Revolution.Social Defending Digital Rights in the Surveillance Era (with Jillian York)
Dec 4, 2025
Jillian York, Director of International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and author of Silicon Values, dives deep into digital rights challenges. She highlights the urgent need for diverse internet governance and warns against the harms of age-verification laws. York emphasizes the critical role of end-to-end encryption in protecting activists and marginalized groups. She critiques overreliance on AI for content moderation and discusses the complexities of copyright in the age of AI, advocating for a human-centered approach to technology.
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Backdoors Harm Everyone, Especially Marginalized
- Any backdoor to decrypt communications becomes a general vulnerability exploited by companies, hackers, and states.
- Weakening anonymity and encryption disproportionately harms marginalized groups who rely on privacy.
Platform Values Reflect Founders' Demographics
- Platforms were built by narrow demographics, imprinting Silicon Valley values that don't fit global norms.
- This explains policies like real‑name rules and inconsistent nudity standards that harm vulnerable users.
Blue Sky's Founders Were Overlooked
- Blue Sky was founded and led by women of color yet press credited Jack Dorsey instead.
- Jillian York highlights that omission as symptomatic of erasing diverse founders' contributions.
