Digital Rights Weekly | March 21 - 25
Team CommUNITY
team at digitalrights.community
Thu Mar 24 17:45:03 CET 2022
Dear Digital Rights Defenders!
Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
week of March 21 - 25
As a reminder, you can submit your news for the newsletter here:
https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter
### Upcoming TCU Events ###
April 5 | Fireside Chat with the Open Tech Fund
Tell OTF what areas and orgs need funding in coming years. Attendees will
have the opportunity to share their feedback anonymously!
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/cks55
April 7 | Glitter Meetup | Results of the Digital Privacy and Security
Survey 2021
The inaugural Calyx Digital Privacy and Security Survey looks at people’s
attitudes towards digital privacy and security, identifying their awareness
of protection and protective behavior, and exploring internet users’
knowledge and concerns related to digital privacy and security.
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/April_7_2022_GM
### TCU Update ###
1. The Digital Rights Job Fair
Team CommUNITY is looking for amazing organizations that want to
participate in our upcoming job fair! This is a great way to cultivate
relationships with amazing candidates from around the world. Contact us if
you want more information at team at digitalrights.community
_________________________________________________
### Digital Rights in the Community ###
1. Anti-War Hacktivism is Leading to Digital Xenophobia and a More Hostile
Internet
The trend of half-baked hacktivism involving everyday internet users is now
growing into sites and games that encourage users to become part of DDoS
(Distributed Denial of Service) attacks against some Russian digital
assets. In addition, some tools are taking actions that, although conceived
of as simple nonviolent protests, could result in the loss of important
footage of protests or war crimes, loss of medical records or even the
deaths of innocent people.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/anti-war-hacktivism-leading-digital-xenophobia-and-more-hostile-internet
2. Freedom House Releases 2022 “Freedom in the World” Report
Check out Freedom House’s new Freedom in the World report titled “The
Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule”. Governments around the world are
accelerating their attacks on human rights and civil liberties, with
various countries in every region having been captured by authoritarian
rulers in recent years. A total of 60 countries suffered declines over the
past year, while only 25 improved. As of today, some 38 percent of the
global population live in Not Free countries, the highest proportion since
1997. Only about 20 percent now live in Free countries
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2022/global-expansion-authoritarian-rule
3. Human Rights Organizations Send a Letter to the European Union Against
Upcoming Proposal
A proposal from the European Union Commission could make government
scanning of user messages and photos mandatory throughout the E.U. which
goes against providing true end-to-end encryption. Dozens of organizations
sent a letter to the EU against this proposal as it is a direct attack to
the right to privacy and safety.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/eff-tells-eu-commission-dont-break-encryption
4. Digital Rights Groups Demand Congress Investigate Google’s plans to
Enter Crypto Market
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the tech giant was “definitely looking
at blockchain” which raised concerns among civil liberties groups that this
could negatively impact consumers. The social welfare entity Demand
Progress Education Fund (DPEF) said that this could lead to issues with
“privacy rights, consumer protection and safeguards against economic
concentration”. A number of organizations wrote a letter to congress
demanding an investigation into Google’s plans.
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/google-crypto-plans/
https://s3.amazonaws.com/demandprogress/images/Mar18-CryptoLetter-Waters.pdf
5. Thirty Eight CSOs Raise Concerns to European Commission
European Digital Rights (EDRi) together with 38 civil society organisations
raise their voices to the European Commission to demand that it protect
communications' privacy and confidentiality in the Legislation to
effectively tackle child abuse (CSAM). The call is still ongoing, so add
your voice now as a signatory to the open letter.
https://edri.org/our-work/protecting-digital-rights-and-freedoms-in-the-legislation-to-effectively-tackle-child-abuse/
5. Pluggable Transport Monthly Meetup Changing Rooms on TCU Mattermost
The monthly Pluggable Transport (PT) Group will be meeting once a month in
their own Pluggable Transport channel on the IFF Mattermost. In the past,
we had incorporated them in the weekly Glitter Meetup, as they were just
starting. The group meets once a month to discuss PTs, which are being
developed and used to circumvent Internet censorship.
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/Pluggable_Transports_Monthly_Meetup
_________________________________________________
### Digital Rights Resources ###
1. Know your Trolls
Check out the “Know Your Trolls” online harassment course developed by the
IWMF, digital security experts, journalists, and online education experts
who collaborated during workshops and sprints to co-create it. The goal of
this course is to help journalists identify the abuse they are receiving
online and who may be behind it as well as offer some key strategies that
may help journalists to be better prepared.
