April 2023 | Digital Rights Regional Briefs
Danae Tapia, Global Community Manager & Resident Hechicera
Welcome to a new release of our regional briefs!
Our community leads: Astha from Asia, Islam from MENA, Mardiya from Africa and Úrsula from Latin America are bringing updated and critical information about digital justice issues around the globe. Our reports cover Current Opportunities for Digital Rights Defenders, Emerging Topics on Digital Justice, Community News, Regional News And Updates.
This is another month where we see plenty of discussions regarding misinformation. It has become very clear that this is a concept that has been appropriated by political factions from all sides at the moment of accusing rivals and defending their agendas.
After many years working in this space, I can confidently affirm that the fight for digital rights and public interest technologies will certainly exceed this discussion and our interest will stay with digital rights defenders. This month for instance you can read a brief interview with Ola Bini and Sara Zambrano from Centro de Autonomía Digital in Ecuador who are discussing the recent developments around Bini’s case.
If you know about individuals or groups working on issues that should be reported in our briefs please let us know. Your contribution can help us move forward with our goals of promoting fresh and critical viewpoints on digital justice issues :)
Danae
Global Community Manager
Asia Regional Brief
Africa Regional Brief
Latin America Regional Brief
MENA Regional Brief
Author: Mardiya Siba Yahaya
Mardiya Siba Yahaya is our Africa Community Lead. She is a feminist digital sociologist, researcher and community movement builder whose work extensively investigates the implications of technology surveillance and datafied societies on minoritized genders and communities in the global South. She has a Masters in Sociology from the University of the Witwatersrand, and was awarded the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship in 2021. Mardiya recently participated in the fall 2022 research sprint hosted by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society on “Digital IDs in Times of Crisis”.
Africa Regional Brief
Current Opportunities for Digital Rights Defenders
Discord is hiring platform policy fellows from Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Ghana, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, South Korea, or Thailand
Sparkable is looking to hire a Frontend Developer who shares our passion for digital rights and a better information environment (Rolling Application).
Institute for Security Studies is looking for a Research Officer to work on issues relating to African countries’ collective engagements within global multilateral institutions, and the continent’s major international peace and security partners. Apply by May 5, 2023.
Pollicy is seeking a strategy consultant to develop a 3-year strategic plan. Apply by May 15, 2023.
Emerging Topics on Digital Justice in Africa
Sim Card Surveillance: The Case of Zambia
New directives are requiring users’ photographs to get a sim card. Advocacy and strategic litigation groups are designing favorable Digital Justice spaces in Africa as a response.
Zambia joins many other African countries in implementing a mandate for all sim card registrations to include users’ live photographs. In countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda, sim registrations include collection of biometric data such as fingerprints and live photographs. Users have no access to information on how this data is stored, processed or protected.
A digital justice practitioner and lawyer, who we will refer to as Lusanda, shared a recent incident where a client of hers posted a picture on Facebook. The Zambian law enforcement requested Meta to provide information on the account and later followed up with the mobile service provider to access information on who the number associated with the Facebook account belonged to. Lusanda explained that sim card registrations to include live photos has become a new means of collecting data and making people traceable.
Beyond the cases of surveillance and interception of communication, the rushed nature of the new mandate made mobile service providers request users to share their images on Whatsapp for a quick re-registration or risk being cut off. This also created additional security risks, where identity theft and other forms of targeting are involved. When one registers for a sim, they are required to provide passport or biometric identification information. Including their picture increases risks at points where a person’s full information is available.
Advocacy and Strategic Litigation Groups Responses
Lusanda highlighted that under the Zambia Data Protection Act, governments and state institutions are required to conduct an impact assessment before rolling out such sensitive and large scale data collection schemes. The digital justice groups are also working with the state regulators in charge of the new directive to identify some of the ramifications associated with data collection in this manner without the adequate measures, which she believes Zambia has no capacity for.
Lusanda explained that as new legislation is being introduced to govern digital and technology mediums, provision for critical online freedom, its impacts on rights of association and how information is shared is being overlooked. She also shared that while there are progressive provisions passed in other legislatures such as the Zambia Cyber Security Act. It still leaves room for discretion with most terminologies undefined.
For Lusanda, digital justice advocates, public interest technologists and non-technical stakeholders including citizens are often reactive only when drastic political incidents occur. She suggests that we ask proactive questions on such directives to come up with appropriate countermeasures.
