Rightscon, a world summit on human rights in the digital age, has been canceled at the last minute through actions by its host nation's government:
It is with heavy hearts that we share: RightsCon will not proceed in Zambia or online.
We understand this news is deeply upsetting for our community and while we know everyone has questions, our goal right now is to notify you of the event's status because many of you have imminent travel plans.
We do not recommend registered participants travel to Lusaka for RightsCon.Over the last 48 hours we have experienced an overwhelming surge of support from civil society, government representatives, sponsors, and our community as a whole. For this, we wholeheartedly thank you. We'll communicate more information soon.
And there is secondhand coverage:
The Tor Project is deeply saddened by the last-minute cancellation of RightsCon 2026 in Lusaka, Zambia, and online. The right to assemble, associate, and speak freely must not be conditioned on political approval. Convenings like RightsCon are essential precisely because they create space for difficult, urgent, and necessary conversation about power, technology, rights, and accountability.
Tor's work is rooted in the belief that everyone should be able to speak freely, safely, and privately. We build tools that help people connect, communicate, organize, and seek information; especially those facing censorship, surveillance, repression, discrimination, and other forms of vulnerability. The disruption of a space dedicated to advancing these shared goals represents a serious gutpunch to the global human rights community.
- — Tor Project Statement on the Abrupt Cancellation of RightsCon 2026 , The Tor Project.
and
Minister of Technology and Science Felix Mutati first announced the postponement on April 28, saying that Zambia needed more time to ensure the conference "fully [aligns] with national procedures, diplomatic protocols, and the broader objective of fostering a balanced and consensus-driven platform for dialogue."
and
The announcement came as thousands of delegates were en route to Zambia or already there.
On Tuesday, Zambia's Minister of Technology and Science offered the first hint that the conference would be cancelled, telling a Zambian news outlet that participants' security clearances were incomplete and that the government has concerns about the conference's "dialogue."
UPDATED: A message dated 1 May explained the reason for the abrupt cancellation:
Following our April 29 announcement, we at Access Now, the host organization of RightsCon, believe it is important to be transparent about the context that led to the decision. We want to explain, where we can (taking into account the safety of those involved), why this announcement was made on such short notice, only days before we were set to welcome more than 2,600 participants in person, and 1,100 online, representing over 150 countries and 750 institutions.
We believe foreign interference is the reason RightsCon 2026 won't proceed in Zambia or online.
[...] On April 27, one day after a government press release endorsed RightsCon, we received a phone call from MoTS about an urgent issue and were told that diplomats from the People's Republic of China (PRC) were putting pressure on the Government of Zambia because Taiwanese civil society participants were planning to join us in person. This development was extremely concerning and we immediately pushed back. Next, we opened up lines of communication with our Taiwanese participants, as is our practice when there is a potential risk for a specific community. While we needed more information, we continued to feel confident this was something we could address with the government.
Previously:
(2016) Senator Wyden Calls on Digital Rights Activists to Block Legislative Efforts to Weaken Encryption - SoylentNews
(2016) Adblock Plus Un-Invited From IAB Conference - SoylentNews
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IAB said the meeting is for "serious conversation."
http://www.businessinsider.com/adblock-plus-un-invited-from-iab-conference-2016-1
Popular ad blocker Adblock Plus claims that it was uninvited from the US Interactive Advertising Bureau's big conference.
The IAB represents the biggest names in the digital-advertising industry: Google, Facebook, Twitter, online publishers, and ad-tech companies.
Each year it holds its annual leadership meeting in Palm Desert, California. It's where the biggest names in the online-advertising industry network and thrash out their ideas on the issues and trends of the day.
This year they've got Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison, Yahoo's global revenue chief Lisa Utzschneider, and Google ads boss Sridhar Ramaswamy speaking.
Adblock Plus won't be attending, though.
Last week, Adblock Plus received an email saying that the company's registration fee was being returned and its registration had been canceled.
When Adblock Plus said that "there must be some confusion" because it didn't ask for a cancellation or a refund, the IAB simply replied: "I'm sorry if there's any confusion. Just to be clear, there will be no ticket available for you and we've refunded your registration fee."
