How Tech is Changing Democracy Around the Globe: Mohamed Abubaker on democratic revolutions, here and abroad

To kick off the 4th season of Technically Human, I sit down with Mohamed Abubaker, the president of the African and Middle Eastern Leadership Project (AMEL), to talk about the present and the future state of democracy worldwide.

We discuss the role of social media in mobilizing democratic movements, including anti-autocratic movements in the Middle East and Africa, and its simultaneous role in the collapse of democratic norms in the United States. We talk about the future of both democracy and online networks, what it means to know of the lives of others virtually, and how global connection creates new possibilities for revolution.

Mohamed Abubakr is the president of the AMEL Project. AMEL empowers young activists from the Middle Eastern and African region, and connects them with one another and with peers, leaders and audiences in the global north, in order to advance human rights for all human beings. Using online platforms, social media networks, and technological innovation, AMEL provides training, mentoring, and advocacy to African and Middle Eastern activists, empowering them to step up their civil society activism, while at the same time building their skills and experience to ascend to top leadership positions.

Mohamed is a Sudanese human rights activist and peacemaker with a decade and a half of civil society experience. Since high school, he has founded and led organizations and initiatives focused on humanitarian, human rights, youth empowerment and peace programs across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) including in Darfur, South Sudan, Sudan, Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Territories and beyond. Mohamed has also documented, reported and mobilized against human rights abuses across MEA, and since arriving in the United States has become a sought after voice at the State Department and in Congress concerning policy and human rights issues in the region. 

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on your Desktop
Subscribe to the Feed