Storytelling as Resistance: Breaking Digital Chains
In today’s digital landscape, storytellers face a dual challenge: maintaining human connection while navigating increasingly controlled digital spaces. As global tech platforms amass unprecedented power through algorithmic control and content moderation, authentic human narratives – particularly from marginalized communities and conflict zones – face systematic suppression. This reality has been starkly demonstrated during Israel’s genocide in Gaza, where Palestinian voices, journalists, and global supporters faced widespread account restrictions, content removals, and algorithmic suppression across major platforms. Meanwhile, platforms actively amplified certain narratives supporting the genocide, demonstrating how digital infrastructure can be weaponized to control which human stories reach global audiences, particularly during humanitarian crises.
This session brings together journalists, storytellers, and digital rights advocates who are finding innovative ways to break through these invisible barriers. Through concrete examples and case studies, speakers will share how they merge emotional intelligence with technical knowledge to create impactful human narratives that survive algorithmic suppression. From war correspondents developing creative techniques to document and share stories from Gaza despite platform restrictions, to community journalists building alternative distribution networks, to documentary makers developing resilient narrative structures – we’ll explore practical approaches for maintaining authentic human stories in controlled digital spaces. The session aims to equip participants with both the emotional and technical tools needed to ensure crucial human stories reach audiences, even when faced with systematic digital suppression and platform bias.
● What role can different actors play in exposing digital power structures while protecting vulnerable voices?
● What practical strategies have proven effective in challenging platform bias and ensuring narrative sovereignty during critical moments?
●How are marginalised communities developing new ways to document and challenge algorithmic bias and digital suppression?
● How do you maintain authenticity while navigating platform restrictions?