-- submitted from IRC
Senator Ron Wyden spoke to RightsCon about the Crypto Wars following the FBI dropping its case against Apple:
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has put out a call to arms to digital rights activists, asking them to join in a SOPA-style effort to defeat upcoming efforts to weaken encryption. In a wide-ranging speech that covered J Edgar Hoover, Miranda Rights, the Founding Fathers and the Amazon Echo, the Oregon Senator warned that despite the recent decision by the FBI to drop its case against Apple, "as sure as night follows day," the issue is going to return and it will be necessary to fight legislative efforts to reduce the effectiveness of encryption.
"I will block any plan that would weaken strong encryption," he told the RightsCon conference in San Francisco. "The expected legislation will be a lose-lose for all of us: less security and less liberty." He also railed against the notion that the current debate over technology and encryption was a privacy versus security debate, arguing that it is more "security versus more security." Instead, Wyden said, he wanted to refocus the debate, and called for "a new compact for security and liberty in the digital age."
Also at Reuters, The Guardian, The Hill.
Here is the speech Wyden gave at RightsCon.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Frosty Piss on Monday May 04, @03:27PM (7 children)
Reading more at the link provided, it seems China put pressure on the Zambian government to shut it down because Taiwan was to be represented in person.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04, @03:54PM (6 children)
It couldn't have been too difficult. Zambia is hardly a safe place for free thinking people, who should probably schedule these kinds of events in Sweden or Norway or Iceland.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 04, @04:37PM
I was thinking, this was almost setup to fail - hosting the physical event in (basically highly vulnerable on the world stage) Zambia is like inviting any world power that might attempt to oppress the activity to do so...
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Touché) by VLM on Monday May 04, @05:14PM (3 children)
That legacy culture will change as the legacy demographics change.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04, @06:30PM (2 children)
This is true. In purely Darwinian terms, authoritarianism, with its 'might makes right', has the clear advantage. That is what we are devolving into.
(Score: 2, Troll) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 04, @06:41PM (1 child)
> In purely Darwinian terms, authoritarianism, with its 'might makes right', has the clear advantage.
Does it, though?
When one puppy in the litter is a big brute bad actor, does it "win out" if all seven of its siblings gang up on it and take it down?
We are where we are as the result of billions of years of Darwinian evolution - clearly some advantages have brought us to this point. Most of what's out there - highly evolved and successful - doesn't shit in its own bed.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04, @07:04PM
Yeah, from our POV the world looks pretty rosy. We are just living off the remaining post WWII "peace" dividends, which are quickly running out, being squandered away. What is "highly evolved and successful" are the distractions we create, keeping the misery offshore.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04, @05:28PM
From https://www.rightscon.org/rc26-in-zambia/ [rightscon.org]
Welp, I guess that didn't work out very well.
Eswatini is a country in Africa and is one of the very few countries in the world (and the only one in Africa) which maintains formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, maybe they should try there next.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Monday May 04, @05:19PM (2 children)
I looked at the RightsCon 2026 site and the purpose of the con seems to get PR by offending the government.
It doesn't seem to be anything other than "poke the bear with a stick for the joy of seeing the bear pissed off".
The "technology" of a con is pretty obsolete in the post internet era.
It's more of a performance art project than anything else.
"Lets tell a government funded by China we are inviting Taiwan for the LOLz"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by oregonjohn on Monday May 04, @07:21PM (1 child)
I don't see how anyone benefits other than China by canceling an event due to start the next day or two and with thousands of people from around the world already there.
I think China is getting ready to take advantage of the current wartime and economic situations around the world to take Taiwan back and is letting every nation state know that China has the power to make life miserable for the supporters of an independent Taiwan. Maybe China's economic system is failing and they need acquisitions to stay afloat. Just a thought.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 05, @12:12AM
> Maybe China's economic system is failing and they need acquisitions to stay afloat. Just a thought.
Or they need a smoke screen to distract from their current economic problems?