A significant aspect of Lusanda’s work also involves taking lessons from other countries such as Kenya. The Kenyan government is currently being challenged by digital rights groups against implementing new sim card registration requirements.
Lusanda concluded by saying that it is important for citizens to access resources that allow them to push back on some of these governance practices by suing the state. However, awareness raising needs to go beyond the parameters and lingo of public interest technologists and advocates. It must enable non-technical communities to understand the implications of live photos and biometric data being collected for their sim cards.
AirQo: A Case Study of Good Practices and Approaches that Produce Tech that Works with Targeted Populations
The case of AirQo illuminates community-based techniques for designing affordable alternatives for otherwise inaccessible and expensive technologies. The initiative also leverages local cultures on transportation preferences to effectively track pollution to enable sustainable climate solutions.
AirQo was created to address air pollution in Uganda by testing the air quality in multiple locations in the country. The creator explains that data on air pollution in the country was not available because of the extremely high cost of sensors, which were only being used in 6 African countries. This inspired him to create more affordable sensors with his team, which they install on Motorbikes to scan at least 100 locations in a day and to collect air quality data (motorbikes - or Bobadoba as they are called locally - are one of the key modes of transportation in Uganda) Other sensors are also placed on buildings and traffic lights all across the country beyond Kampala. This has provided accurate data for the government to begin adopting climate and environmental protection policies and enforcing practices using AirQo’s sensors.
Community News in Africa
Introducing Sparkable: An Initiative by Vardon Hamdiu, Aumarh and other Amazing Technologists
We came across Sparkable when Aumarh, one of our community members, shared the news of their new work during our monthly engagement with the community. For this month, we briefly spoke with Vardon Hamdiu, the Sparkable co-founder to understand how the platform came to being and how it works.
What inspired the creation of Sparkable?
Vardon Hamdiu: I worked in a communications job for half a decade where I had to read around 400 news articles every day. During the same time, I lived in South Africa for half a year and worked with refugees. The gap between what I experienced and what I read in the news made me realize emotionally what was going wrong with the systems that govern our collective attention. Today’s information environment is dominated by the advertisement business model and heavily concentrated on a few giant technology corporations for whom attention and profit maximization are more important than social cohesion and progress. This has led to hyper-personalized filter bubbles, extreme societal polarization, hate speech, the erosion of human rights and democratic norms, and countless other issues.
This realization made me set out to invent a fundamentally new not-for-profit business model for the Internet, in which all incentives work towards a better information environment. One that brings out the best in us instead of the worst, by rewarding the creation of mutual understanding instead of attention-grabbing. Unity instead of division.
I was very lucky to find Aumarh and some other inspiring folks to bring this effort to life, and thanks to their amazing, relentless work we have just recently been able to release the first version of this new platform called Sparkable.
Can you provide a brief description of how it works?
VH: How it works:
On Sparkable, you can submit links to transformative content on the internet which has increased your understanding of other people or the world.
Every other week you vote to send other people’s submissions which had this transformative effect on you to the next stage. There will be 4 different stages.
You can either see all submissions freely or choose to go to the later stages to see less but better content. For this later-stage privilege of seeing only the most insightful submissions, you contribute a little bit.
Your contribution is split and redistributed to everyone who submitted the content or voted for it, as well as the platform. This will make the system circular and self-sustaining, and therefore free of the need for third parties like advertisers or such. It aligns the financial incentives of everyone on the platform with the vision of a better information environment.
Our model can be best described as the paywall flipped on its head, and that’s summed up in this picture:
Here is a 4 min-video explanation of this. Sparkable is currently in the process of renaming the project to Butterfly: What is Sparkable (Butterfly)?
Quarter Year Reflection of 2023 Goals: Are we resting as anticipated?
In our 2022/2023 community health report, we highlighted the community’s reference to needing to rest. We wanted to check in with a few members on how far we are with this goal slightly over a quarter into the year. Through semi-casual conversations, one of the key sentiments shared is that resting remains a distant dream. The community believes that we would not be able to rest with continuous state and government surveillance, violence, over regulation and current attempts to stifle what they require as ‘too much freedom’. With new anti-human rights bills, which are extending to how online spaces are governed with a specific attempt to threaten safe spaces of minoritized communities, resting may have to come as a practice of resistance amid chaos.
