WITNESS Announces 2019-20 Mozilla Fellow

WITNESS is excited to welcome Leil Zahra as our 2019-2020 Mozilla Fellow! Leil is a trans-feminist queer filmmaker and researcher.

Mozilla Fellowships provide funding, amplification, and networking opportunities to individuals devoted to privacy, inclusion, and openness online. This cohort of Mozilla Fellows will debunk myths about AI and research new models of data governance.

Mozilla Fellows hail from more than 10 countries and consist of technologists, activists, lawyers, designers, and scientists. Many of these fellows are working on the topic of trustworthy AI — artificial intelligence that helps, rather than harms, humanity.

Leil will be working with the WITNESS’ Tech+Advocacy team, where they will research content take-down in the North Africa West Asia region, the double standards in the so-called “moderation,” and the existing agreements between some governments and social media platforms. In collaboration WITNESS, Leil will work to bring more voices from the region to the table, joining efforts to challenge Euro and North American centrism in the debate around tech. Before joining Mozilla, Leil worked in various projects and organisations around digital security and data, researching the impacts of surveillance and data collection on human rights and political participation; and examining creative responses to the threats. They approach tech from a critical, de-colonial and trans-feminist perspective.

WITNESS is very excited about Leil’s approach and how it will enrich our existing content moderation and platform accountability work. Leil’s focus fits perfectly with our commitment to challenge global power dynamics in this field, and we’re excited to see their project unfold.