Access Now at the 12th edition of CIPESA’s FIFAfrica
2025-09-24 09:00 - 2025-09-26 17:30 (Africa/Windhoek)
Windhoek International Convention Center, Windhoek, Namibia

The Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa 2025 (#FIFAfrica25), hosted by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) in partnership with Namibia’s Ministry of ICT and the Namibia IGF, will take place in Windhoek, Namibia, 24-26 September, 2025.

Since its inception in 2014, FIFAfrica has provided a vital platform for multistakeholder dialogue and collaboration on advancing digital rights across the continent.

Access Now continues to participate at FIFAfrica to strengthen our partnerships in the region and engage on key areas of our work.

Here’s where you can find Access Now at FIFAFrica25:

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Tuesday 23 – Thursday 25 September, 2025

Africa Cybersecurity Advocacy workshop | Internet Society (ISOC) Global Encryption Coalition (GEC) 09:00 – 17:00 daily

[Workshop session] Africa’s encryption landscape: how African governments undermine the use of encryption | CIPESA & Access Now| Tuesday 23 September 2025 16:30 – 17:30

About: Access Now will join ISOC, CIPESA and other partner organizations of the Global Encryption Coalition to host a three-day cybersecurity advocacy workshop on the sidelines of FIFAfrica25. The workshop is designed to equip encryption advocates with the knowledge and skills to fight anti-encryption legislation and address other evolving threats to encryption across the continent.

Thursday 25 September, 2025

Book launch: Internet shutdowns in Africa | 25 September 9:30 – 11:00 📍Brandberg

Join us and our partners for the launch of a new book, Internet shutdowns in Africa: Technology, Rights and Power, produced by African authors from 11 countries — including Access Now’s Kassem Mnejja, Senior MENA Campaigner, and Felicia Anthonio, #KeepItOn Global Campaign Manager — showcasing the most comprehensive documentation to date of the incidents of internet shutdowns in the selected countries. In this session, authors will unpack how and why shutdowns are imposed, and their impact on peoples’ social, economic and political rights in Uganda, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Sudan, Nigeria, Chad, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Algeria, and Zimbabwe. This is the first book of its kind dedicated to analysing internet shutdowns in Africa, as well as various forms of resistance that citizens across Africa are using to circumvent, challenge, and end internet shutdowns. It is also the first book to include a comprehensive analysis of the power interests that give rise to internet shutdowns. This session will also engage with participants to share experiences and observations on the subject matter, and connect with the authors. There will be copies of the book available for purchase and download.

Book contributors:

Kassem Mnejja, Access Now, Senior MENA Campaigner

Felicia Anthonio, Access Now, #KeepItOn Global Campaign Manager

Friday 26 September, 2025

Panel: Data protection and cybersecurity in Africa: multi-country insights on key issues and opportunities for strengthening human rights protections | OXFAM and Access Now 08:30 AM – 10:00 AM 📍Kuiseb Hall.About: OXFAM and Access Now are hosting a panel discussion to explore key issues and opportunities for strengthening human rights protections in cyber policy and data protection implementation across Africa. The panel will feature speakers from Tunisia, Somalia, Kenya, and Nigeria.

Panel: #KeepItOn: Resisting internet shutdowns during conflict and turmoil – lessons from across Africa | Access Now and AWAFY Sudanese Organization 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM 📍Omatako 4About: This session explores how governments across Africa deploy internet shutdowns as tools of repression during conflict and political instability. With a focus on the prolonged weaponization of blackouts and internet shutdowns during times of conflict in Sudan and Ethiopia’s Tigray region, as well as insights from Equatorial Guinea and Senegal, the session offers strategies for resistance, advocacy, and legal pushback, centering local voices from these countries.

