pacuare, Costa Rica, led by the Alto Pacuare Cabécares Women’s Association, in partnership with the Sulá Batsú cooperative. The association, formed nearly a decade ago, now includes 30 women elders and leaders. Together, they guide community life and preserve traditions in a matrilineal culture where women hold decision-making power.
When: The project began in 2018. A major step forward was taken in 2022 with the Local Networks initiative: The Women’s Antenna in the Cabécar Territory of Alto Pacuare. Their story was first shared at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in November 2023.
What: A communications network rooted in Cabécar priorities. So far, this includes a walkie-talkie system to connect homes spread across extensive mountain terrain; a women’s house, Jutzini, that serves as the base for this radio system; and a local server hosting a platform in the Cabécar language. This platform holds ancestral knowledge, natural medicine, and spiritual teachings. The aim is to strengthen women’s voices while safeguarding their culture.
Where: The Alto Pacuare region of Costa Rica, a remote mountain community of around 800 people, where homes can be as much as a two days’ walk apart.
Why: The women were faced by the inevitable arrival of the internet or what they call “technologies of the white man.” They wanted to understand its risks and benefits before deciding what was best for their communities and culture. They were troubled by the potential theft of ancestral knowledge and the imposition of digital tools in colonial languages (such as Spanish and English).
How: Through a partnership between Sulá Batsú and the Women’s Association, the project used contextual teaching to explain how the internet works. It provided hands-on leadership where women were responsible for all key decisions and offered periods of community reflection where everyone was able to reflect on how the “technologies of the white man” could change their lives.
Source: Association for Progressive Communications, is a network of 73 organizational members working to mobilise communication networks for social justice and development.
Expert Input
How does AI marginalize people?
Stanford University alum and co-founder of Black in AI, Timnit Gebru breaks down how artificial intelligence is quietly shaping decisions and reinforcing bias in ways we rarely notice. This talk pre-dates the rise of ChatGPT and illustrates how AI was at work long before we were aware of it.
Gebru was the co-leader of the Google’s ethical AI research team. She is now with the Distributed AI Research Institute, which she co-founded following her dismissal from Google.
She talks about the social consequences of machine learning and automation, and why accountability is necessary and urgent.
Source: An independently organized TEDx conference at College Park, Maryland, USA, in 2018.
Can AI save Indigenous languages?
By 2050, only about 20 Indigenous languages may remain in the United States. Robotics educator Danielle Boyer (Anishinaabe, Sioux Tribe) explains why Big Tech’s AI models often get it wrong, and how colonization and exploitation still shape language loss.
She also discusses why community-led, ethical innovations like her “Skobot” robots may offer a better path forward than technology companies buying up the rights to Indigenous languages. Such solutions may better protect living culture and prevent languages from dying out.
Source: Al Jazeera is a media outlet partly owned by the Qatari government.
Break Time
Time for a well-deserved break! Do you have a clearer sense of the challenges facing marginalized people online? Do you also see opportunities for the formation of community? Do you feel hopeful about the power of digital technologies? Or are your doubts speaking up loud and clear? Either way, it’s time to take a break and reflect on your unique experience of the topics we’ ‘ve been discussing here.
- How can we help ensure that the introduction of new digital technologies and platforms strengthens, not weakens, minority or marginalized cultures?
- Who should be included in the design, ownership, and oversight of digital technologies?
- In the online spaces in which you participate, who is most visible? Who is missing or silent?
Have you gathered your thoughts? Noted your questions?
Then let’s keep going. Click on the button below to head toward the final part of this session.