If there’s one thing I learned in 2025, it’s to shoot your shot.
Talk to folks in the elevator, take your headphones off while sitting on the train, make that new Instagram page you’ve been mulling over, send that connection request on LinkedIn.
I’m part of a small-business marketing group (hello Jess Bruno and co!) and we recently did a collab sprint whereby we had to reach out to 50 people related to our industry to chat with. The only aim was to get them on a 15 minute coffee call for a quick chat.
I was so surprised by people’s responsiveness and willingness to connect!
By easing the pressure off of strict outcomes (such as selling my services or booking an interview, for example) and writing a simple message, people seemed to really appreciate the outreach and didn’t at all feel bombarded or encroached upon.
All of these recent interactions reminded me of exactly how the upcoming trip to Africa came about.
What started as a quick text back in August from my amazing friend Mar:
“Hey Maria, I got this email from the Trust & Safety folks, maybe we should apply to write in this journal!”
Quickly spiralled into appyling to EDRi’s Privacy Camp 25’ in Belgium last September (which we got accepted to despite having no prior presentation experience in this area!). We were 1 of only 10 applications selected out of over 200 and were so chuffed to be part of this!!
Kali Sudhra, Mar Diez Henao and I gave a workshop at European Digital Rights Privacy Camp on shadowbanning as a form of digital violence and how opaque moderation systems silence women’s, non-binary, and marginalised voices in women's health, pleasure, and education.
Together, we unpacked what shadowbanning really is (and how it differs from censorship and deplatforming), and traced its roots in post-2018 FOSTA/SESTA “safety” policies.
We explored the real-world impacts such as lost income, psychological harm, self-censorship, and showed real-life examples of posts that were shadowbanned (including our own Instagram shadowbanned posts) compared with bigger-audience, more explicit pages who's posts are continually allowed on the platform.
This trip to Belgium then plunged us into the depths of the data privacy and digital rights world, where we decided to once again, shoot our shot, and apply to RightsCon. RightsCon is world’s leading summit on human rights in the digital age, and will take place in May 2026 in Lusaka, Zambia.
Taking what we learned from the Privacy Camp workshop, we submitted three proposals, all around the censorship of women’s bodies on Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs). We were excited that we had a chance at getting accepted, but also not holding out much hope as we’re pulling from new work experience as well as personal interests in these topics. It’s not like we’re scholars who conduct research into online censorship and harms as part of our daily work.
And yet, we knew that these topics needed more airtime, marginalised voices need to be represented at conferences such as RightsCon, and governments need to change their approaches in how they engage with Big Tech infrastructure.
You can imagine our absolute delight when we received the emails that two of the proposals were accepted. And the week before Christmas too! What a present.
One of the proposals is a private meeting, and the session will be organised so that each facilitator shares their experiences with censorship and the effects of losing community. To understand how the lack of clear guidelines often impacts sex workers and women’s health educators and businesses, without proper reasoning as to why their posts are taken down. This conversation aims to forge an alliance with LGBTQ+ collectives, Indigenous communities, reproductive rights advocates, sex workers, and other marginalized groups.
The second proposal is a roundtable, entitled “Sex Sells, Until You Are Shadowbanned: Analysing Strategies to Overcome Censorship.” This roundtable will be an open discussion that anyone who has registed to RightsCon can join, and it will be held both in-person and online (you can register here!) where we will be discussing similar experiences and strategies of shadowbanning and censorship but through a wider lens. Dr. Zahra Stardust, sex worker, activist and researcher, Martha Dimitratou of ReproUncensored, Kali Sudhra who is the new Executive Director of European Sex Worker Rights’ Alliance, Mar Diez, Cybersecurity Lawyer, and I, will be the roundtable facilitators. It’s going to be a wonderful line up and I can’t wait to share our learnings and experiences post-RightsCon, as we’d like to
We also applied to the initial Trust and Safety journal that first triggered all of these interests, that Mar text me about. This specific journal covered the theme of Digital Intersectionality and Marginalisation in the Majority World which is also right up our lane.
DÍOS MÍO thank god we didn’t get that, or we would have been researching and writing a 10,000 word article due in March (I think?!), while also preparing for RightsCon WHILE doing our regular day jobs.
Long story short; there are no coincidences and there’s a solid reason you get the chances and as much of a reason why you don’t.
All I do know is, and not to sound cheesy hehe, but you miss 100% of the chances you never take.
SO SHOOT YOUR SHOT!
Send that message, apply for that job, wink at that hottie at the bar, fly to Porto to meet that cute guy you spoke with a handful of times at the running club (yes, I am writing to you from Porto right now, less than one week before I fly to Africa. Gotta take those chances, amirite?!), book the Kilimanjaro hike not one week after the most intense conference you’re presenting at…
Boy am I glad we made all of these lovely connections, and kept reaching out to different networks. I must thank Mar because she is signed up to all of these digital rights newsletters and is incredibly clued in with what is happening in the world at a data policy level, which, the more I get into this world, the more I realise how it is so important to stay informed even from a general public perspective. After all, we spend so much time on the internet, these rules and regs will have massive implications the world over on how our data is processed.
I also haven’t even mentioned but the week after the conference, as any normal humans do to wind down after a mind-blowing and hectic conference, Mar and I are taking on Kilimanjaro! During rainy season!! Haha porqué no?!
I am seriously questionining my will to live right now, but also, what’s life without a mad adventure or two (or three) with your best friends. <3 You folks know I like my plots thick and juicy.
Catch you on the flip side!
Maria
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