Digital Rights Weekly | July 25 - 29
Team CommUNITY
team at digitalrights.community
Thu Jul 28 20:22:00 CEST 2022
Hello Digital Rights Defenders!
Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
weeks of July 25 - 29. As a reminder, you can submit your news for the
newsletter here: https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter
### Upcoming Virtual TCU Events ###
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## Team CommUNITY Update ##
1. July Regional Briefs are Out! Updates on Digital Justice, Opportunities
and More!
Find the July updates on the latest news on digital justice in the Latin
America, MENA, Africa and Asia region. This includes information on current
opportunities for Digiatl Rights Defenders, Emerging Topics, Community
News, Regional Updates and more!
This month, our researchers covered issues from massive data breach in
Kenya to an explanation of new laws related to VPNs in India
https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/regionalbriefsjuly2022
2. TCU Office Will Be Closed For August 15 - 26
To support healthy work practices and ensure staff take time off for
vacation (while actually being available to “sign off”), TCU will be closed
for August 15 - 26, 2022. Online events and Mattermost announcements will
pause, as well as the delivery of our weekly newsletter.
3. Apply for the Psychosocial Educational Retreat for Managers and
Community Leaders
TCU application window for their psycho-educational retreat will be closing
on July 30, so make sure to apply as soon as possible. The retreat will
provide participants with the opportunity learn a variety of skills, from
how to deal with mental health distress in a group setting, to identifying
signs of burnout, to how to implement tools and structures to improve team
health and address interpersonal conflict in a group setting.
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/psychosocial_educational_retreat
4. Join a Psychosocial Circle
TCU is offering group sessions led by psychotherapists in the Fall, which
are limited to 6-10 people per circle Each circle will run once a week from
September 19 to December 9. They include: Dealing with Grief, Skills Based
Group for Men, Diaspora Group, LGBTQ Support Group, Living in Survival
Mode, Activist Fatigue, and Racialized Trauma.
Signup by September 5, 2022
https://www.communityhealth.team/upcoming-circles
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### Digital Rights in the Community ###
1. Open Partnership Call | Data Detox Kit
Tactical Tech is looking for partner individuals, organisations, or
collectives in Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) to collaborate with
The Data Detox Kit. The Data Detox Kit is a set of step-by-step guides that
helps people reflect upon their interactions with technology and learn how
to gain more control over their data privacy, security and find balance
with their well-being. Application deadline: 28 August 2022.
https://tacticaltech.org/news/Open-Partnerships-Call-Data-Detox-Kit/
2. Pollicy Report | What is an Ideal Internet to You?
This white paper seeks to provide an overview of the core thematic issues
around digital rights and digital safety across the world. The content
builds off a global mapping exercise of organisations and knowledge,
predominantly focused on Africa and the Middle East, Latin America,
Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
https://pollicy.org/resource/what-is-an-ideal-internet-to-you-a-global-exploration-of-digital-rights-trends/
3. Report | Where My Data At?
Mydata Rights and Internews released a report on imagining resistance to
data processing with Africa feminists. Some of the questions this report
aims to respond to include the following: What are the multiple and
intersecting understandings of the relationship between gender, privacy,
and data by African feminists? How do African feminists navigate a datafied
society? What are feminist centered ways of resistance in datafied
societies?