Regional News in Africa
Two TikTok users were jailed for 11 days in Kano in Northern Nigeria for posting a satirical video on alleged corruption scandals against a governor of the state. The arrest is among multiple cases where religious laws, specifically Sharia, are used as the basis to target and censor online creators. This also recently happened in Egypt. Other women creators shared experiencing discrimination in school for being a TikTok creator. One was threatened with being expelled from school. The content creator in the Rest of World’s article shared that she opted to withdraw from Islamic school to continue making videos. Yet, the other creators who have been previously fined and arrested decided to refrain from engaging in political subjects on TikTok.
Digital lender, Whitepath, impersonated a borrower, Micheal, and shared messages with his family and friends claiming that he was attempting suicide due to defaulted loans. Micheal only found out after a friend reached out to understand why he wanted to kill himself. The reports shared that Whitepath employees began threatening Michaels life, while harassing his colleagues and acquaintances whom they falsely claimed were his referees. Whitepath, just like many other lending apps, requires users to share contact information. For example, pictures used to impersonate Michael were probably acquired through Whatsapp. This is part of a larger issue with digital loan apps in Africa who use borrowers’ information available to then threaten, shame and harass borrowers who default on payments.
Uber and Bolt threatened to revoke the new drivers’ union license. In response, the Amalgamated Union of App-based Transport Workers of Nigeria (AUATWON) threatened a ‘million-man protest’. AUATWON is a newly formed union which was granted authority by the Nigerian Trade Unions Act in January. This significant win for ride hailing drivers is currently being contested by Uber and Bolt through a letter to the Labour Ministry challenging the legality of decision arguing that the drivers are independent contractors and not employees, thus cannot be part of a union. The goal of the letter by the two ride hailing companies is to challenge the Labour Ministry to revoke platform workers’ certificate to unionize and participate in key decision making on their working conditions. While Uber and Bolt claim they are determined to keep open negotiations with drivers, the provision of a trade union license to Nigerian ride hailing app workers is a major step toward recognizing present labour practices in legal jurisdictions.
Reads:
LONDA - Paradigm Initiative: Londa is a Zulu word for action to protect or defend. This report by Paradigm Initiative provides advocacy tools for engaging with different stakeholders in the reported countries and critical recommendations for improving the digital space.
Author: Astha Rajvanshi
Astha Rajvanshi is an independent journalist based in Mumbai, where she writes on gender, marginalized communities, and human rights across India and South Asia. Recently, she was awarded the Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award by New York University. As part of her reporting in India, she is currently examining tech surveillance and internet shutdowns. Previously, she was a Fellow for the Institute of Current World Affairs in Washington DC. She has also worked for the New York Times Magazine and Reuters in New York. She was born in New Delhi and raised in Sydney as a proud daughter of immigrants.
Asia Regional Brief
Current Opportunities for Digital Rights Defenders in Asia
Access Now is hiring a Director of Policy and International Programs across regions and a Policy Analyst for East Asia. Deadline not specified. Apply here.
Unicef is hiring a Consultant: Digital Marketing Strategist in Beijing to support cutting-edge digital communication efforts across UNICEF China. Deadline not specified. Apply here.
Emerging Topics on Digital Justice in Asia
How TikTok is impacting elections in Southeast Asia
In Southeast Asia, nearly 650 million people have become increasingly mobile internet-savvy over the last few years, which has also resulted in the rapid growth and presence of TikTok in the region. TikTok's short, digestible and easy-to-share videos have not only attracted individual users and companies, but also savvy politicians, political parties and advocacy groups to spread their messages.
But this uptick in the use of the platform has also seen unique challenges. The U.S. and European Union have banned TikTok from government employees' phones, citing ‘security risks,’ while in Asia, some countries, like Indonesia in 2018 and India in 2020, have already previously banned the platform. Others, like Thailand and Vietnam, have considered banning it for different political reasons, like the spread of election disinformation or the misuse of the platform for campaigning by political opponents. In response, TikTok in the last few years has localized most of its content guidelines in individual countries by appointing local content moderators — which often translates into strict censorship of local content.
Now, digital rights activists are increasingly paying attention to this dynamic, in large part due to the related events in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.
