Social activist Monica Lewinsky, who calls herself the biggest victim of cyberbullying, is coming to Lithuania. What does a person go through who is mocked by Internet commentators all over the world? This is what a famous woman will tell at the innovation festival LOGIN 7, which will be held on June 8-2018.
"We invited Monica because we want to draw attention to the social, unfortunately often dark side of the Internet: the global network is not only an engine of innovation and progress, it is also a convenient medium for bullying. You humiliate another person with a light hand, thousands of others do the same. "News" quickly becomes of no interest to anyone, but do we wonder how the humiliated person feels?" says LOGIN 2018 director Indrė Chevalier.
Ms. Lewinsky went through the most difficult and painful phase of her life when she was 24 years old. In 1998, when the public found out about her and the then JAV relationship with President Bill Clinton, the woman was hit by an avalanche of bullying. For years afterward, she tried to straighten herself out, and only in recent years has she been able to speak out in a way that would be heard and silenced by a society that had scorned and hurt her.
Today, Ms. Lewinsky is an author, consultant, and activist advocating for a safer Internet, privacy, and equality. The American travels the world talking about her experiences and helping others fight bullying, and her talk "The price of shame" on the TED platform has been viewed over 12 million times. together.
Despite the worldwide scandal, Ms. Lewinsky managed to achieve an impressive career. Her 2014 Vanity Fair essay Shame and Survival was nominated for a National Magazine Award, and today Ms. Lewinsky serves as the publication's editor. Working with the global telecommunications company Vodafone, the woman launched the #BeStrong anti-bullying campaign in 2016. Also, Ms. Lewinsky cooperates with several global anti-bullying organizations - she is an ambassador for the "Diana Award's Anti-Bullying Program" in the United Kingdom and "Bystander Revolution" in the United States.
And although many years have passed, the trail of events from two decades ago haunts the woman to this day: painful events are repeatedly reminded of B. Clinton's wife Hillary's candidacy for the US president, Lewinsky's name is inflected in the context of political scandals, she is canceled from conferences and events attended by the Clintons.
M. Lewinsky, who has Lithuanian roots, whose grandfather Samuel M. Vilensky was a Lithuanian Jew, will read a report on people's behavior on the Internet and its consequences at the LOGIN 2018 festival, and will share insights about the future of the Internet and our responsibility in creating it.
LOGIN 2018, the largest innovation festival in the Baltic States, will take place on June 7-8 in the center of Vilnius - in the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater, in the Palace of Congresses and in the spaces between these two cultural centers. More than a hundred festival presentations are divided into eight themes, from blockchain to urban mobility, from fintech to design and society. The speakers of these topics will talk about them through the prisms of technology, creativity and entrepreneurship.