https://adapt.internews.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Chenai-Report-Designed.pdf
4. Statement on Unauthorized Access to Data
Privacy International and the Electronic Frontier Foundation released a
statement on the authorized access to data. Any future Treaty should ensure
that illegal, unlawful, and/or unauthorized access does not criminalize
security research, whistleblowers, and other novel and interoperable uses
of technology that ultimately benefit all of us. Read their statement here:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/privacy-international-and-electronic-frontier-foundations-statement-unauthorized
5. Amnesty International Reacts to Meta’s Human Rights Report
Last week, Meta released its first annual Human Rights Report, covering all
the company’s platforms and products including Facebook, Instagram and
WhatsApp. The Human Rights Report appears to be a cursory and selective
analysis of the company’s human rights impacts, conspicuously failing to
disclose any information on the most pressing threats the company is posing
to human rights worldwide. The Human Rights Report makes no mention of the
root cause of Meta’s systemic threat to human rights: the surveillance
advertising business model, which drives the company to collect ever more
and ever more personal data on users, to then sell targeted ads.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/07/metas-human-rights-report-ignores-the-real-threat-the-company-poses-to-human-rights-worldwide/
6. Rights Group Call on House Judiciary to Take Action to Defend Online
Privacy
Nineteen national and local digital-justice and civil-rights groups
submitted a letter for the record in advance of a U.S. House Judiciary
hearing on “Digital Dragnets: Examining the Government’s Access to Your
Personal Data.” The groups are members of the Disinfo Defense League (DDL),
a national network of organizers, researchers and disinformation experts
that works to address online disinformation and privacy violations
targeting communities of color.
https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/digital-justice-and-civil-rights-groups-call-house-judiciary-defend-online-privacy
7. Iran: Halt Attacks Against Feminist Accounts on Instagram
Twenty-three international and MENA regional human rights and women’s
rights organizations have signed onto a statement condemning the
coordinated online targeting of Instagram accounts belonging to Iranian
feminist collectives and influencers. These organizations call on Iranian
authorities to end their online harassment of rights defenders, especially
women human rights defenders (WHRDs). They further urge that Meta,
Instagram’s parent company, work with Iranian civil society to ensure the
safety of Iranian WHRDs online.
https://femena.net/analysis-reports/iran-halt-attack-against-feminist-accounts-on-instagram
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### Digital Rights Resources ###
1. Platform Censoring Nude Content - Why This Matters
Most sexually explicit and pornographic content is legal, and engaging with
such content on social media platforms allows individuals to build
communities and explore their identities. However, the moderation of sexual
content has enabled social networks to become the arbiters of how people
create and engage with nude content both offline and in the digital space.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/self-proclaimed-free-speech-platforms-are-censoring-nude-content-heres-why-you
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### Digital Rights in the Wider World ###
1. Spyware Maker Candiru Linked to Chrome Zero-Day Targeting Journalist
Security researchers have linked the discovery of an actively exploited but
since-fixed zero-day vulnerability in Google Chrome to an Israeli spyware
maker targeting journalists in the Middle East. Cybersecurity company Avast
has linked the exploitation to Candiru, a Tel Aviv-based hacking-for-hire
company also known as Saito Tech, which provides its powerful spyware to
government clients. Candiru, much like Israel’s NSO Group, claims its
software is designed to be used by government and law enforcement agencies
to thwart potential terrorism and crime, but researchers have found that
authoritarian regimes have used the spyware to target journalists,
political dissidents and critics of repressive regimes.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/21/candiru-exploited-chrome-zero-day-journalists-spyware/
The European Union is the latest entity to find evidence that smartphones
used by some of its staff were compromised by the NSO Group
https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-eu-found-evidence-employee-phones-compromised-with-spyware-letter-2022-07-27/
2. Twitter Spy Trial Exposes Betrayal of Saudi Dissidents
Twitter cultivated Saudi Arabian leaders to boost the use of its platform
in the Middle East. At the same time, it prided itself on providing a forum
where the country’s dissidents and activists could anonymously post their
criticism of the royal family and organize. But as it tried to achieve
contradictory goals, the dissidents were allegedly betrayed by a former
Twitter staffer.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-22/twitter-spy-trial-exposes-betrayal-of-saudi-arabia-dissidents#xj4y7vzkg
(paywall)
3. Big Tech Pact to Self-Regulate?
Big technology companies including Facebook’s parent Meta and Google have
signed a pact to self-regulate themselves over harmful content shared
across digital platforms in New Zealand. The move comes as regulators
across the globe grapple with ways to make the internet a safer and less
hostile place for users. Critics argue that it’s merely a “weak attempt to
preempt regulation”.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/25/big-techs-push-to-self-regulate-harmful-content-in-new-zealand-is-weak-attempt-to-preempt-regulation-critics-say/
4. Human Rights Watch | Meta and Hate Speech in India
Last week, Meta, formerly Facebook, released its first human rights report,
which included some snippets from the pending Human Rights Impact
Assessment on India. But this was not a preview of the full assessment.