In Thailand, home to over 40.3 million TikTok users, the country’s election commission recently announced a partnership with the platform to monitor disinformation and communicate with young voters ahead of the general election in May. TikTok will launch an election center on the app to communicate information from official sources. It will also ban paid political advertising, and any political influencers spreading disinformation will also be banned and removed by moderators. The initiative appears to be a part of the efforts by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to shore up credibility ahead of the polls. Chanida Kiyphun, the head of public policy at TikTok Thailand, told reporters that they “are pleased that ECT recognizes the efficiency of our platform as a channel to communicate with the young generation of voters,". TikTok also said that it will take key learnings from previous elections, like the challenges in Malaysia and Philippines, to feed into how it prepares for the upcoming election.
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch for Asia, made the point that "It's not clear how TikTok would judge other political content as 'disinformation' so as to not engage in censorship, and that's what is worrisome.” The latest report released by DigitalReach speaks to this directly: it looks at the rise of TikTok in Southeast Asia and how it actively propagated misinformation, disinformation and mal-information during the 2022 general elections in the Philippines and Malaysia.
Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand Cases
In the Philippines, TikTok removed more than 9.6 million videos that violated community guidelines between April to June 2022. During the May 2022 polls, individuals admitted that they accepted large sums to work in troll farms operated by political groups, while first-time voters were fed videos whitewashing the legacy of dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who ruled for two decades. As a result, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was the biggest beneficiary of fake news in last year's election.
Similarly, in Malaysia, political parties like Pakatan Harapan and the United Malays National Organization used TikTok to reach 6 million new voters after the voting age was lowered to 18. TikTok Malaysia took down three videos for insinuating that race riots could recur after the general election in November. The videos deemed in violation of TikTok's community guidelines against hate speech.
Similarly in Thailand, TikTok announced prior to the Malaysian election that paid political content would not be allowed. However, determining whether an influencer's post is based on personal beliefs or prompted by an undisclosed payment is always going to be a filtering challenge. As digital rights expert Nuurrianti Jalli points out, without proper oversight, TikTok could be a breeding ground for groups that engage in cyber activities, often with the goal of influencing public opinion.
Similarly, the DigitalReach report warns that in future elections in Southeast Asia, it is “highly likely” that information disorders via video format will play “a significant role similar to that witnessed in the Philippines and Malaysia”. It suggests that to tackle this issue, TikTok should enhance AI and machine learning algorithms with diverse data sets for improved propaganda detection. "Despite positioning itself as an entertainment platform, it is clear that the platform content extends well beyond the field of entertainment. It is this growth in dangerous content that poses a threat to human rights and democracy, and that requires the urgent action of the platform to manage the situation and to become more accountable," DigitalReach said.
Community News in Asia
A protest in the Philippines against digital state surveillance. Image’s source: Junk SIM Registration Network.
DigitalReach has released its latest report detailing the digital rights situation in Southeast Asia. It covers how technology has impacted on human rights and democracy in 8 South East Asian countries from 2022 on. Read more here.
Media Defence has released modules on freedom of expression and digital rights designed as a reference guide for lawyers litigating cases of digital rights in South and Southeast Asia. Read more here.
In an interview with Global Voices, the human rights group Viet Tan shared a recent study about Vietnam’s military cyber unit, Force 47, which has been linked to vicious troll operations on Facebook that target state critics and activists. Read the signed letter with 60 other global groups urging Meta to review its policies and decisions affecting human rights groups.
Regional News & Updates in Asia
Mongolia rejects proposed controversial social media bill: The Parliament of Mongolia voted to uphold the veto of the country’s president on the proposed Law on the Protection of Human Rights in Social Media on March 17.
SEEMA magazine interviewed technology lawyer Mishi Choudhary, the founder of Software Freedom Law Center, India and an IFEX council member, on the aims of the center in campaigning for digital rights in India. Read more here.
Author: Úrsula Schüler
Úrsula Schüler was born and raised in Chile, South America. She studied journalism in her home country and a Digital media marketing postgraduate program in Canada. She has more than seven years of experience working in newspapers and television channel websites, for whom reported two presidential and legislative elections in Chile. She has also done internal communication for universities, companies, and organizations. Spanish is her first language and years ago she was a student representative in high school and her university.
LATAM Regional Brief
Current Opportunities for Digital Rights Defenders in LATAM
Access Now is looking for a Director of Policy and International Programs. More details here.
Indela in Panama will receive projects from the civil society that delve into the intersection between technology and human rights. Deadline: May 15, 2023.
RightsCon will be held on June 5 to 8, 2023 in Costa Rica. Register for a free online ticket here or request a free or discounted in-person ticket here.
