Arise Gobal South

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We are ARISE

ARISE (Accountability and Responsibility in South’s Ecosystems) is a community space for sharing knowledge, building bonds of solidarity, and a laboratory of ideas from the Global South to counter strategies of global and dominant technology actors that seek to evade platform responsibility in our countries. This is essential in the moment when many technologies exacerbate planetary crises, urgently demanding trans-regional, cooperative action. 

ARISE’s Vision

ARISE believes in the power of collective reflection and action to create digital environments and standards that meet the human rights and social justice needs of diverse communities in the Global South.

Why do we need ARISE?

ARISE seeks to create an intentional space to analyze and respond to common strategies that the main technological actors use to evade responsibility and accountability in the Global South. Tapping into the group’s collective tech and policy expertise, cultural competencies, and geographic representation, ARISE focuses mainly on designing concerted actions that, in the short term, minimize the damage and, in the long term, result in concrete changes to the structural inequality in the digital ecosystem of our countries. ARISE is also a space for building and strengthening Global South solidarity in the face of rising repression and polarization, and for exchanging knowledge and tips on countering platforms and learning from each other.

Our Members

The current membership of ARISE comprises organisations that participated in the research initiative which culminated in the ARISE Retreat, held in Naivasha, Kenya, in January 2024. Diversity is a foundational principle of ARISE and a source of its value. The 50 member organizations represent a broad spectrum of countries and communities across the Global South, including Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, West Asia, North Africa, and Asia. The membership reflects a wide range of thematic areas and domains of expertise, including, inter alia:

  1. Digital rights
  2. LGBTQI rights
  3. Women’s rights
  4. Consumer rights
  5. Labor and gig economy workers
  6. Protection of human rights defenders
  7. Disinformation
  8. Artificial intelligence

What are the ARISE goals to reach its vision?

The objectives pursued by ARISE as a community space are threefold and interrelated.

Goal 1: Sharing knowledge in concrete and systematic ways.

Due to the structural inequality that exists between North and South, there has been little space to share, systematize, and adequately reflect on information regarding the strategies of both the platforms and Global South organizations working to hold them to account. Likewise, this lack of knowledge makes coordinated collective work difficult. ARISE is committed to creating different spaces and formats to share and systematize this information-sharing.

Goal 2: Developing our own narratives.

The problem of unequal power in accountability is manifested in the first place by how the narratives from the Global North dominate conversations about platform accountability. ARISE believes in seeking strategies to bring our own stories, words, diverse realities and perspectives to the national, regional, and global public opinion.

Goal 3: Develop and formulate strategies and solutions for the current lack of accountability of technology platforms that respond to the needs of the Global South.

Given the scale of harms, biases and double standards with which platforms operate in the countries and regions of the Global South, Global South-led solutions and strategies that are creative and tailored to specific regions or communities are essential to advance accountability.

Members are working together on two specific objectives:

  • Bringing the lack of accountability of one powerful technology platform in the Global South into the worldwide spotlight through a careful strategy of systematizing information, additional research, and joint advocacy, capped by a global campaign.
  • Strengthening the ARISE community by ensuring that its communication and joint coordination processes are continuous, participatory, and systematic, fortressing bonds of trust, solidarity, and cooperation among community members.

Get in touch with the Secretariat

Email us: info@defindia.org / maitri@defindia.org