After RightsCon: At a loss, but not lost

What does civil society need to thrive?

Since our last edition, the abrupt cancellation of RightsCon has sent shock waves across our field. The Zambian government’s decision to block the conference from happening as planned — at China’s behest — was part of a bold exercise of transnational authoritarian power that will have long-lasting effects for our colleagues and partners around the world. 

Speaking with Tech Policy Press about the consequences of RightsCon’s cancellation, Vita-Activa Executive Director Luisa Ortiz put it in these terms:

“When political pressure determines whether people can gather, it doesn’t just limit movement — it reshapes how we think, how we make decisions, and how we relate to one another. It isolates us, creates distance, and fuels tension, all while shrinking the already fragile space for civil society.”

Gatherings like RightsCon were once vital spaces for building global strategies to make the internet more equitable. What happened in Zambia sets a chilling precedent for future gatherings. And it was one among many blows that our sector has weathered in recent years. 

How can we keep afloat in what feels like an ocean of state and corporate forces preventing our ecosystem from building our movement? What does an ecosystem need, not just to survive, but to thrive? Relationships of trust lie at the roots of any functioning community. These fuel team dynamics, partnerships at every scale, and relationships with donors too. They are hard to cultivate without real, in-person connection. Yet once that connection has been made, years can go by in which fruitful, dynamic collaborations play out primarily through virtual means.

If everything had gone as planned, we would have joined some of our closest allies for an in-depth conversation on thorny questions that our sector is facing right now, such as:

• How is AI currently being used by states, platforms, and bad actors to target our movement?
• How is the current funding landscape shaping which tech or AI approaches get resourced and who gets left out?
• Can we imagine rights-protective, open source AI infrastructure? What would that look like in practice?

We are pushing forward with this work, building a series of conversations on these issues that will take place both on- and offline at events like the Global Gathering and MozFest in the months to come. Indeed, the cancellation of RightsCon cannot stop us from having these conversations. It just requires us to think and work in newer, sometimes quieter ways.

This blog post was adapted from the May 2026 edition of our monthly newsletter, the Checklist. 

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