Bread&Net 2025

Bread&Net fosters an open, safe, and diverse environment for knowledge exchange, resource sharing, and strategic collaboration. After a two-year hiatus, Bread&Net returns this October with a highly anticipated in-person gathering in Beirut, highlighting the urgent need for face-to-face dialogue.

The unconference will unite civil society groups, journalists, policymakers, technologists, lawyers, judges, scholars, and independent voices to critically examine the growing role of technology in the region. This gathering will be a vital space for sparking new conversations, developing adaptive strategies, and forging strong collaborations to navigate an increasingly complex and challenging landscape.

Register here: breadandnet.org

 

About Bread&Net

The internet was never neutral but we’ve always found ways to make it ours

For over five years, SMEX has stood with communities, activists, and organizers across West Asia and North Africa, pushing back against surveillance, censorship, and extractive tech. Now, we’re gathering again—not just to critique, but to co-create.

This October, join us for three days of questioning, imagining, and unexpected collaborations. We’ll map what’s broken, share what’s working, and build toward futures that feel more just—and more possible.

This isn’t a conference. It’s a living archive. A lab. A launchpad.

Come with impossible questions. Leave with ideas, allies, and maybe a little bit of fire to carry on the fight.

About SMEX

SMEX is a leading digital rights organization based in Beirut, dedicated to advancing human rights in the digital age across the WANA region. Each year, SMEX organizes Bread&Net, the region’s leading annual unconference on digital rights. We convene each year to map ongoing and new threats to online freedoms, strategize collective action, and bring the community together. Across three days, attendees will meet to strategize around the possibilities and challenges posed by the expansion of technology in the Arabic-speaking world. This gathering will serve as a crucial space for initiating critical dialogues and forging strong alliances towards a safe, free and open internet in West Asia and North Africa.

Register here: breadandnet.org