Digital Rights Weekly | January 24 - 28

[Team CommUNITY]

Hello Digital Rights Defenders!

Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
week of January 24 - 28

###  Upcoming Virtual TCU Events ###

January 31 | Latin America Monthly Meetup
Los meetups mensuales Latinoamericanos son un espacio para charlar,
compartir proyectos, y ayudarnos entre todes a solucionar lo que
podamos en las no tan buenas.
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/31_de_Enero,_2022_LATAM

February 16 | Africa Monthly Meetup
The Africa Monthly Meetups bring together folks from the African
region to share, connect, support, and celebrate each other.
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/February_16,_2022_,_Africa_Meetup

Upcoming Glitter Meetup (GM)
GMs are virtual town halls of the digital rights community, which take
place every Thursday at 9am EST.

--> February 10: Circulo App team, a secure comms channel to support
folks in risky situations, developed with feedback from women
journalists in Mexico and Central America.
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/February_10_2022_GM

--> February 17: Facebook Papers, two guests: a) dkg, part of the
small group of independent monitors helping journalists and media
sites establish guidelines for an accountable review of the documents
prior to publication; and b) Dia Kayyali, Associate Director for
Advocacy at Mnemonic, who focuses on the impact of policy decisions
taken by lawmakers and technology companies regarding content
moderation and related topics.
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/February_17_2022_GM

--> February 24: The Pluggable Transports (PT) Meetup will take place
during this GM. PTs are being developed and used to circumvent
internet censorship, and are a key part of the growing circumvention
technology environment p. Users, developers and overall PT enthusiasts
are welcome!
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/February_24_2022_GM

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### Digital Rights in the Community ###

1. Tor Project Battles Russian Censorship through the Courts

The Tor Project and RoskomSvododa, a Russian digital rights protection
outfit, have filed an appeal against a Russian court's decision to
block the Tor website in the country. The block violates the
constitutional right to freely provide, receive and disseminate
information and protect privacy. Currently, Russian users account for
the second-largest user base by country, with over 300,000 daily
users.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/tor-project-battles-russian-censorship-through-the-courts/


2. Digital Rights Group Call for Facebook to Release of its India
Human Rights Report

About 20 organizations, including several digital rights orgs,
whistleblowers Frances Haugen and Sophie Zhang, and former Facebook
Vice President Brian Boland, are urging Facebook to release its
long-delayed India Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) report, which
allegedly highlights the company’s role in spreading hate speech and
inciting violence in India. On January 3, the group sent a letter to
Facebook’s Director of Human Rights Miranda Sissons. Sissons responded
by stating that the project had taken longer than initially projected
because of COVID-19 but is now in its final stages.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/facebook-critics-call-for-release-of-its-india-human-rights-report/articleshow/89027872.cms

Meanwhile, Twitter recently published a transparency and enforcement
update stating that the company is facing unprecedented challenges as
governments around the world are increasingly attempting to intervene
and remove content. From the period covering January 1 to June 30,
2021 Twitter received a record 43,387 legal demands from governments
to remove content, which impacted some 196,878 accounts.

https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2021/transparency-19


3. Digital Rights Updates by EFF

Check out EFF’s newsletter, which has the latest news on digital
rights. The latest edition covers the celebration of Copyright Week
and Google’s release of a “disable 2g” feature on new Android
smartphones, among other news. Available in both text and audio.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/digital-rights-updates-effector-341

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### Digital Rights Resources ###

1. How Secure are Journalists’ Favorite Transcription Tools?

Journalistic work often depends on transcription services to create
written logs of recorded audio, which helps with everything from
carrying out research to captioning videos to publishing interviews.
But uploading audio to a transcription service means handing a copy of
that — sometimes sensitive — recording over to a company. Check out
this review of several transcription tools, and tips on how to
minimize risks.


https://freedom.press/training/blog/how-secure-are-journalists-favorite-transcription-tools/

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### Digital Rights in the Wider World ###

1. More than 450 Scientists Target PR and Ad Firms they Accuse of Spreading
Disinformation

More than 450 scientists in the US are calling on the executives of
major advertising and public relations firms to drop their fossil fuel
clients and stop what the scientists say is the spread of
disinformation around climate change. They sent a letter to the
executives of major global public relations and advertising firms,
including conglomerate WPP, Edelman and IPG, as well as the CEOs of
their clients who tout sustainability goals including Unilever, Amazon
and Microsoft.

