Encrypted Resistance: Youth Revolt in Memes, Art & Metadata

Event ID: PP1162439

Wed, Mar 18, 2026 | 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Venue: Salon D (Hilton Austin Downtown)

View on Official SXSW

Summary

As authoritarian regimes from Beijing to Tehran expand digital control through AI-powered surveillance, censorship algorithms, and language policing, free expression faces coordinated attack. These systems now share tools of repression across borders. In response, youth resist in whispers—through irony, creativity, and digital dexterity, they craft encrypted defiance. This panel explores how coded memes, subversive slang, guerrilla art, edgy rap lyrics and diaspora networks fuel encrypted defiance, reshaping protest through cracks in the digital firewall—online and on the ground.

Contributors

Raw Event JSON

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