In late March, Queers@Button, Button's newly formed LGBTQ+ employee resource group, hosted its inaugural event focusing on the intersection of tech and queer activism.

The event brought together a panel of experts to discuss the advantages and challenges of our new digital age, which included social media activists, tech researchers and experts on the global state of queer rights. The panel focused on how tech platforms are empowering queer people to connect like never before, but are also opening up new challenges for the community, like privacy and censoring of LGBTQ content.

One of the main topics of discussion for the panel was how queer people need these platforms to build communities, especially under hostile regimes. However, while every panelist agreed this has been a benefit of our interconnected age, everyone wanted to see tech companies do a better job of protecting the data and privacy of their users, since many foreign governments are seeking to crackdown on their queer citizens. Recent scandals like Grindr sharing the HIV status with a third party and Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal were brought up as examples of how tech companies must improve.

At Button we strive to provide a space for underrepresented communities in tech to gather and discuss the most important topics to their community. We were proud to host this panel and will be hosting many more through Queers@Button.

You can listen to the audio of the panel below.

[embed]https://soundcloud.com/wyatt-harms/tech-and-a-global-queer-consciousness-event[/embed]