Our grantees have helped put fundamental rights and democratic freedoms at the heart of policymaking on AI. They’ve brought marginalised communities such as migrants, autistic people and sex workers into the debate. And they’re exploring how AI is intersecting in criminal justice, climate, health and more.
As well as offering financial support, we help organisations build networks, gain skills and work collaboratively to drive change.
Issued: Apr 2021|3 years 3 monthsClosed
Foxglove
€200.706 Open call 2020
United Kingdom
Foxglove backed Amazon.com workers in the UK and Germany, getting their stories into the press and challenging algorithmic micromanagement that harms their health. It filed a world-first constitutional challenge in Kenya for Facebook content moderator and whistle-blower Daniel Motaung, and resisted Facebook's threat of criminal contempt with help from a coalition of 80 groups. It also supported disabled people in challenging a secretive UK algorithm that unfairly flags them for benefits fraud.
With this grant, Panoptykon Foundation advocated at both EU and national level to influence political processes in the European Parliament and Polish position in the Council. A survey it commissioned showed that EU citizens backed civil society's arguments on the AI Act, and a new human rights and technology expert joined its team.
Its work influenced the positions of by shadow rapporteurs in European Parliament and the Polish government, and many of its proposed amendments to the AI Act were taken seriously.
Superrr Lab examined the conceptualisation, development and deployment of digital public infrastructure in the fight against Covid-19, paying special attention to the role of digital civil society. They published a “Covid-19 Infrastructure Playbook” to help civil society organisations and governments navigate the ongoing digital transformation, be aware of the risks and opportunities, and act with public interest in mind.
The Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) conducted comprehensive research on how different European contact tracing apps work, what kind of data they collect and process, how efficient these apps are, how transparently they operate, and how the apps can worsen existing social problems.
AlgorithmWatch’s Tracing the Tracers project created a digital platform to continuously monitor and analyse automated decision-making (ADM) systems used in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe and beyond. They highlighted the multitude of devices, tools and solutions tested and adopted despite an absence of evidence of their effectiveness, and often with insufficient democratic debate.
The Ada Lovelace Institute researched the ethical, societal and human rights arguments around vaccination certificates and immunity passports and then proposed a six-point roadmap for “a vaccine passport system that delivers societal benefit”. They advocated for a pause on the roll-out of initiatives until an evidence based, publicly debated, ethical and sustainable approach to vaccine certification could be established that would not further exacerbate the disproportionate impact of the crisis on the most vulnerable.
Tilburg University’s Global Data Justice Project explored technology-led and market-driven “sector transgressions”, analysing how companies from the defence, intelligence and security sectors have pivoted to find new applications in areas such as health and education.
The Balkan Investigate Reporting Network (BIRN) supported ten reporters through its Digital Rights Programme for Journalists, established a Covid-19 Crisis Tech Response live feed to highlight digital abuses and published a comprehensive report on digital rights in the region, with a particular focus on the rise of far right and hate speech online and content removal.