https://learn.totem-project.org/courses/course-v1:IWMF+IWMF_OH_EN+001/about
_________________________________________________
### Digital Rights in the Wider World ###
1. US Surveillance Program Tracks Nearly 200,000 Immigrants
The Biden Administration is proposing to expand a controversial
surveillance program that tracks the whereabouts of more than 180,000
immigrants who wait for their day in court. There is little transparency
about what data is collected by BI Inc., the private company with an
exclusive contract to run the program. Lawmakers say the privacy policy of
SmartLink, the app that BI requires immigrants to use, is overly broad and
leaves unclear what data the company collects and what it does with that
information. Meanwhile, surveillance information generally is failing to
make noise in the US Congress and among the general US population,
especially when compared to previous years. This can be attributed to
people getting accustomed to handing over private information to companies,
attention being demanded by too many streams and the subsequent “outrage
prioritization.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/14/us-immigration-surveillance-isap
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/598809-major-government-surveillance-revelations-fail-to-make-a-big-splash
2. The Minnesota Police Used the Intrepid App to Data to Collect Data on
Protestors in Last Year’s Protests
The MIT Technology review conducted an investigation on the Intrepid
Response app, a product of Intrepid Networks, and how the Minnesota police
department used it to collect data on protestors. Intrepid Response is a
communication platform that offers “a geospatial solution with feature-rich
live mapping” and the ability to “view all personnel, tagged assets and map
markers in near real-time,” according to the Intrepid Networks’ website.
The app allows officers to collect data that can be analyzed in various
ways and Minnesota police officers used it to compile watch lists of people
attending protests. In addition, photos and data shared through the app
found their way into a data repository that appears to be accessible to
multiple agencies, including federal groups. Data collected included photos
and personal information about individuals at protests.
The Minnesota Fusion Center has access to facial recognition technology
through the Homeland Security Information Network. The Hennepin County
Sheriff’s Office (another OSN member agency) also uses what it refers to as
investigative imaging technology, another term for facial recognition. This
provides an easy means to capture and share information that identifies
whoever is on the other side of an officer’s smartphone. The app allows the
user to almost instantly de-anonymize attendees and keep tabs on their
movements.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/23/1047899/secret-police-app-minnesota-police-journalists-protests-data/
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/17/1047413/secret-police-surveillance-protesters-george-floyd-operation-safety-net/
3. Brazil’s “Remuneration Right” Strengthens Big Tech and Big Media
Brazil’s “Fake News Bill” is the latest salvo in the global battle between
Big Tech companies and the media industry. The remuneration rule that is
poised to become law despite the complaints of civil society and
independent media associations contains dangerous language for free
expression and digital rights. The provision compels platforms to
compensate media companies for use of "journalistic content." If the
provision is enacted as is, it will change the way core digital human
rights values like free expression and access to knowledge are interpreted
by businesses, courts and regulators. Quotation and linking is a key mode
of online expression and journalism. If it comes at a financial price, less
people will engage in it.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/brazils-remuneration-right-strengthens-big-tech-and-big-media-cost-free-expression
4. Censorship in Russia Ongoing and Costing Russia $860 Million So Far This
Year
Censorship in Russia has cost the country’s economy $860 million in the
past 3 months alone, according to a recent report. The internet
restrictions infringe on people’s digital rights while also acting as
economic self-harm. This calculation does not include the economic impacts
of the sanctions. In 2021, the economic cost was $1 million. The cost of
the censorship is determined by both the direct and indirect impacts of the
restrictions on a country's economy, including how much the country's
population could lose from internet blackouts and social media
restrictions, whether in the form of lost work productivity, investment
potential and opportunity costs, both directly to the digital sector and to
digital-dependent sectors.
https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/internet-censorship-costs-russia-860-million-so-far-this-year-20220319
5. Governments Working on Legislation on Harmful Online Speech,
Misinformation and Disinformation
UK officials formally introduced a plan to boost digital safety and crack
down on online harms, a continuation of the Online Safety Bill proposal
unveiled last May. The current task they are working on is that of defining
“legal but harmful” online speech which could include “exposure to
self-harm, harassment and eating disorders”. Policymakers dialed back some
of the proposal’s original language after human rights groups, including
Article 19, expressed concern that these regulations could contribute to an
increase in self-censorship and having a heavy hand when it comes to
removing content.
The Australian federal government is also looking to create laws for
preventing online misinformation and add more scrutiny toward the voluntary
disinformation code followed by large digital platforms. The laws would
grant the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) expanded set
of powers for enforcing voluntary industry codes of practice should
platforms’ actions prove inadequate. The government expects digital
platforms to take responsibility for the harmful or misleading content
appearing on their sites through this legislation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/21/uk-officials-face-thorny-task-defining-legal-harmful-online-speech/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/australia-pledges-new-powers-for-combatting-online-disinformation/
### Health & Wellbeing Corner ###
This week, I’d like to share a Mexican tradition that I experienced and
witnessed recently at a Mexican-Lebanese wedding. The tradition came in the
form of a game where the bride was standing on one chair and the groom on
another. They were facing each other, stretching out their arms and holding
each other’s hands. Surrounding the bride and groom were their friends and
family - hugging them tightly and making sure that the bride and groom are
rooted on solid grounds, despite standing on not-so-solid chairs. Then
there’s music and once the music turns off, a wave of people, i.e. the rest
of the wedding guests, run in circles around the bride and groom and their
protectors and push through them. They do this in an attempt to weaken the
“protectors” and shake the relationship until either the bride or groom
falls.
Other than this being a super fun game, the bride then explained to me that
this game is actually quite symbolic. The people running around and
charging at the bride and groom represent life stressors and problems. The
people embracing and holding and protecting the bride and groom represent
family and community and they, with the bride and groom, are protecting the
relationship from the stressors of life.
