Honoring the Internet Freedom Movement at the EFF Awards

It’s easy to see the world as doom and gloom when you’re dealing with these issues, but we do this because we can fix the internet. Our dream is that everyone in this room will not only stand up for their rights, but also find ten more friends to stand with you. – EFFs Executive Director, Cindy Cohen.

Why EFF hosts our annual gala, now known as the Gala EFF Awards, to celebrate those in the digital rights community who are working to protect privacy and innovation online. On September 14th, we did. We awarded prizes to three winners: Alexandra Asanona Elbakian, Library Freedom ProjectAnd Signal Foundation. These three honorees have contributed to a world where people can access and share knowledge online, grow and be part of communities, and express themselves without being spied on.

If you missed the event in San Francisco, you can still find out what happened! We recorded this show and put it on YouTube and the Internet Archive for you to watch.

The show started with our famous science fiction writerDoctor’s blindnessI welcome everyone to the event and thank the more than 30,000 EFF members who make our work possible. Corey then admitted his age and reflected on how good the internet used to be, while we’re now stuck with what he calls the enshitternet. But instead of wishing for the return of the old Internet, Corey looked forward to fighting for a good new Internet, one that was even better than the old Internet he loved.

Currie then introduced EFFs Executive Director, Cindy Cohen to the stage excited to see so many old and new friends at the event, from former EFF staff and interns to past EFF Award winners such as Chelsea Manning and Kyle Wiens.

Too often, we’re portrayed as optimists, but the EFF was founded to fight for your rights.

Cindy went on to point out that we should celebrate some wins, but the EFF’s work is not done. Since last year’s awards, the EFF has launched major campaigns, including; Children’s Online Safety Act, which sacrifices everyone’s privacy to protect children. particle for direct object Online safety legislation in the UK, which weakens end-to-end encryption. particle for direct object United Nations Cybercrime Convention The threat of undermining human rights online help the Internet Archive that they have encountered Lawsuit for Hosting a digital library; And our efforts to Sunset section 702which is a broad surveillance law that is up for renewal.

Presenting the first award of the evening, EFF Legal Director Corinne McSherry He went on stage to introduce the works of Alexandra Asanona Elbakian. Alexandra is a Kazakh computer programmer who founded Sci-Hub in 2011 to provide free and unlimited access to all scientific knowledge. Sci-Hub was launched as a tool for quick access to scientific journal articles for everyone to read and download for free.

Corinne accepted the Alexandras award on her behalf, saying: “The open access movement is fighting to get rid of paywalls, and we’re making progress.” But in the meantime, thanks to Alexandra’s courage and creativity, researchers around the world have SciHub. It is my honor and privilege to recognize him with an EFF 2023 award.

Unfortunately, Alexandra was unable to travel to the US to receive her award, but she was able to share a video of her thanks. I think knowledge is something that every person should have free access to because knowledge is a natural human right. It is not natural to have a few large companies that limit access to all knowledge. It should not be like this

Introducing the next award winner, EFF Staff Senior Technologist Bill Buddington He spoke about the need for the Library Freedom Project (LFP), which is building a network of values-based librarian activists to build information democracy. Libraries are especially important for low-income people, who may not otherwise have access to the Internet. LFP educates and trains librarians on issues of privacy, surveillance, technology, and more to help create safer private spaces for all patrons.

Eleven members of the organization, including founder and executive director Alison MacrinaLFP, reflected on organizations founded in 2015 when they made headlines for their efforts as they accepted the Library Freedom Project Award. Bring on Tor exit relays Macrina told libraries that in libraries we now face an organized movement of anti-democratic and anti-speech actors against which the LFP is fighting through community building and education. In this environment, we all need each other and we need you.”

Alexis Hancock, EFFs director of engineering, Certbot, announced the final winner of the event, the Signal Foundation. Alexis talked about the importance of end-to-end encrypted communications in our daily lives, saying that Signal helped make encryption more pervasive in our daily lives.

Josh Lund and Rhea Abraham, longtime members of the Signal Foundation, took the stage and talked about their memories of watching the first 100,000 messages grow to over 100,000 messages per second through the Signal protocol. Signal offers real communication privacy and easy-to-use technology that rejects the surveillance model the tech industry is built on. It is an honor for all of us at Signal to move forward with all of you. The encryption wars of the 90s never really ended, and if you listen to the signal boss, they probably never will.

The ceremony concluded with Cory Doctorow taking the stage and emphasizing the importance of the work this year’s honorees are doing and how our actions make a meaningful difference in our communities.

EFF greatly appreciates this opportunity to honor these leaders in the digital rights community. Bringing advocates around the world together to appreciate and promote their important work is always a highlight of the year. If you missed the live event, take a moment to watch the recording below! You can also see a collection of our favorite photos here.

Watch the ceremony

Recording on YouTube and Internet Archive

Thanks to all EFF members around the world who make our work possible, public support is the reason we can strive for a better internet. If you are interested in supporting our work, become an EFF member! You can receive special gear to thank us and help support the digital freedom movement.

Of course, special thanks to this year’s EFF Awards sponsors: Electric Capital, No Starch Press, and Ron Reed. Interested in sponsoring an upcoming EFF event? Please contact Tierney Hamilton.