Festival de Datos is happening in Punta del Este, Uruguay from November 7 to 9, 2023.
Discord is hiring for Platform Policy Fellow on a contractual basis. Read more and apply here.
Emerging Topics on Digital Justice in LATAM
Digital Rights Challenges in Ecuador and Ola Bini's Case: Despite Being Declared Innocent, the Cybersecurity Expert Still Faces Hard Legal Restrictions
Ola Bini, the Swedish free software developer and computer security expert, was finally declared innocent in Ecuador in January. It was the first time a verdict was made about cyber security in Ecuador. It was also unanimous. However, the criminal prosecution against him for alleged computer violations has been ongoing since 2019 and has been plagued with irregularities and due process violations. Despite the verdict, Ola Bini is still facing hard legal restrictions in Ecuador. His bank accounts are frozen, he is forced to attend weekly presentations at the Prosecution office (Fiscalía), and he is prohibited from leaving the country.
Team CommUNITY (TCU) wanted to learn more about Ecuador's Digital Rights challenges and Ola Bini's case. We spoke to Sara Zambrano, Executive director of Centro de Autonomía Digital (Spanish for Digital Autonomy Center) and Ola Bini himself, the center’s founder and technical director.
Please tell us about Centro de Autonomía Digital (CAD) and your roles in the organization?
Sara Zambrano: CAD is a non-profit organization that works for defense of human rights in the digital world by means of the development of Free/Libre and Open-Source Software (FLOSS) tools that enhance privacy and security of end users in the Global South and also by means of education of the civil society. My role in CAD is the Executive director, which means that I'm in charge of strategic planning, fund management, decision making and coordination between the admin and technical areas.
Ola Bini: I am the founder of CAD and I'm also the technical director. This means that I write software together with our developers. I also lead the technical work, deciding on directions, managing operational security concerns and do the mentoring of our more junior people.
I started CAD in 2017, because I saw that technical organizations working on developing software to protect digital rights didn’t exist in the Global South. Almost all organizations have another focus, and this was something that was missing.
From your point of view, what are the main challenges related to digital rights in Ecuador?
SZ: The main challenges related to digital security in Ecuador, in my opinion, are connected to deep root causes like the huge inequality that exists in the population. Despite having one of the highest rates of internet penetration in Latin America, there's very little understanding of how technology works and therefore, people's understanding of risks, threats, measures of protection and rights are very precarious. People tend to prefer what is faster and easier instead of things that provide protection to rights, like privacy. Also, there aren't enough spaces for discussion about these subjects outside of academic and highly specialized groups.
OB: I completely agree with all of this. Now, this is also connected to the lack of knowledge and understanding of technology. Basically, the problems of the region made it hard to acquire the experience to properly protect themselves - and because of this, it's easy to fall into a pattern where things keep getting worse.
How does the lack of knowledge in digital rights affect the general population?
SZ: This affects the general population in ways that they aren't even aware. The fact that they don't know the high degree of exposure they are subject to every day, every minute, makes it possible that they don't realize they need to put measures in place to be protected. At the same time, they don't understand that there are ways to circumvent the huge expansion and impact of big tech corporations that impose irrational terms and conditions to use a service. Not knowing that you have rights makes you more vulnerable.
How did the lack of knowledge in digital rights among the legal prosecutors (el fiscal del caso) or judges affect Ola Bini’s case?
SZ: We could see the effects of the lack of knowledge about digital rights in the legal case against our technical director, Ola Bini. He was being forced to provide the passwords to all his devices without even being told what crime he was being accused of. We also saw it when there was a clear discrimination to the work of infosec researchers by treating them as criminals; also when they tried to portray the use of encryption and privacy-preserving tools (like Tor) as something suspicious. There are so many things in this point, but maybe those three are among the most important, in my opinion.
Ola Bini, please could you mention what measures you are forced to follow despite being ratified innocent after the last trial in Ecuador? Will you have to face new legal stages?
OB: At the moment, we are still waiting for the written resolution from my trial. The oral resolution was delivered on January 31st, but the tribunal has to deliver the written resolution, which means their verdict has been done. At that point, the parties have three days to appeal. In that case, the situation will go to the province court. After that it can go to the National court, and in some cases to the Constitutional court. After that, depending on how it goes, [the next stage] are the international courts of the Latin American system. This whole process can potentially take many more years.
