Cybersecurity & Standards, Free Expression, Government Surveillance, Open Internet, Privacy & Data
COVID-19 is Changing Everything, Including How We Support Our Communities
One thing that this crisis has shown me is just how critical our nonprofit sector is. Nonprofits fill the gaps every day, and their work has become even more vital in the wake of a quickly changing society. They are feeding hungry families, caring for the sick, trying their hardest to make sure that everyone can meet their basic needs, and so much more. This is why #GivingTuesdayNow was created.
We have all heard of #GivingTuesday – the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which aims to take the consumerism of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday and turn it into a spirit of generosity. For 24 hours, nonprofits across the globe show their thanks to their supporters and ask for help in supporting their missions. The same idea applies to #GivingTuesdayNow – and the need is even greater.
On May 5, 2020, nonprofits including CDT will be looking for support. The nonprofits in the spotlight are the direct service organizations – healthcare, hunger relief, and human welfare, serving on the front lines of the global health crisis – and rightly so. But we also recognize that societies across the world right now are rapidly turning to technology to improve public health, work and study remotely, and connect, communicate, and organize in new ways. This transition has led to an incredible demonstration of the collective good of the internet, but has also opened up and exacerbated real threats.
Here at CDT, we are working tirelessly to put democracy and individual rights at the center of the digital revolution. We want to ensure that temporary measures designed to respond in this unprecedented moment are evaluated for privacy and equity considerations before they become permanent, or are rolled back.
As the world turns online to comply with social distancing standards, our rights to privacy, security, and free speech are coming under the spotlight. Proposals for tracking and preventing the spread of COVID-19 bring about new concerns, and our policy experts and technologists are working to ensure that policies put in place today are smart and respectful, and work with how we want our society to be in the future.
CDT believes in the power of the internet – now more than ever – in the face of the spread of the novel coronavirus. We also believe in making sure that individual civil rights stay front and center during the digital revolution upon us. On May 5th, we sincerely hope you will support a nonprofit on the front lines of today’s pandemic for #GivingTuesdayNow. Then, if you still can – consider supporting CDT. We will be championing your rights throughout this pandemic response, and beyond.
