From our chair

Access. Rights. A Feminist Internet. Governance. Use and Development. Community. (Or FAIR and GUD-C, as I affectionately acronymised them for myself.) These are the pillars of APC’s strategic plan. These are the areas on which APC focused most intensely as it went about its work this year, of ensuring a free and open internet and a world that is more just, more equal. In every possible way.

But there’s one key letter missing from this big picture – T. This was a year of Transitioning. This was a hugely significant moment of transition for APC as its leadership changed hands.

I want to begin this introduction by doing two things. On behalf of our member network, I profusely and lovingly thank Anriette Esterhuysen, who stepped down as executive director this year, after growing APC from its modest roots to a global force that is loved, admired and respected. And on behalf of all of us, I open our collective arms to Chat Garcia Ramilo, APC’s new executive director, and give her a big, welcoming hug. May the force be with you, Chat!

I became the chair of the APC board halfway through the year at the global APC members’ meeting held in Ithala, South Africa, in August. Why did I run for the board elections? Mainly out of a sense of deep identification with APC. My work at Point of View, the non-profit I run in India, straddles three domains – gender, sexuality, technology – and I’m part of many movements. And part of the cracks and spaces in between these movements, always trying to connect the dots, just like APC does at the global level.

So much meaning derives from APC’s work at these intersections. When APC works on Access, it’s both about connecting the unconnected, and about visibilising the digital gender divide and the causes of women’s rights violations. It’s not either/or. It’s both.APC’s work on Rights is framed the same way: as a spectrum of rights, which means that a successful APC policy push is not just a win for digital rights – it’s often a win for women’s rights, as gender issues are made visible in policy spaces. Be it at the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace, the Human Rights Council, or while developing Internet Universality Indicators. When APC talks of free expression, it’s a big, rainbow-coloured umbrella… that includes sexual expression as political speech. Like any other speech. And of course, without access, free expression and rights, how can we even conceive of building a Feminist Internet?

This intersectional lens was in full view in APC’s work on Governance this year, right from initiatives to build civil society capacities to participate in internet governance to the Internet Governance Forum itself. It was also in Use and Development, which enabled hundreds of activists all around the world to tell their stories digitally… and to remain digitally secure.

An organisation does not survive and grow for 25+ years without a lot of help, and a network does not thrive and flourish without growing membership. The APC Community has grown steadily over the years; at the end of 2017, we were 58 organisational members and 28 individual members active in 74 countries. And we’re still growing…

In closing this edition, I want to thank APC’s founders, staff, consultants, members and everyone else who has been or is part of APC, or who has supported our work in one way or another. Let’s continue changing the world… together.

Bishakha Datta
Chair of the APC Board of Directors