Rather, Meta told Human Rights Watch that it does not “have plans to
publish anything further on the India HRIA,” an abdication of its
commitment to transparency and due diligence.
Meta’s refusal to release its India assessment in full contributes to the
perception that its human rights impact assessments are designed to deflect
criticism and divert efforts to hold platforms accountable
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/21/meta-and-hate-speech-india
5. Police Are Still Abusing Investigative Exemptions to Shield Surveillance
Tech
How transparent are police about surveillance technology? It depends on
where you look. When it comes to acceptable levels of secrecy around police
tools, states have drawn their lines in very different places, resulting in
some communities where it is much harder for the public to know what
invasive tools are being used.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/police-are-still-abusing-investigative-exemptions-shield-surveillance-tech-while-0
The San Diego City Council this week moved forward with regulations that
will govern the city's use of surveillance technology, but not without
changes many residents oppose, including an exemption for police officers
on federal task forces. The regulations were proposed in 2019 after
residents learned the city had installed a network of 3,000 cameras on
streetlights three years earlier, and that police used the technology to
investigate certain types of crimes.
https://www.securityinfowatch.com/video-surveillance/news/21274720/san-diego-city-council-moves-forward-with-surveillance-tech-ordinance
6. Doxxing: Repression Tool Against Women
When dozens of Tunisian judges went on strike last month to protest the
sacking of 57 of their colleagues, lurid posts containing damaging
allegations about some of the female jurists began appearing on Facebook.
In Tunisia and other Arabic speaking states, the malicious posting of
personal information on social media - known as doxxing - is increasingly
being used to harass and intimidate women, anti-government protesters and
LGBTQ+ activists.
https://news.trust.org/item/20220722143520-lxcou/
7. Internet Shutdowns Harm Everyone: Alternatives to Tackle Fake News in
West Africa
The harm of internet shutdowns hasn’t stopped government from shutting down
the internet. In the last decade, people in 12 of the 15 member-states of
the West African bloc have experienced some form of blackout, whether
lasting for hours, days or even months. What might work to counter fake
news? This piece provides some answers, from public education to engaging
with local authorities to cut disinformation’s circulation.
https://africanarguments.org/2022/07/if-blackouts-dont-work-what-might-tackling-fake-news-in-west-africa/
8. Myanmar Junta Cuts Phone and Internet Connections Amid Fierce Fighting
Junta forces cut phone and internet access in Myanmar’s Magway region on
Monday at the start of a offensive that is still raging. Residents said
they believed their telecoms were cut off because of strong resistance by
local People’s Defense Forces against junta troops.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/junta-cuts-phone-and-internet-connections-in-magway-amid-fierce-fighting-07222022212813.html
9. Hulu Blocks Ads on Abortion, Guns, and Climate Change
On July 15th, a group of Democratic campaign organizations attempted to
purchase a joint ad on abortion and gun control on the Disney-backed Hulu
platform along with other digital buys on Facebook, YouTube, and Roku and
more traditional placements on broadcast and cable channels. The ad ran on
every other platform, but Hulu rejected it.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/25/23277391/hulu-blocks-democratic-ads-abortion-guns-climate-change-january-6-insurrection
10. Russia is Quietly Ramping Up Its Internet Censorship Machine
Since Vladimir Putin blocked Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in March,
Russia has been pushing away from the global internet at a rapid pace.
