In recent years, it’s become abundantly clear that far from fulfilling their potential to be powerful forces for good, Big Tech, social media platforms, and AI companies continue to erode human rights and social justice around the world.
Addressing these harms cannot wait. At Luminate, we are evolving to meet this challenge.
By 2026 all our work will challenge the unchecked harms and outsized power of these companies, especially where this disproportionately impacts marginalised people. We want greater oversight and accountability of the design, development, and use of technology to ensure it respects human rights and social justice.
This is an extension of work we have been doing for years. Since 2018, we have supported more than 500 grantees with over $370 million, much of which focuses on increasing global tech accountability, including:
- Enabling TechHer’s work in Nigeria to address online gender-based violence, developing and deploying KURAM, a platform that records incidents, provides resources, and opportunities to access justice.
- Funding Civic Compass, an organisation researching the perceptions and impact of AI regulation across five countries in Latin America, to inform policymakers shaping AI laws.
- Establishing the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM), which supports independent journalism in low and middle-income countries, and confronts challenges to media posed by new technologies.
- Funding Ius Omnibus’s class action against Flo Health, Inc. for the way its app illegally tracked, shared, and sold Portuguese women’s highly sensitive personal health information.
- Supporting movements like Open Rights Group, Ekō, and Uplift to mobilise people campaigning for data rights and digital privacy around the world.
To help our partners do this important work, we are improving the support we provide. We will continue to provide multi-year, unrestricted funding and offer beyond-the-grant support that enables our partners to do their best work and build resilient organisations. At the same time, we are working to simplify our processes, reduce reporting requirements, and streamline payments.
We want to be part of the collective response needed to address the increasing pace and scale of the harms Big Tech, social media platforms, and AI companies are creating now. From climate change to gender rights to racial equality, we want to ensure our future is one where technology works for, and not against, people and society.