[1]Anti-surveillance comic by Francisco “Fankiniano” Cardozo via Flickr (CC BY 4.0)
This post originally appeared on the World Wide Web Foundation blog [2].
A week ago, the Web We Want initiative challenged artists everywhere [3] to produce cartoons on the topic of NSA surveillance, in support of #TheDayWeFightBack. We received more than 70 submissions from all over the world, and today we’re announcing the winners, as judged by the Web We Want team. All submissions can be viewed on our Flickr photo stream here [4].
In first place, receiving a $1000 prize, is Francisco Javier “Frankiano” Cardozo Baudry. He is just 17 years old, a true digital native from Asunción, Paraguay. His contribution “Do Not Fear, I care about you” (above) shows how surveillance is invading each and every moment in the daily life of a young person these days. The PDF of this multi-frame cartoon can be downloaded here [1]. We will ask him to make editable versions available so activists all over the world can easily translate, adapt and use his amazing material.
[5]Anti-surveillance cartoon by Carlos Latuff via Flickr (CC BY 4.0)
Second place goes to cartoonist Carlos Latuff [6] from Brazil, who produced a piece (right) representing a single national leader monitoring the communications of the entire world. Third place goes to American cartoonist Jimmy Margulies [7], whose work highlighted wiretapping of foreign leaders.
A video (below) submitted by digital rights group Red PaTodos [8] in Colombia deserves an honorary mention and we encourage them to upload it in a collaborative platform such as DotSub, including its script, so others can translate and add subtitles to it. It neatly explains current threats and challenges to online privacy.
The cartoons produced by activists and artists from different countries and contexts show a common pattern: They acknowledge the invasion [9] of their private space, private life and daily activities by those in power. Intelligence agencies are pictured as dark forces by many of the authors and US President Obama is the main character [10] in several submissions. The computer was not shown as the sole method of surveillance – there were also submissions related to telephone surveillance [11] and CCTV cameras [12], parents spying on children, the military spying [13] on users, physical surveillance [14] and also the role of private corporations that use data collection and consumers habits as business models. One explained in simple terms what the NSA is currently doing [15], while others show how we interact and watch via our devices [16].
All the cartoons are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 [17] License which will allow each and every activist, journalist, school teacher and creative around the world to use them, adapt them, modify them and remix them, keeping the content open.
The Web We Want [18] promotes and defends the protection of personal user information and the right to communicate in private. Expect more soon!
Renata Avila is the campaign manager for the Web We Want.