A Digital Rights Unconference Is Coming to Beirut Under the Theme “Realities Reimagined”, Here Are the Details

Bread&Net, the annual digital rights gathering organized by SMEX, is returning to Beirut from October 14 to 16, 2026 for its eighth edition, bringing together digital rights defenders, journalists, technologists, researchers, artists, policymakers, and civil society organizations from across the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region.

This year’s theme is “Realities Reimagined,” inviting participants to think beyond the systems currently shaping our digital lives and imagine what technology, governance, infrastructure, and online communities could look like if they were built around justice, care, community, and sovereignty.

What will Bread&Net 2026 focus on?

Bread&Net 2026 is taking place against a much more immediate reality. With the ongoing Israeli aggression in Lebanon and Palestine and wider regional escalations continuing to affect communities across WANA, digital spaces have become increasingly tied to questions of surveillance, censorship, disinformation, digital security, displacement, and shrinking civic spaces.

The program will explore the relationship between technology, power, conflict, rights, and community resilience through four main themes:

1. Reimagining Technology Beyond Harm will look at alternatives to extractive and harmful technologies, as well as community-led approaches to building digital futures.

2. Reimagining Power, Accountability & Resistance will examine issues including surveillance, AI, conflict technologies, accountability, and technological sovereignty.

3. Reimagining Collective Power & Movement Building will focus on coalition-building, solidarity, cross-sector organizing, and sustaining movements under pressure.

4. Reimagining Crisis Response in Digital Spaces will address the realities facing communities across the region and the strategies needed to respond to crises safely and effectively.

Bread&Net will also continue its introductory track for newcomers, while an open track will leave room for emerging issues, experimental ideas, and conversations that don’t necessarily fit into the main themes.

That context will be part of this year’s gathering, with discussions looking at how communities can respond to urgent crises while continuing to protect digital rights and safety.

Arts, culture, and social entrepreneurship join the conversation

This year’s edition is also expanding the conversation beyond technology and advocacy. Arts and culture will have a larger role in the program, with discussions exploring how creativity, storytelling, and cultural expression can help communities understand and respond to the challenges they face.

The event will also feature exhibitions showcasing art from across Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA), bringing regional artistic perspectives into the conversation.

Bread&Net is also opening its doors to social entrepreneurs and changemakers working on digital challenges. The gathering will look at community-led and sustainable models that can turn ideas into action, bringing advocacy, technology, and entrepreneurship into the same conversation.

After eight years of bringing people working across digital rights and technology together, Bread&Net 2026 is positioning itself as a space to respond to what’s happening now while thinking about what comes next.

Bread&Net 2026 will take place in Beirut and online from October 14 to 16, 2026. To register, click here.

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