Julie Owono

Project Overview:

The aim of this project will be to strengthen the capacities of civil society organizations in Africa in the detection of disinformation and hate speech, and pair it with their acute knowledge of the local political and social context. This will allow the creation of a reliable system that can preventively spot such content before it becomes viral on social media platforms. The system will entail multi-stakeholder collaborations, which will involve civil society organizations and content platforms.

Bio:

Julie studied at the Paris Bar School, and holds a Master degree in International Law from La Sorbonne Law School. She is the Executive Director of the Internet Sans Frontières (Internet Without Borders), an organization which works to preserve an open and free Internet, accessible to all without discrimination. There, her work is focused on Rights and Freedoms in the digital space, and develops the organization globally. She regularly writes columns for various publications, including Al Jazeera where she addresses issues related to politics, law and innovation in the Gulf of Guinea. She often appears as a Gulf of Guinea expert on International TV channels like France 24, BBC World, Russia Today, Huff Post Live.