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Overview

Bread&Net is SMEX’s annual gathering for journalists, activists, technologists, researchers, lawyers, academics, and human rights and digital rights defenders from across West Asia and North Africa.

Every year, our impact grows as more participants join us in Beirut.

Bread&Net exists to turn ongoing discussions on technical tools and resources from abstract policy into real, tangible action. We believe that this vision can be achieved by providing a safe and open space for peer-to-peer exchange, network building, and honest conversation on what it takes to build a more equitable digital sphere, and how we can navigate the digital ecosystem to make it happen.

This timeline shows the progression of Bread&Net since it came to be.

2018
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The first Bread&Net brought together 200 people for 35-panel discussions—almost all entirely in Arabic—to probe diverse fields such as policy in difficult contexts, networks and communities, culture and knowledge production, and language and localization.

2019
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Bread&Net coincided with the October uprisings which started in Beirut, Lebanon, Bread&Net’s host city. The movement was initially triggered by additional taxes on a number of products and services, including VoIP calls on applications such as WhatsApp. The protests immediately turned into a country-wide revolt against the government’s incompetence.

At that time, sessions at Bread&Net were especially focused on freedom of speech, digital security and safety, and online mobilization and advocacy during political upheaval and social change.

SMEX took sessions into public squares and streets, with discussions exploring possibilities for creating networks of solidarity across different Arabic-speaking countries that were undergoing similar transitions.

2020 - 2021
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During the pandemic, SMEX held Bread&Net online and broadcasted the sessions live for the first time. This expanded the reach of the community and invited new voices to take part in the gathering.

Discussions centered around adjusting to a new reality of mostly digital presence. Speakers addressed growing threats to data privacy and security, especially with COVID-19 contact-tracing apps.

2022
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Bread&Net 2022 was hosted in November 2022 as a hybrid model conference with 104 sessions under 19 thematic tracks. Around 800 people attended, which was the largest gathering of Bread&Net’s history to that point.

2023
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Due to Israel’s war on Gaza and Lebanon in late 2023, Bread&Net was postponed and was not held in any format. Despite the hardships that faced our team during that time, we remained in close contact with our communities and partners, maintaining our commitment by covering digital rights abuses during the war.

2024 online
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As the war continued to escalate, Bread&Net moved online under the theme: “Digital Rights in Times of War,” bringing together participants from West Asia and North Africa to address some of the most pressing digital rights issues that emerged over the past year. It became even clearer to us that humanitarian crises in the region have heightened the urgency of addressing digital rights.

2025
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After a two-year hiatus, Bread&Net returned to Beirut, welcoming more than 550 participants from across the region. The gathering featured discussions spanning 15 thematic tracks, creating space for much-needed and timely exchange.

We truly witnessed movement-building in real time.

Read about it here.

2026
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Bread&Net is continuing this year.

Following its strong comeback in 2025, the community will gather again this October in Beirut to explore, rethink, and reimagine the evolving realities shaping the digital rights spaces. Join us for three vibrant days of conversations around digital rights.

Have a session idea? Submit your proposal at breadandnet.org.

News from Bread & Net

26 May 2026

Bread&Net 2025: Explore the Outcomes Reports

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28 Jan 2026

Bread&Net 2025: Building a collective movement for digital rights in the WANA region

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22 Apr 2025

Bread&Net: Save the Date!

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