09 November 2026

Inside Our 4D 2026 Event

/ Digital Rights | Privacy | Data | AI | NetNeutrality | Algorithms

Last October 29, we celebrated our biggest event of the year: the 4D Conference, now in its third edition, organised by Xnet and Accent Obert as part of Mozilla Festival, within OpenTechWeek, held in Barcelona.

Mocking Power, Making Change: Humour as a Political Tool

Under the motto “Mocking Power, Making Change”, the E1 space generously provided to us by MozFest was packed to the brim with people ready to laugh at power and explore how humour can become a tool for political transformation in the face of Big Tech abuses.

We kicked off the event with Everyone Hates Elon, who showed us how ridiculing billionaires can make their stock prices fall. Because, as they reminded us: “We don't have a trillion dollars, but we're funnier than Elon Musk. Although the bar wasn't exactly set very high.”

Next, we travelled from the past to the present with Pessimists Archive, the largest archive documenting moral panics surrounding new technologies. We discovered, for example, that when bicycles first appeared, some media outlets warned that they would make women ugly or even give them appendicitis. The real concern, it turned out, was that women would have to wear trousers and could go wherever they pleased, beyond anyone's control.

These panics are still recurring today. As our colleague Simona Levi, from Xnet, reminded us: “Whenever a technology emerges that can transmit knowledge and power, a hegemonic technophobic discourse appears, announcing the end of the world and trying to prevent people from learning how to use these tools.”

4D Awards: Digital Rights by Design

The event was an opportunity to recognise those who turn the defence of digital rights into action, stepping in where institutions fail to fulfil their responsibilities. Once again, we presented awards to the winning projects of the third edition of the 4D Call for Projects, Digital Rights by Design.

“It's strange to receive an award for doing what institutions should be doing,” commented a member of La Mar de Citas, one of the award-winning projects, alongside Primer Pas, for their outstanding work tackling the resale of public administration appointments.

The legal mechanism developed by Fundació Guifi.net and the European Legal Lab for the Commons were also recognised for their work defending the internet in the courts.

Installations, Digital Culture and Humour to Round Off the Day

And that wasn't all. Throughout the three-hour event, visitors had the chance to interact with installations by Domestic Data Streamers, including their Skeptic Reader, winner of the 2024 4D Award.

All of this was seasoned with the ever-present video news reports from El Mundo Today and The Juice Media, joined this year by The Enshittificator, from the Norwegian Consumer Council.

Craft beer provided the perfect finishing touch to an afternoon full of ideas, humour, technology and Digital Rights.

Thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make it happen.

More to come!

 

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