When RightsCon 2026 was suddenly cancelled last week, we were in the final stages of preparing two sessions: Who Checks Big Tech?, a roundtable co-hosted with Psst.org on our collaboration to build novel tools for whistleblowers; and Rules of Engagement, a tech demo of Transparency Hub, a platform that archives privacy policies from over 300 social media companies.
Three members of the ASML team were also preparing to fly to Lusaka to join the conference in-person. We were excited to share our work, to meet our Psst collaborators in-person for the first time, to connect with Berkman Klein Center community members from around the world, and to learn from countless experts planning thoughtful, impactful sessions.
This disruption—explained in Access Now’s statement—is deeply disappointing: like the >3,700 other RightsCon participants, we had invested significant time, money, and labor to prepare for the conference. In a moment where fundamental human rights are under threat, at home in the U.S. and around the globe, RightsCon represents a critical meeting point for the digital rights community. The opportunity to share our work and gather input from a global community with deep domain expertise would have been invaluable. The organic connections, collaborations, and ideas that can emerge from live, in-person convenings are very hard (perhaps impossible!) to replicate in asynchronous, virtual environments.
In lieu of launching our Psst collaboration in-person in Lusaka, we have published a series of writeups and open-sourced our code on GitHub (#1, #2, #3). In the roundtable, we would have sought feedback and input on risks, usability, and additional use cases. We invite folks to reach out to us with questions or ideas about the work.
We launched Transparency Hub in March of this year, and it has already enabled research by students at Boston University, but its impact would’ve been multiplied by the global reach of the RightsCon audience. Researchers, journalists, and others interested in using or extending Transparency Hub, we’d love to hear from you.