https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/scientists-target-pr-ad-firms-they-accuse-spreading-disinformation-2022-01-19/


2. Brazil Maybe Banning Telegram

Brazil's Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) is considering a Telegram ban
in Brazil to fend off fake news ahead of the presidential election in
the country later this year. The latest developments follow attempts
by Luis Roberto Barroso, the head of TSE, Brazil’s highest electoral
court, to contact Telegram reps to no avail. TSE has already entered
into partnerships with almost all leading social media platforms in
its attempts to curb fake news and the spread of conspiracy theories
about the legitimacy of Brazil’s electoral system.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/brazil-electoral-court-could-ban-telegram-app-not-fighting-fake-news-2022-01-20/


3. A Hong Kong Journalist's 'Survivor's Guilt' Amid Media Clampdown

Hong Kong journalists have increasingly left the city in recent months
to escape the intensifying crackdown on the city's free press. A
journalist who moved to Taiwan spoke to DW about her experiences. She
describes the deep sense of ‘survivor's guilt’ as other journalists in
the city try to figure out their next moves.

https://www.dw.com/en/a-hong-kong-journalists-survivors-guilt-amid-media-clampdown/a-60547177


4. Internet Returns to Yemen After Air Raid Caused Four-Day Outage

An attack by a Saudi-led coalition that targeted a Hodeidah telecoms
facility was blamed for knocking out the internet nationwide and
killing three children. The internet outage affected emergency
operations, as well as the livelihoods of many, some that depend on
money from family, clients, and businesses based abroad.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/25/yemens-internet-returns-after-airstrike-causes-4-day-blackout

Lebanese NGO SMEX launched a petition bringing attention to the impact
internet blackouts are having on human rights and the wellbeing of
Yemen citizens. They state that since the beginning of the war in
Yemen, the coalition's raids have targeted communication facilities on
the pretext that they were used for military purposes, while the
Houthi have cut off the internet intermittently using various excuses.

https://smex.org/yemen-internet-and-telecommunications-are-not-military-targets/


5. European Court Rules Turkey Violated Journalist's Human Rights

The Turkish-German writer and publisher Deniz Yücel was arrested and
detained in Turkey for a year on trumped-up terrorism charges. The
European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the pre-trial detention
violated Yücel's rights. Yücel welcomed the ruling, stating that it
was ‘gratifying’ to have the court confirm that his rights to freedom
of expression and personal liberty had been denied.

https://t.co/sYwz62XdoY

Meanwhile, this week journalist Sedef Kabas was jailed on suspicion of
insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodogan on TV and Twitter.
She faces years in jail.

https://t.co/HXUZAGQgKc


6. Human Rights Groups Call on UAE to Repeal New Law on Combating
Rumors and Cybercrime

In a joint statement, a group of human rights organizations are
demanding that the United Arab Emirates repeal a new law that
threatens and restricts the right to freedom of expression and the
right to freedom of association and of peaceful assembly, which went
into effect on January 2. The Law on Combating Rumors and Cybercrime
criminalizes and imposes heavy prison sentences on acts that are
protected under international law.

https://menarights.org/en/articles/human-rights-ngos-call-uae-immediately-repeal-or-amend-its-new-law-combatting-rumours-and


7. For Indian Women, Fighting Online Sexual Harassment is a Long-Drawn Battle

Online sexual harassment continues to rise in India. Legal experts
emphasize that fighting these cases is often an uphill battle. Victims
are afraid to speak out and face judgement and humiliation from the
police and courts. In addition, law authorities are usually  of little
help.

https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/fighting-online-sexual-harassment-is-a-long-drawn-battle-for-women-7741112/

Experts state that women are experiencing more harassment and abuse
because of the pandemic, as more of their work, education, and social
lives migrate online. Young women are citing online harassment as one
of the reasons they do not put themselves forward for leadership
positions. In Ireland, for example, recent research reveals that
female councilors received eight times as many abusive tweets per
follower than their male colleagues.

https://www.thejournal.ie/online-abuse-5652201-Jan2022/


8. French Court Says Twitter Must Reveal Measures on Online Hate

A Paris court has ruled that Twitter must reveal its measures for
fighting hate speech, in one of several cases thrashing out whether
the French justice system has jurisdiction over the US social media
giant. The case had been brought by several anti-discrimination groups
over what they said was the company's longstanding failure to properly
moderate posts.