I am still with the same restrictions I have been under since I was released from prison: frozen bank accounts, weekly presentation at Fiscalía (Prosecutor Office), and prohibition from leaving the country. In theory, this could be lifted with the written resolution, but it could also stay in effect until the end of the process.
There is always the chance of other legal processes showing up, if we are successful in this one. But it's impossible to predict at this stage.
Community News in LATAM
Brazilian researchers launched a Manifesto for the country’s platform work regulation
The researchers and academic associations urge the Labour Ministry led by Luiz Marinho to uphold workers' rights and listen to the needs of the platform’s workers and the evidence of research in the draft of the new regulation. Read the Manifesto here.
AIRE: The documentary about the massive closure of radio stations in Venezuela
2022 was the year with the most closures of radio stations in all of Venezuela. More than a hundred stations were visited or received a call from the censorship body of the regime, ordering the microphones to be turned off. The documentary tells the daily life of Juan, a public worker from Sucre whose hobby is tuning into radio stations inside and outside Venezuela. AIRE is a RedesAyuda documentary, produced by Sincecepto Filme, by Rafael Hernández, Maryorin Méndez and Melanio Escobar. Watch it here.
Joint statement: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and the United States must terminate their agreements to exchange migrants biometric data
In 2013, Mexico had a non-binding memorandum of cooperation with the United States, which allows the cross-border exchange of biometric data and other personal data of migrants. This agreement was updated in 2017. Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador also had a similar agreement in 2014.
The signatory organizations demanded that the governments of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and the United States to terminate the cooperation agreements, as long as the necessary safeguards to guarantee respect for the human rights of migrants are not met. Read the joint statement here.
Latin America Meetup hosted by Team CommUNITY
The Latin America Meetup hosted by Team CommUNITY (TCU) was held on April 19th. You can read the notes of the meetup here.
Regional News and Updates in LATAM
Mexican army spied on two more human rights defenders with Pegasus
The forensic analysis carried out by the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto revealed that two members of the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Centro Prodh) had their mobile devices infected by thePegasus malware. These two new cases line up to those already denounced by the Guacamaya leaks and Mexican organizations. Read more here.
Bolivian court uses ChatGPT to consult legal criteria against journalists
Three independent journalists from Bolivia were trialed criminally with help of "artificial intelligence" from the ChatGPT system. The journalists' lawyer criticized that the queries made to ChatGPT were manipulative, which conditioned the responses. Ironically, a Bolivian media outlet consulted the ChatGPT tool about this use and the chatbot answered that "it cannot be used as a basis for judicial decisions" and that it is "not a substitute for human experience, legal understanding and critical analysis."
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Author: Islam al Khatib
Islam al Khatib is a Palestinian feminist born and raised in Beirut. She researches feminism(s), hegemonies in the 'technocene', ecologies, and grief. Her work focuses on the methods and the processes with which we produce knowledge. She has a Masters in Gender, Media and Culture from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she also worked as the Students' Union Welfare and Liberation officer. She is a member of Wiki Gender.
MENA Regional Brief
Current Opportunities for Digital Rights Defenders in MENA
The Women's Media Center's Progressive Women's training program. Deadline: May 2
Progressive Women's Voices, a program of the Women's Media Center, is a media and leadership training program for women. Participants receive advanced, comprehensive training and tools to position themselves as media spokespeople in their fields. Training dates are September 8 to September 10 in Washington, DC. Selected participants have to organize and pay for their own travel and lodging, while a small number of stipends will be provided to successful candidates who would otherwise be unable to attend the course. For more information, click here.
The Global Fact Check Fund. Deadline: May 15
The Global Fact Check Fund is provided by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute. The fund will make grants in an open competition for one or more programs to assist third-party organizations in increasing the capacities of fact-checking groups worldwide. The deadline for the first phase is May 15. For more information, click here.
Switch Perspective’s Summer Workshop in Beirut, Lebanon. Deadline: May 5
For the second year in a row, Switch Perspective will host a ten-day workshop in Beirut from September 4 to September 15, 2023 (the weekend of September 9-10 will be free from organized sessions), open to anyone involved in documenting, analyzing, or telling stories about migration in its various forms, including journalists, photographers, filmmakers, writers, academics, NGO workers, civil society activists, and others. For more information, click here.