Russian officials have continuously dripped out new policies and measures
to further control the internet, boosting the state’s censorship and
surveillance powers. Each small move continues to push Russia toward a more
isolated, authoritarian version of the web—restricting the rights of those
inside its border and damaging the foundational ideas of an open web.
https://www.wired.com/story/russia-internet-censorship-splinternet/
11. How Roblox Planned to Bend to Chinese Censorship
Filtering games. Blocking maps with Taiwan. Handling "historical facts."
Roblox was prepared to go all in on Chinese censorship, according to newly
released internal documents. Last year, Roblox launched a version of its
game in China called LuoBuLeSi. Like other Western gaming companies that
have entered the lucrative but heavily regulated Chinese market, it had to
partner with a Chinese company, Tencent, who would operate the game in the
country, and Roblox had to host user data on local servers, as required by
law. Newly released internal documents reveal that Roblox assumed and
prepared for the possibility that any Chinese partner it worked with could
try to hack Roblox.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxndpx/revealed-documents-show-how-roblox-planned-to-bend-to-chinese-censorship
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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 in this newsletter, please email details to
team at digitalrights.community
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/Fundraising_Opportunities
Mozilla Tech Policy Fellowship
Deadline: Not Specified
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/mozilla-is-seeking-senior-tech-policy-fellows-apply-today/
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/
Open Briefing’s Responsive Assistance
Deadline: Rolling Basis
https://www.openbriefing.org/support/referral/
Open Tech Fund | Secure Usability and Accessibility Lab
Deadline: Rolling
https://www.opentech.fund/labs/sua-lab/
Dan Kamnisky Fellowship
Deadline: August 15
https://thedankaminskyfellowship2022.splashthat.com/
Sir Harry Evans Global Fellowship
Deadline: August 15
https://www.durham.ac.uk/sir-harry-evans-memorial-fund/global-fellowship/
Arab Reform Initiative
Deadline: September 5
https://www.arab-reform.net/job/call-for-applications-ari-non-resident-fellows-for-2022-2023/
_________________________________________________
### Global Events Calendar ###
TecnoRizoma
August 17 - October 22
Online
https://tinyurl.com/TecnoRizomaCentroamerica
Digital Health Week
October, 10 - 16
https://digitalhealthweek.co/
Check out a list of our virtual events here:
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/Calendar_of_Events
_________________________________________________
### NEW Job Opportunities ###
Below is a short list of jobs we have been sent in the last week.
Want to see more jobs? OR Have a job opening you want us to promote?
Check out the Team CommUNITY Job Board:
https://www.digitalrights.community/job-board
✎ Women’s Rights Policy Advocacy Coordinator | Association for Progressive
Communication (APC)
+ Remote
https://www.apc.org/en/node/38159
✎ Senior Director, Digital Fundraising | Wikimedia Foundation
+ Remote
https://grnh.se/3caaf5341us
✎ Communications Officer | Ranking Digital Rights
+ Remote
https://rankingdigitalrights.org/jobs/communications-officer/
✎ Remote or London and Cape Town | Riverr
+ Remote (Head office in London)
https://labdigitalagency1.recruitee.com/o/senior-php-developer-london
✎ Account Manager | Verj, A LAB Group Agency
+ Remote (Head office in London)
https://labdigitalagency1.recruitee.com/o/account-manager
✎ Content Manager, Family and Community Engagement | Common Sense Media
+ San Francisco or Remote
https://commonsense.hire.trakstar.com/jobs/fk02ro9?cjb_hash=O_Xcrh18&apply_now=true
✎ French Language Support, Movement Strategy & Governance (Contract) |
Wikimedia Foundation
+ Remote
https://grnh.se/e0bdd47c1us
✎ Internet Equity Initiative (IEI) Director | University of Chicago
+ Chicago, IL, USA
https://uchicago.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/External/details/Internet-Equity-Initiative--IEI--Director_JR17496
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_________________________________________________
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(((Hugs & light)))
Team CommUNITY
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