November 20, 2011
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, UBC
Activists around the world are turning to social media tools usually reserved for more pedestrian purposes: the sharing of family videos and cute cat tricks. But these tools can be extremely powerful in the hands of activists, as they are pervasive, easy to use and difficult for governments to censor.
In this second annual Vancouver Human Rights Lecture, Ethan Zuckerman, the new director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, looks at “the cute cat theory” of internet activism as it helps explain the Arab Spring protests, aggressive internet censorship in countries like China and Vietnam, and the challenges for the corporate owners of social media platforms in an era of online speech.
The lecture is hosted by Paul Kennedy and presented by the Laurier Institution, Yahoo!, UBC Continuing Studies and CBC Radio One.
For more information, visit Vancouver Human Rights Lecture.
Feature photo credit: evilthomthai on Flickr.
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