1/ hi everyone. @hrw is looking for a technology and human rights director. the deadline for applications is may 3. there's quite a lot in the job posting, so i thought i'd unpack some of it :

https://boards.greenhouse.io/humanrightswatch/jobs/5175419002

2/ the listing makes multiple references to technology, poverty and inequality. that's because it's a key priority. here's some of the work we've done so far:

3/ in the UK, we examined how an inflexibly automated system for distributing social security benefits is exacerbating the effects of austerity-motivated policies, driving people further into hunger, debt and poverty: https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/09/29/automated-hardship/how-tech-driven-overhaul-uks-social-security-system-worsens

4/ in California, we examined how grocery delivery apps are engineering poverty and precarity through black box algorithms that dictate their working conditions and how they are paid: https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-grocery-app-workers-rights-are-under-siege/

5/ our research led us to join the labor rights movement in opposing #Prop22, a corporate-funded ballot initiative that gutted wage and labor protections for app-based workers: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/11/09/california-prop-22-strips-gig-workers-minimum-wage

6/ we have more work planned on app-based precarity, workplace surveillance, and the techno-corporate capture of essential public services.

doing this work has raised many questions with no easy answers. these include:

7/ how do we expand our range of investigative skills to probe technology systems that, while not consumer or public facing, have profound impact on our financial security, our labor, and our collective well-being?

8/ how do we partner with and honor the expertise and experience of activists, organizers, researchers, and communities? the rhetoric of collaboration often disguises the challenges and power imbalances IRL, which @red_abebe et al cogently unpack here: https://facct2021.hotcrp.com/doc/facct2021-final239.pdf?cap=0239alaqgO6lnEe4

9/ complex research (whether on tech x inequality or other issues) needs time and space to grow, and a healthy appetite for failure. how do we make room for this while fulfilling another key part of our mission - responding urgently to the slew of tech-enabled abuses globally?

10/ how do we practice what we preach? how do we mitigate complicity with the very institutions and practices (capitalist, neoliberal, postcolonial, etc.) we seek to dismantle?

11/ these are only a subset of the challenges @HRWTech faces, and they can be daunting. but i'm fortunate to have brilliant and thoughtful colleagues that rise to the challenge everyday.

12/ if these challenges excite you, please apply! and if they make you nervous, that's ok, pls consider applying too. as i'm learning everyday, this work is fraught with uncertainty, and being honest about what i don't know can be helpful in unexpected ways.