I felt quite moved by the symbolism and meaning to this wedding “game”. I
also felt inspired by the layers of this tradition. It was a fun, light,
joyous game that made the entire room laugh and equally it was a deep
reminder that we need our communities, we need healthy communities, to
collectively protect ourselves and heal from life’s stressors.
_________________________________________________
### 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
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/
_________________________________________________
### Global Events Calendar ###
APAC DNS Forum 2022 First Pre-Event Webinar
September 2021 - March 2022
https://apacdnsforum.my/
Hanmoji & Emojis: A Conversation on Localization, Representation, and
Symbolism of Emoji Characters
March 28
1pm EDT / 5pm UTC
Localization Lab
https://crm.localizationlab.org/?page_id=5&civiwp=CiviCRM&q=civicrm%2Fevent%2Finfo&reset=1&id=7
Glitter Meetup: The BASICS Project
March 31
9am EDT / 1pm UTC
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/March_31_2022_GM
CKS: OTF Fireside Chat: Funding Opportunities & Feedback
April 5
9am EDT / 1pm UTC
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/cks55
2022 Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum
April 12-14
Paradigm Initiative
https://drif.paradigmhq.org/
Lingua Cafe
April 20
10am EDT / 2pm UTC
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/linguacafe_6
Palestine Digital Activism Forum May 17-19 https://pdaf.ps/pdaf2022
The Wikimedia Hackathon 2022
May 20-22
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2022
Virtual School of Internet Governance - French Version
May 2022
Online
http://www.virtualsig.org/
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
✎ Programmes Weaver aka Programmes Senior Coordinator | Numun Fund
+ Remote ,Global South, Larger World
https://numunfund.notion.site/Programmes-Weaver-aka-Programmes-Senior-Coordinator-Numun-Fund-4ad1768de7e340f388c215e22ef8a7de
✎ Tech Weaver aka Tech Lead | Numun Fund
+ Remote ,Global South, Larger World
https://numunfund.notion.site/Tech-Weaver-aka-Tech-Lead-773f0e03afee4ff9bb9e8c84af0c8464
✎ Analista para el área de tecnologías | Derechos Digitales
+ Chile
https://www.derechosdigitales.org/17678/derechos-digitales-busca-analista-para-el-area-de-tecnologias/
✎ Associate Editor | Global Investigative Journalism Network
+ Remote
https://gijn.org/job-opening-associate-editor/
✎ Communications Manager | Ranking Digital Rights (New America)
+ Remote
https://newamerica.applytojob.com/apply/QoT4U4WmsA/
✎ Investor Engagement Fellow | Ranking Digital Rights (New America)
+ Remote
https://newamerica.applytojob.com/apply/vPTZe4q6Sp/
✎ Operations Manager | Ranking Digital Rights (New America)
+ Remote
https://newamerica.applytojob.com/apply/IayOsVhXqZ/
✎ Policy Counsel or Policy Analyst | New America - Open Technology Institute
+ Washington DC, USA
https://newamerica.applytojob.com/apply/PpqKB8nEGG/
✎ Senior Communications Associate/Communications Office | Ranking Digital
Rights (New America)
+ Remote
https://newamerica.applytojob.com/apply/bRoyjgqEGZ/
✎ Senior API Platform Product Manager | Wikimedia Foundation
+ Remote
https://grnh.se/451079c41us
✎ Editorial Coordinator | The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting
Project (OCCRP)
+ The Netherlands and considering Remote
https://www.occrp.org/en/occrp-jobs/editorial-coordinator
✎ Impact Editor | Lighthouse Reports
+ The Netherlands
https://apply.workable.com/lighthouse-reports-2/j/5FD7C9F5E1/
✎ Senior Coordinator for Youth Projects | Tactical Tech
+ Berlin, Germany
https://www.tacticaltech.org/news/youth-project-coordinator
✎ Digital Strategist | Free Press
+ Washington DC or Remote in USA
https://bit.ly/FP-Digital-Strategist
✎ Core Editor | The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)
+ Netherlands and considering Remote
https://www.occrp.org/en/occrp-jobs/core-editor
✎ Development Director | Free Press
+ Washington DC or Remote in USA
https://bit.ly/FP-DevelopmentDirector
✎ Investigations Editor | The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting
Project (OCCRP)
+ Europe and considering Remote
https://www.occrp.org/en/occrp-jobs/investigations-editor
✎ Mobile Engineer - Privacy Apps | Cloudflare
+ Remote in USA
https://boards.greenhouse.io/cloudflare/jobs/4052337?gh_jid=4052337
✎ Survivor Service Facilitator | Chayn
+ Remote
https://www.notion.so/chayn/Survivor-Service-Facilitator-Bloom-b12e6056a7194891afda48da854bc8e1
✎ Survivor Service Manager | Chayn
+ Remote
https://www.notion.so/chayn/Survivor-Service-Manager-Bloom-d6b31897fe0e4d4db443969bc1f71a00
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_________________________________________________
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like-minded organizations and people.
(((Hugs & light)))
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