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-01-french-court-twitter-reveal-online.html

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### Grants, Fellowships, & Awards ###

The following opportunities are open to individual digital rights
defenders and to organizations. If you would like us to include a
grant, fellowship or award, please email details to
team at digitalrights.community
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/Fundraising_Opportunities

Fellowship Annual Call
Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
Deadline:  January 31, 2022
https://cyber.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships/2223Fellows

CrossCulture Programme (CCP) Fellowship
Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen
Deadline: January 31, 2022
https://www.ifa.de/en/fundings/ccp-fellowships/

Digital Freedom Fund
Deadline: 24 January - 1 March 2022
https://digitalfreedomfund.org/grants/

Internet Freedom Fund
Open Technology Fund
Deadline: Rolling Basis
https://www.opentech.fund/funds/internet-freedom-fund/

Rapid Response Fund
Open Tech Fund
Deadline: Rolling Basis
https://www.opentech.fund/funds/rapid-response-fund/

Rapid Response Fund
Derechos Digitales
Deadline: Rolling Basis
https://www.derechosdigitales.org/sobre-el-fondo-de-respuesta-rapida/

Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights
Deadline: Rolling Basis
https://urgentactionfund.org/

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### Global Events Calendar ###

Latin America Monthly Meetup
January 31
6pm EST / 11pm UTC
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/31_de_Enero,_2022_LATAM

Digital Safety for All
February 1
4am – 7am EST
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/digital-rights-for-all-digital-safety-data-registration-219240112077

Glitter Meetup: Circulo App
Vladimir Cortés, Martha Tudón and Fabiola Maurice
February 10
9am EST / 2pm UTC
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/February_10_2022_GM
Africa Meetup
Feb 16
3pm SAST / 1 pm UTC
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/February_16,_2022_,_Africa_Meetup

Glitter Meetup: The Facebook Papers
February 17
9am EST / 2pm UTC
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/February_17_2022_GM

APAC DNS Forum 2022 First Pre-Event Webinar
September 2021 - February 2022
https://apacdnsforum.my/

Check out a list of our virtual events here:
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/Calendar_of_Events

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### NEW Job Opportunities  ###

Below is a short list of jobs we have been sent in the last week.

You can view the complete list of jobs on the Team CommUNITY Job Board
at: https://www.digitalrights.community/job-board

If you know someone who may be a fit for any  of these jobs, please
forward them this email. Or better yet, have them sign up to receive
job opportunities each week:
https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter

✎ Asesoría técnica de diseño, desarrollo, mantenimiento, monitoreo y
apoyo de servicios internos y externos en seguridad digital |
Fundación Acceso
+ Costa Rica
https://www.acceso.or.cr/2022/01/17/puesto-asesoria-tecnica-de-diseno-desarrollo-mantenimiento-monitoreo-y-apoyo-de-servicios-internos-y-externos-en-seguridad-digital/

✎ Senior Associate, Data Protection | AWO
+ Remote within UK, Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy or
Netherlands; hybrid working options available
https://app.beapplied.com/apply/x18thq26dw?utm_source=[digitalrights]

✎ Lead Counsel | Wikimedia Foundation
+ Remote
https://grnh.se/180bf36e1us

✎ Paralegal | Wikimedia Foundation
+ Remote
https://grnh.se/54c30c2e1us

✎ Grant Writer, Development | Freedom of the Press Foundation
+ San Francisco, CA, USA
https://freedom.press/jobs/grant-writer-dev/

✎ Policy Officer | Privacy International
+ Central London, UK
https://privacyinternational.org/opportunities/4744/policy-officer

✎ Technology Officer | Privacy International
+ London, UK
https://privacyinternational.org/opportunities/4742/technology-officer

✎ Social Media Specialist | National Nurses United AFL-CIO
+ Oakland; Glendale; San Diego; Sacramento, CA or Washington, D.C., USA
https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/jobs/social-media-specialist

✎ People Manager for Engineers | ISRG - Let's Encrypt and Divvi Up
+ Remote, USA
https://www.abetterinternet.org/careers/eng-ppl-manager/

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(((Hugs & light)))

--
Team CommUNITY at ARTICLE 19
www.digitalrights.community
Organizers of the Internet Freedom Festival
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