Digital Grassroots

Digital Grassroots is a youth network developed to proactively engage youth in addressing internet problems at a grassroots level. This project is the brainchild of the third cohort of Internet Society Youth at Internet Governance Forum 2017. Internet is increasingly being used to connect the global village of the world. Accessibility, Openness and Bottom Up coordination empowers netizens to be part of the borderless platform, reinforcing ISOCs philosophy ‘Internet is for everyone’. Whilst the internet medium is increasingly being consumed, there is a huge divide in internet penetration in regions across the globe, with some areas facing threats such as lack of infrastructure, internet shutdowns and censorship. Even for countries with high internet penetration, lack of education on the tools of internet affects security both online and offline, it exposes netizens of all ages to derogatory and malicious content, and creates an environment of ‘Likes’ where fake news can fester, thus affecting true perception of reality which in turn marginalizes true democracy. In negative engagements, internet enables discrimination of youth and the disconnected. In extreme cases, it is a recruitment platform for terrorists, pedophile rings, identity theft and birthplace of a wave of harmful viruses, to name a few vices. To curb these problems and become part of the solution instead of passive users, Digital Grassroots is spearheading solutions in solidarity with youths below 29 years old and other partners. Our program includes: • Internet Literacy Class (ILC) • Digital Natives Network (DNN) • Internet Activism (IA) on issues affecting a safe internet for all