New video series highlights activists using tech to defend human rights

Passionate activists are using technology to make the world a safer, more equitable place — and a new video series shines a light on their powerful stories.

"Internet Without Borders" is a four-part series from Jigsaw, the tech incubator at Google's parent company Alphabet, featuring interviews with activists and technologists who use digital tools to defend human rights in their countries.

Jigsaw, whose mission is to look at how technology can make people safer around the world, filmed the videos at the 2016 Oslo Freedom Forum last May. There, the company sought out people who are "courageously fighting for freedom in diverse communities around the world."

The first two videos of the series launched on Jan. 19, featuring Afghan tech CEO Roya Mahboob and Egyptian activist and actor Omar Sharif Jr.

"I have a vision to bring equal access to education through technology for the women and girls in Afghanistan," Mahboob says.

"I have been spending many years working with modern technology and social media, and I really believe technology can bring social change."

Mahboob came of age during Afghanistan's Taliban regime, when only 3% of girls went to school. But when the first internet café opened in her hometown in 2003, it changed her life. The newly found access to information empowered her. She went on to found Citadel Software in 2010, becoming one of the first female tech CEOs in Afghanistan.

While women's rights have improved in the country, Mahboob talks about the "societal dictatorship" that persists, where conservative leaders have created an atmosphere that makes citizens believe the internet "provides bad values."

"These people needed to restrict information and control what's going on. Because then, when you don't have an education, you do what they want," she says.

That's where the role of technology comes in. When people, especially women and girls, have access to information, it can bring important and positive changes.

Now, through the Digital Citizen Fund, Mahboob is teaching girls to become coders, social media managers and entrepreneurs.

"Girls around the world deserve to have the tools to imagine a better life," she says. "Maybe the problem seems big, but solutions start small."

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

For Sharif, who came out in a brave 2012 essay in the Advocate, the fight is for LGBTQ rights in his native Egypt. As a well-known actor, he received threats after the op-ed published. While not technically illegal, being gay can be punishable as a crime in Egypt. He was forced to leave, and hasn't returned since.

He still remains committed to improving the lives of LGBTQ people across the Middle East.

"I think with the Arab Spring, we were all very hopeful and optimistic," he says in the video. "We were given a blank canvas and were able to paint the future that we wanted to see for ourselves."

He admits that change takes time, but believes technological tools can help find solutions and advance progress. As the first publicly gay figure in the region, he says, his role is to maintain visibility on TV and through social media.

"I think it's important for LGBT youth to see a reflection of themselves on television," Sharif says. He mentions shows like Will & Grace and Glee with progressive characters and plots, which showed him that he wasn't alone when he was younger.

He wants to offer the same thing to young people today, and help bring broader internet access to Egyptians so they'll have more interactions with the LGBTQ community.

"We saw with the Arab Spring — we called it 'the Twitter revolution,' because people who didn't have a voice gained a voice," he says. "Now... people have a voice. They're able to communicate, they're able to find other likeminded people, and they're able to have these conversations. And that's what's really going to cause change."

You can read more about "Internet Without Borders" on Jigsaw's Medium page.

The two remaining videos in the series will feature Meron Estefanos, a Sweden-based journalist who also works as the director of Eritrean Initiative on Refugee Rights, and Jung Kwang-Il, a North Korean defector who started an organization that smuggles information into North Korea.