Access Now at India AI Impact Summit 2026
2026-02-16 00:00 - 2026-02-20 23:59 (Asia/Kolkata)
Bharat Mandapam

The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is a high-profile international event involving heads of state and government, ministers, senior government officials, international delegations, industry leaders, media, and general delegates. Building on the momentum of previous multilateral initiatives, including the Bletchley Park, Seoul, Paris, and Kigali Summits, the AI Impact Summit is envisaged to mark a shift from aspirations to impact, demonstrating how AI can deliver tangible outcomes for people, planet, and progress.

Below are some of the events Access Now will be joining at the India AI Impact Summit:

19 February

Fireside chat and high-level reception

7:30 pm onwards, Indian Standard Time | Fountain Lawn, India International Centre Main Building

Access Now, along with Aapti Institute and AI Now, is hosting an evening that steps away from the formal summit agenda and into a sharp, thoughtful, and candid exchange about where AI is headed and what is being left unsaid in official rooms. The centerpiece is a fireside chat bringing together three exceptional voices:

Brando Benifei, Member of the European Parliament and a key architect of the EU AI Act;

Karen Hao, the award-winning journalist and author of “Empire of AI,” whose reporting has deeply shaped our understanding of power and technology; and

Seema Chishti, Editor of The Wire, known for her incisive political analysis and journalism.

Together, they will reflect on AI, governance, and power in a provocative conversation designed to cut through the usual rhetoric and get to the real tensions shaping our digital future. Following the discussion, we will host an informal networking reception from 9:00 PM onwards. We know schedules are packed, so please feel free to join for the full discussion or simply stop by for the reception.

20 February

The AI-Cyber Nexus: A Strategic Dialogue on Global Security, Trust, and Governance

3:30 pm–4:25 pm, Indian Standard Time | Chanakya Auditorium, Sushma Swaraj Bhawan

Access Now and Global Partners Digital are co-organising this session at the India AI Impact Summit to move the conversation beyond hype and headlines toward real policy, real risks, and real choices. Rather than treating AI and cybersecurity as separate worlds, this discussion brings them together, asking what it actually means to build AI that is secure, trustworthy, and rights-respecting in practice.

This session aims to propose a technically grounded conversation on the cybersecurity implications of large language models and agentic AI. Using the confidentiality-integrity-availability (CIA) framework, it will explore how advanced AI tools impact privacy, encryption, information integrity, and resilience of critical services. Instead of abstract warnings, panelists will draw on concrete experience from cybersecurity and AI governance to identify what governments, companies, and civil society should do, and what they should avoid.

The panel will open by remarks from Access Now’s Executive Director, Alejandro Mayoral Banos, and will be moderated by Nirmal John, Senior Editor at Economic Times. Panelists include Access Now’s Global Cybersecurity Lead, Raman Jit Singh Chima; Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard, Tech Ambassador, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Denmark; Maria Paz Canales, Head of Policy and Advocacy at Global Partners Digital; Udbhav Tiwari, Vice President, Strategy and Global Affairs at Signal; and Nikolas Schmidt Policy Analyst, Division of AI and Emerging Tech at OECD.

Note: This session is a part of the official agenda for the AI Impact Summit and requires registration with the event.

URLThis field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.RSVP for Access Now at Indian AI Impact Summit 2026Name(Required)

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The Fireside chat and high level reception (19th Feb – 7:30 PM onwards)

The AI-Cyber Nexus: A Strategic Dialogue on Global Security, Trust, and Governance (20th Feb – 3:30 to 4:30 PM)

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Advancing Rights-Centered reporting on Nigeria's Cybercrimes Act
2026-04-21 13:00 - 14:30 (Africa/Lagos)
Since Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act was passed in 2015, more than two dozen journalists, human rights defenders and whistleblowers have been targeted by authorities, using overbroad prohibitions on “cyberstalking” to punish critical online speech and silence opposition voices.

Alongside Human Rights Journalists Network, Socio Economic Rights & Accountability Project (SERAP), and Avocats Sans Frontiers Nigeria (E-Rights Nigeria Project), Access Now will be hosting a webinar on 21 April at 1:00 PM GMT+1 where we will unpack the human rights implications of Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act and discuss with journalists and human rights organizations, rights based framing for reporting accurately, responsibly, and critically on cybercrime-related cases and ongoing reform efforts by civil society.

