For over 30 years, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has presented awards recognizing key leaders and organizations advancing innovation and championing digital rights. The EFF Awards celebrate the accomplishments of people working toward a better future for technology users, both in the public eye and behind the scenes.
EFF is pleased to welcome all members of the digital rights community, supporters, and friends to this annual award ceremony. The festivities begin with special guest Elizabeth Minkel—co-host and editor of the long-running Fansplaining podcast, journalist, and editor. Join us to celebrate this year's honorees with drinks, bytes, and excellent company.
We are proud to present awards to this year's winners:
404 MEDIA
CAROLINA BOTERO
EFF Award for Fostering Digital Rights in Latin America
CONNECTING HUMANITY
EFF Award for Championing Internet Access in Gaza
EFF Award Ceremony
Thursday, September 12th, 2024
6:30 PM to 10:00 PM Pacific
Golden Gate Club at the Presidio
135 Fisher Loop, San Francisco, CA
General Admission: $55 | Current EFF Members: $45 | Students: $35
Event Schedule:
6:30 PM Reception
7:30 PM Award Ceremony
8:30 PM Post-event Mingling
If you’re not able to join us in-person, please be sure to watch the livestream instead.
Special thanks to Dropbox and Electric Capital for sponsoring the EFF Awards.
Thanks to EFF's Luminary Organizational Members DuckDuckGo, No Starch Press, and the Hering Foundation for their year-round support of EFF's mission.
Sponsorships ensure EFF can continue hosting events like this to help build community among digital rights supporters. If you or your company are interested in sponsoring EFF events, please contact tierney@eff.org.
COVID-19 Precautions:
Guests are strongly encouraged to monitor their own health and to stay home if sick or experiencing symptoms of illness. If you wish to take a COVID-19 test, a limited supply of them will be available at the door, first come, first serve. Mask use is welcome, but not required.
TRANSIT:
Parking is available onsite in front of the venue. Public Transportation available via Muni Route 43 stopping at Presidio Transit Center or the Presidio GO Shuttle using the Downtown Route stopping at Presidio Transit Center.
ACCESSIBILITY:
The main event space is wheelchair accessible, on low-pile carpeted floor. Lively music will be playing, and the award ceremony speakers will be using a microphone, so louder volumes are expected. Accessible restrooms are located on the basement level with access via an elevator on the main level.
EFF is committed to improving accessibility for our events. If you will be attending in-person and need accommodations, or have accessibility questions prior to the event, please contact events@eff.org. If you require an ASL interpreter, please contact us by August 14th.
During the event, please ask any EFF staff for assistance.
DRESS CODE:
Dress as you feel whether it's festive, formal, or casual! Our audience wears everything from gowns to hoodies.
FOOD & DRINK:
The celebration will include small bites and desserts, as well as a hosted bar with wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages! Vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free food options will be available.
More About the 2024 EFF Award Winners
404 Media
As the media landscape in general and tech media in particular keeps shrinking, 404 Media — launched in August 2023 — has tirelessly forged ahead with incisive investigative reports, deep-dive features, blogs, and scoops about topics such as hacking, cybersecurity, cybercrime, sex, artificial intelligence, consumer rights, government and law enforcement surveillance, privacy, and the democratization of the internet. Co-founders Jason Koebler, Sam Cole, Joseph Cox, and Emanuel Maiberg all worked together at Vice Media’s Motherboard, but after that site's parent company filed for bankruptcy in May 2023, the four journalists resolved to go out on their own and build what Maiberg has called "very much a website by humans, for humans about technology. It’s not about the business of technology — it’s about how it impacts real people in the real world.” Among many examples, 404 Media has uncovered a privacy issue in the New York subway system that let stalkers track peoples’ movements, causing the MTA to shut down the feature; investigated a platform being used to generate non-consensual pornography with AI, causing the platform to make changes limiting abuse; and reported on dangerously inaccurate AI-generated books that Amazon then removed from sale.
Carolina Botero
Carolina Botero is a researcher, lecturer, writer, and consultant who is among the foremost leaders in the fight for digital rights in Latin America. In more than a decade as executive director of the Colombia-based Karisma Foundation — founded in 2003 to ensure that digital technologies protect and advance fundamental human rights and promote social justice — she transformed the organization into an outspoken voice fostering freedom of expression, privacy, access to knowledge, justice, and self-determination in our digital world, with regional and international impact. She left that position this year, opening the door for a new generation while leaving a strong and inspiring legacy for those in Latin America and beyond who advocate for a digital world that enhances rights and empowers the powerless. Botero holds a master’s degree in international law and cooperation from Belgium’s Vrije Universiteit Brussel and a master’s degree in commercial and contracting law from Spain’s Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She frequently authors op-eds for Colombia’s El Espectador and La Silla Vacía, and serves on the advisory board of The Regional Center for Studies for the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br), monitoring the adoption of information and communication technologies in Brazil. She previously served on the board of Creative Commons and as a member of the UNESCO Advisory Committee on Open Science.
Connecting Humanity
Connecting Humanity is a Cairo-based nonprofit organization that helps Palestinians in Gaza regain access to the internet – a crucial avenue for free speech and the free press. Founded in late 2023 by Egyptian journalist, writer, podcaster, and activist Mirna El Helbawi, Connecting Humanity collects and distributes embedded SIMs (eSIMs), a software version of the physical chip used to connect a phone to cellular networks and the internet. Connecting Humanity has collected hundreds of thousands of eSims from around the world and distributed them to people in Gaza, a crucial lifeline during Israel’s war on Hamas. People in crisis zones rely upon the free flow of information to survive, and restoring internet access in places where other communications infrastructure has been destroyed helps with dissemination of life-saving information and distribution of humanitarian aid, ensures that everyone’s stories can be heard, and enables continued educational and cultural contact. El Helbawi previously worked as an editor at 7 Ayam Magazine and as a radio host at Egypt’s NRJ Group; she was shortlisted for the Arab Journalism Award in 2016, and she created the podcast Helbing.
More About the 2024 EFF Award Keynote Speaker
Elizabeth Minkel
Elizabeth Minkel is a journalist, editor, and consultant who focuses on digital technologies and fan culture. She’s written for WIRED, Atlas Obscura, The New Yorker, The Guardian, the New Statesman, and many other outlets. She’s the co-host and editor of the long-running Fansplaining podcast and companion publication, and she co-curates “The Rec Center,” a weekly newsletter featuring fandom articles, fanart, and fanfiction recs that was a finalist for a Hugo Award in 2020. She has a Master’s degree in the digital humanities from University College London, where she wrote her dissertation on book fandoms online, and she currently lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Orlando.
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Questions? Email us at events@eff.org.