Emerging Topics on Digital Justice in MENA
UN’s dangerous Cybercrime Convention negotiations amid abuse of cybercrime laws in Tunisia
Representatives from more than 100 Member States met in Vienna, Austria on April 13th for the 5th negotiating session of the UN Cybercrime Convention. During the session, a negotiating document was discussed which included suggestions from the Member States for the treaty.
The document has been criticized for not having strong commitments to human rights and for not including enough detailed conditions and safeguards to protect the rights of individuals and organizations globally.
The initial purpose of the Cybercrime Convention is to set up a treaty that could establish a framework for international cooperation on cybercrime, including the establishment of 24/7 points of contact for law enforcement agencies to exchange information and assistance in investigating and prosecuting cybercrime cases. It also provides for the extradition of suspects and the transfer of evidence across borders.
The proposed Convention on Cybercrime has been subject to criticism from various organizations, including Article 19 in-depth analysis of the document, for its potential impact on free speech and human rights. The Convention appears to be part of a global trend towards more restrictive cybercrime laws, and it lists 30 different offenses related to cybercrime.
However, the definition of what constitutes a ‘cybercrime’ remains loose. Some of the ‘offenses’ listed are particularly concerning, as they seek to criminalize activities such as the dissemination of fake news, extremism, hate speech, incitement, and terrorism. As a result, these offenses could be used by states to silence dissent or target individuals critical of the authorities.
One of the reasons for concern about the potential for abuse of the Cybercrime treaty is based on experiences with cybercrime laws in the MENA region. The fear is that similar laws, if introduced globally, could be used to silence dissent and limit free expression, as has been the case in some countries in the region.
For example, the Egyptian government passed two key cybercrime laws in 2018 that have led to further censorship. The case of Mada Masr, an independent Egyptian media platform, exemplifies how cybercrime laws can be used to silence criticism and limit freedom of expression. For example, four Mada Masr journalists were interrogated by Egyptian prosecutors on September 8, 2022, and subsequently released on bail. The prosecutors charged them with "spreading false news" and defamation. The charges stem from Mada Masr's September 1 report, which detailed an unannounced corruption investigation into senior party members allegedly being conducted by government oversight authorities. Additionally, Lina Attalah, Mada Masr’s editor in chief was charged with establishing a website without a license.
Examining Tunisia's use of Cybercrime Laws to silence dissent and its implications for the MENA Region amid UN Cybercrime convention negotiations
Image: CC-BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia/Klops.ru
The context in Tunisia is highly alarming as President Kaïs Saïed persists in his efforts to centralize power in his hands after seizing power in 2021. He implemented laws to dismantle crucial institutional safeguards for human rights, particularly targeting judicial independence and the right to freedom of expression.
Law enforcement resorted to illegal tactics to disband protestors and the government went after prominent critics and perceived opponents of the president with arbitrary detentions and prosecutions. The right to freedom of association was also under threat, and an amendment to the electoral law undid measures aimed at boosting women’s representation in parliament. The state of emergency was extended until the end of the year and then again until 30 January 2023, and finally, until the end of 2023, adding to the growing concerns for the state of human rights in the country.
Moreover, the Tunisian authorities are employing a newly adopted decree-law on cybercrime to clamp down on dissent and prosecute critics. The Decree-law No. 54 of 2022 was released on September 13, 2022, with the stated aim of preventing and punishing offenses related to information and communication systems and collecting relevant digital evidence.
However, instead of targeting actual cybercrimes, the Decree-law focuses on criminalizing a broad range of online expressions, with severe prison sentences for offenses such as the dissemination of "fake news". Since its release, Tunisian authorities have initiated multiple criminal investigations against media outlets, lawyers, and students for criticizing government officials or engaging in other forms of protected speech.
The Tunisian cybercrime law is already being used against independent journalists. For the third time between the months of March April 2023, journalists Monia Arfaoui and Mohamed Boughlab are put under investigation by authorities in connection with their work. The Ministry of Religious Affairs submitted a complaint against them, citing the provisions of Decree-Law No. 54. Journalist Monia Arfaoui, who works for Al-Sabah newspaper.Arfaoui was questioned twice by an investigating judge on March 24 and 31, 2023, following two complaints by the Ministry. Meanwhile, journalist Mohamed Boughlab, who works for radio station Cap FM, appeared in court on April 7, 2023.
