Conference
I Encuentro Internacional por los Derechos Digitaleswith Mobile World Capital Barcelona
Two days of debate on digital rights at the Llotja de Mar, promoted by the Government of Spain and Mobile World Capital Barcelona, with live captions on the screens next to the stage.
The gathering
On 13 and 14 May 2026, Barcelona’s Llotja de Mar hosted the first Encuentro Internacional por los Derechos Digitales (International Meeting for Digital Rights). It was promoted by the Government of Spain and Mobile World Capital Barcelona, under an agreement between Red.es and the Mobile World Capital Foundation to put the Charter of Digital Rights into practice.
The opening was attended by the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, María González Veracruz; the Catalan Minister for the Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero; and Barcelona’s Deputy Mayor Jordi Valls. The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, welcomed participants and called for rights to be as solid in the digital space as in the physical one.
It was presented as a space for understanding and debating the challenges of the digital environment in a clear and accessible way. It was not a gathering just for specialists: it was open to all of civil society. Its five themes were cybersecurity, digital democracy, identity and privacy, artificial intelligence and the protection of minors.
The event combined several formats. The main stage hosted conversations and debates; the Speakers Corner, a more intimate space, made room for emerging voices and new initiatives. In parallel, social organisations, foundations, associations and universities, such as UNICEF, Save the Children and Fundación ONCE, ran free workshops for the public. The announced programme also included activities on neurorights, debates with the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA) and projects by Fundación Gabo against disinformation. The event could also be followed via live stream.
The line-up
Names on the bill included:
- Frances Haugen, who brought the Facebook Papers to light
- Yael Eisenstat, digital policy expert and former Facebook executive
- Carissa Véliz, philosopher at the University of Oxford
- Carl Öhman, researcher
- Anu Bradford, professor at Columbia University
- Cory Doctorow, writer and activist
- Giuliano da Empoli, author of “The Wizard of the Kremlin”
Tomás de la Quadra-Salcedo and Joan Subirats were among the names announced for the Speakers Corner. And one of the round tables, “Balancing digital rights and sustainability in the age of technology”, brought digital rights and sustainability together.
What we set up
At the Llotja de Mar, Captions put live captions on the side screens, right next to whoever was speaking. The whole room could read each contribution as it was being made, without looking at a phone.
