EDRi is the biggest European network defending rights and freedoms online. The EDRi network is a dynamic and resilient collective of 50+ NGOs, as well as experts, advocates and academics working to defend and advance digital rights across Europe and beyond.
With this grant, EDRi will continue working to put rights and justice at the heart of AI laws and policies. It will challenge the unchecked growth of AI and push for governance that puts people, the planet and democracy first.
Through its civil society AI coordination group, it will monitor how the AI Act is enforced in EU Member States and use complaints and strategic litigation to redress harm. It will also expand its work beyond the AI Act, raising awareness of AI's environmental impact, building a stronger critique of generative AI, and continuing to co-lead the Protect Not Surveil coalition against the use of experimental AI on minoritised communities.
With continued support, EDRi pushed for an EU AI Act implementation centred on justice and human rights, improving collaboration across civil society and exploring enforcement at national level. It also explored initiatives on AI harms the Act does not sufficiently cover, such as environmental impact, public service digitalisation, worker surveillance, policing and migration. The grant helped sustain coalition efforts to represent civil society in AI regulation in Europe and beyond.
This grant supported EDRi's AI Act advocacy and its coalition-building, and let EDRi give financial support to members and partners in the EU AI Act coalition, and commission new research on AI and bias. EDRi's push for a fundamental rights-based approach strongly influenced the European Parliament's position and won many safeguards in the final AI Act, including partial bans on biometric recognition and emotion recognition technologies.