Tunisia's situation is a prime illustration of how cybercrime laws could be utilized to suppress any form of dissent. Since February, Tunisian authorities have gone after dissenters, including union activists, journalists, lawyers, judges, and political figures. The authorities locked up at least 12 critics and probed dozens more. Some have been kidnapped and some detainees have been charged without evidence. To comprehend the consequences of misusing "loose" definitions and the zeal to enforce cybercrime laws that are disconnected from the current context, one only needs to look at the Tunisian context. It is sounding alarm bells for the entire region.
Community News in MENA
Eyes on Sudan
MENA defenders are closely following the conflict between two opposing forces: the Sudanese Army, which is under the leadership of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who is also known as "Hemeti". The fighting is ongoing and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) that by April 21, 413 people had been killed and 3,551 wounded over six days of fighting.
Community members across the region have been thinking of ways to best support the people of Sudan. The goal of this section is not to discuss what is going on from the perspective of those who are sitting in safety, but rather to list and detail what Sudan-based initiatives and individuals are doing and how digital rights defenders throughout the world may support them.
As feminist activist Wine Omer details in this thread, there is a need for the “support and solidarity of revolutionary activists, free media platforms, and diaspora groups”, and to ensure that everything is done to support the existing work of progressive forces in Sudan.
In terms of digital rights, people have reported access outages in the past 6 days. Yesterday, April 23rd, an internet outage across the country was documented. Misinformation is on the rise and it has increased with Elon Musk’s decision to remove blue ticks from verified Twitter accounts. This has accelerated the spread of misinformation in Sudan, with almost a million people viewing a tweet announcing the death of Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander General by a fake account subscribed to Twitter blue. Fake UNICEF contact details and other organizations with messages claiming evacuation support have also been circulated. Initiatives such as BEAMreports are providing people with analytical reporting and simplified digital content and fact-checks, alongside maps of intensified clashes.
People have been relying on Twitter to communicate what’s happening on the ground, particularly in areas where people have no access to aid groups. For example, a network of civilians has used Twitter spaces to crowdsource aid. This featured article by Urooba Jamal details the ways in which people have been crowdsourcing safety.
People formed 'resistance committees,' which are neighborhood groups that organize people, during the Sudanese revolution in 2019. These groups are now coordinating aid and assistance, including the delivery of doctors, gasoline, and electricity. According to this interview, the committees are running low on supplies. The committees are also coordinating evacuations for besieged civilians and are spreading anti-war messaging through various platforms.
This reliance on informal protection networks means increased reliance on online communications, including social media, which puts people at different levels of risks, particularly in times of outages. This means that defenders working in different sectors in the digital sphere need to prioritize support and help for Sudanese defenders.
This is a compiled list of resources that may be useful to defenders in Sudan:
Urgent Action Fund - Africa: UAF provides emergency grants for WHRDs at risk.
Front Line Defenders - Protection Grants: Front Line Defenders provides emergency relocation and security support to HRDs at risk, including relocation assistance and safe housing.
Canada Global Refugee Stream for Human Rights Defenders: The Canadian government has established a dedicated refugee stream for human rights defenders for resettlement to Canada.
Journalists in Distress Network: This network provides resources for journalists who have received serious threats or are in distress in relation to their work, and may need emergency relocation.
ProtectDefenders.eu provides a range of services to human rights defenders at risk, including an emergency helpline (run by Front Line Defenders), emergency grants, and temporary relocation.
Support (compiled by Rima @ TCU):
For donations: https://sapa-usa.org/sudan-war-crisis-emergency-relief/
For news and updates: https://www.sudancoup.com/
News fact-checking: https://twitter.com/BeamReports
Community members to follow: https://twitter.com/BSonblast; https://twitter.com/HamidMurtada; https://twitter.com/KholoodKhair; https://twitter.com/MAbubakrs; https://twitter.com/Malabalneel
Hashtags: #NoToWay
Regional News and Updates in MENA
Access Now & #KeepItOn report on Internet shutdowns in MENA - 2022
In 2022, there were 187 instances of internet shutdowns carried out by authorities in 35 countries globally, which were seen as an attack on human rights. The Middle East and North Africa also saw 37 such shutdowns across 11 countries, with Iran accounting for a staggering 18 of them. Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition has recently published a report called "Weapons of Control, Shields of Impunity: Internet Shutdowns in 2022," which sheds light on this disturbing trend and its impact on human rights. The report includes a global overview as well as a detailed analysis of the situation in the Middle East and North Africa.