The speakers are:

Moderator: Kehinde Adegboyega, Executive Director, Human Rights Journalists Network

Speakers:

Naro Omo-Osagie, Africa Policy Manager, Access Now

Angela Uwandu Uzoma-Uwuchukwu, Head of Office, Avocats Sans Frontieres Nigeria (Convener E-Rights Nigeria Project)

Olúwádàre A. Kóláwolé, Deputy Director, Socio Economic Rights & Accountability Project (SERAP)

RSVP

JOIN THE WEBINAR

Stronger together: digital security and resilience for LGBTQ+ people
2026-07-14 09:00 - 10:00 (America/New_York)
register here

For many LGBTQ+ people, the internet has long been a crucial space for finding community and information, especially in contexts with limited offline visibility and support. But more than ever, queer communities face considerable risks in digital spaces. Discourse in online platforms is shaped by disinformation and hateful rhetoric, while safeguards are weak against doxxing, online harassment, and the exposure of activists that continue to drive progress towards gender justice and liberation.

In the context of a real-world backlash against women and gender diverse communities, this webinar seeks to mark Pride commemorations worldwide by increasing awareness about these challenges.

The webinar will take place on July 14, 2026, at 9:00 am EST (15:00 pm CEST, 21:00 pm Philippines and Western Indonesia).

This event is part of Safe and strong: a webinar series on digital security, an initiative of the Digital Security Helpline to bring together civil society, private sector partners, and other support organizations, to discuss how to increase resilience in the digital age.

Registration is available here.

SAFE AND STRONG: A WEBINAR SERIES ON DIGITAL SECURITY

is an initiative of the Digital Security Helpline to bring together civil society, private sector partners, and other support organizations, to discuss how to increase resilience in the digital age.

Speakers:

Azza Nubi (she/her) is a queer feminist activist and digital rights advocate. She is the founder and executive director of LooM SWANA, a regional organization focused on the intersectionality of LGBTIQ+ rights, holistic security, and digital rights in the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region.

Rocío Jiménez (she/her) is a Security Incident Handler at Access Now. As part of her work, she has strengthened the Digital Security Helpline’s ability to support at-risk communities leveraging her background as a feminist activist and her expertise in both computer science and social work.

Donald Hamblock is a Staff Safety by Design Partner on Match Group’s Trust & Safety team, where he works to build safety into the product experience across the company’s portfolio. He has over a decade of experience in Trust & Safety. Previously, Hamblock was Twitter’s Head of API Policy within the company’s Site Integrity organization, leading the team that set the policies and review processes governing how developers built on the platform. Hamblock holds an MBA from London Business School, an MSc in European Politics and Governance from the London School of Economics, and a BA in International Studies from the University of Washington.

Moderator: Jaimee Kokonya is the Africa Campaigner at Access Now focusing on various digital rights issues. She is currently leading the #ProtectLGBTQDigitalRights campaign at Access Now in collaboration with local partner organizations in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana. The campaign is tracking the emergence of anti-LGBTQ+ legislations in Africa, raising awareness on how they will impact digital rights. She holds an LL.B with a focus on human rights law from the University of Nairobi.

PREVIOUS SESSIONS

Spear-phishing (March)

[March 10, 2026] Spear phishing: how to stay safe and prevent advanced attacks against civil society

Rebekah Brown, Citizen Lab

Justin Albrecht, Lookout.

Mykola Kostynyan, Resident.NGO

Marilou Maala and Mohammed Al-Maskati (moderator), Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline

Digital security in war and conflict (May)

[May 19, 2026] Digital security in war and conflict: challenges for civil society and tools for resilience

Jocelyn Woolbright, Program Manager on Cloudflare’s Public Policy team

Mia Marzotto, Digital Rights Advocacy Lead at Oxfam

Luis Barrueto, Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline

Giulio Coppi, Senior Humanitarian Officer at Access Now

Hosted by:
