Digital Rights Weekly | [Digital Rights Weekly] May 16-20

[Team CommUNITY]

Hello Digital Rights Defenders!

Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
weeks of May 16 - 20. As a reminder,  you can submit your news for the
newsletter here: https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter

###  Upcoming Virtual TCU Events ###

May 24 | CKS: Tor on Mobile Devices, Pluggable Transports / Snowflake
Featured guests David Oliver and Fabiola Maurice will give an overview
of how Guardian Project tools connect you with Tor, allowing you to
have robust tools to circumvent censorship.
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/cks56

May 25 | Africa Monthly Meetup
The Africa Monthly Meetups bring together folks to share, connect, and
help us understand what is happening in the African Region
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/May_25,_2022_,_Africa_Meetup

May 25 | MENA Monthly Meetup
The MENA Monthly Meetups bring together folks to share, connect and
help us understand what is happening in the MENA Region
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/May_25_2022,_MENA_Meetup

May 26 | Glitter Meetup: Bread&Net
This November, the much loved Bread&Net will have an in-person
component in Lebanon! Come meet the organizers and find out how you
can participate.
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/May_26_2022_GM

June 16 | Digital Rights Job Fair
see below for details

## Team CommUNITY Update ##

1. More Organizations Join the Digital Rights Fair!

On June 16, we will be hosting the first virtual Job Fair for the
digital rights community. Make sure to RSVP soon here:
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/jobfair

Current participating organizations include: Cryptopad, Open Culture
Foundation, The Tor Project, IVPN, Just Tech @ SSRC, PEN America,
Cloudflare, The Calyx Institute, Freedom of the Press Foundation,
Digital Asia Hub, Greatfire, Globaleaks, SMEX, The Engine Room,
Horizontal, OpenArchive, Open Tech Fund, Ranking Digital Rights,
Article19, European Digital Rights
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### Digital Rights in the Community ###

1. #FreeAlaa

Egyptian blogger, coder, and free speech activist Alaa Abd El Fattah
is now on day 47 of a hunger strike in protest of his mistreatment in
an Egyptian prison. Alaa was sentenced, without a fair process, late
last year, after spending two years at a maximum-security prison in
Tora in pre-trial detention. He was granted British citizenship in
April, and civil society groups—including Access Now, Reporters
Without Borders, Amnesty UK, English PEN, and EFF—are joining the call
for the British government to assist him.

If you are a British citizen, you can stand with Alaa by signing here:
 https://freealaa.net/take-action

EFF has a great explantory piece here:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/british-citizen-alaa-abd-el-fattah-demands-end-mistreatment-egyptian-prison


2. (In)Visible: New Pollicy Report on Digital Threats in the Horn of Africa

Muslim Women Human Right Defenders (MWHRDs) continue to experience
grave forms of violence and threats due to their activism. This
includes threats to their online safety and digital rights.  Pollicy’s
new report ‘(In)Visible’ identifies the needs, challenges and
opportunities for bolstering the digital safety of MWHRDs in order to
recommend long-term actionable strategies for Muslim organizations
working on family law reforms, movements and activists in the GHoA
region. The report documents the landscape of risks from stakeholders
and promote the use of sustainable risk-mitigation measures and
mobilizes the relevant pushback against patriarchal structures and
hegemonies.

https://pollicy.org/projects/invisible/


3. Apply to the Summer School for Female Leadership in the Digital Age

Whether you love law, business, international relations, check out the
European Leadership Academy’s Summer School for students and young
professionals 18 years and above. The program is designed to help
individuals develop the skills they will need to be a force of change
and positive impact in the world. Enrollment is now open. You must
hold citizenship or permanent residence in one of the EU Member
States, Ukraine or one of the ‘Western Balkans 6’ countries.

https://www.europeanleadershipacademy.eu/


4. Human Rights Groups Demand Zoom to Halt Emotional AI Technology

On Wednesday more than 25 human and digital rights organizations
including the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Privacy
Information Center and Fight for the Future sent a letter to Zoom
demanding the company end potential plans to incorporate emotion AI
features in its software. Emotion recognition technology is often
pseudoscientific and carries enormous potential for harm.

Using computer vision and facial recognition, speech recognition,
natural-language processing and other AI technologies, it purports to
infer a person’s inner emotional state. Not only can it be used to
discriminate and threaten an individual's freedom to express and form
opinions, but it simply does not work. Such an intrusive and
inaccurate technology only encourages the use of mass surveillance
and, alarmingly, is being developed without consulting people..You can
read ARTICLE 19's analysis of this technology here:

https://www.article19.org/emotion-recognition-technology-report/

In 2019, the AI Now Institute called for a ban on the use of emotion
AI in important decisions such as hiring and when judging student
performance. In 2021, the Brookings Institution called for it to be
banned in use by law enforcement.

https://www.protocol.com/enterprise/zoom-emotion-ai-aclu-rights


5. Call for Papers - 4th Multidisciplinary International Symposium on
Disinformation in Open Online Media

The Multidisciplinary International Symposium on Disinformation in
Open Online Media (MISDOOM) will be hosted by Boise State University
on October 11-12, 2022. Depending on the pandemic status, the
conference may move online. The symposium seeks full research papers
and extended abstracts from multiple disciplines, including
communication science, computer science, computational social science,
political science, psychology, journalism, and media studies. We also
welcome submissions from industry and practitioners in journalism and
online media. Submission Deadline: May 28, 2022 (Extended)

Submission Link:
https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/MISDOOM2022/Submission/Index

MISDOOM 2022 Website: https://www.boisestate.edu/misdoom-2022/


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### Digital Rights Resources ###

1 Protecting Users’ Privacy if Roe v. Wade is Overturned

If Roe v. Wade is overturned, online products or services may be used
in various ways, such as the mining of users’ personal data to target
those seeking, offering, or facilitating abortion access. This means
search histories, location data, text messages and other personal data
could be used to enforce anti-abortion laws. Both CNN and Scientific
America did recent pieces explaining how technology can be used to
reveal if someone gets an abortion, and the privacy risks this
carries.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/05/tech/abortion-laws-phone-privacy/index.html
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/yes-phones-can-reveal-if-someone-gets-an-abortion/

It will become more important than ever for service providers to apply
policies that respect user's data privacy, and minimize the harm that
can be done through them. EFF outlines what companies can do,
including allowing pseudonymous access, stopping behavioral tracking,
and encrypting data in transit.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/what-companies-can-do-now-protect-digital-rights-post-roe-world

2. Disabling Ad ID Tracking Ensures That Advertisers Can’t Track You &
That Your Personal Information Can’t Be Sold

The ad identifier - aka “IDFA” on iOS, or “AAID” on Android - is the
key that enables most third-party tracking on mobile devices.
Disabling it will make it substantially harder for advertisers and
data brokers to track and profile you, and will limit the amount of
your personal information up for sale. This post also shows how to
revoke tracker access to your ad ID.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/how-disable-ad-id-tracking-ios-and-android-and-why-you-should-do-it-now

3. How Much Do You Know About Classroom Censorship?

The US is seeing staggering number of policies censoring classroom
discussions around topics like race, sex, and gender identity. Coupled
with these efforts are bans on books that also center around these
subjects — bans which hinder students’ ability to learn and talk about
these critical topics that impact their daily lives. Protecting the
right to education also means recognizing that these policies hinder
people’s understanding of their country’s history, the world and
communities around them, and themselves.  Test your knowledge below
about the current wave of classroom censorship measures, as well as
some of the books being challenged.

https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/pop-quiz-how-much-do-you-know-about-classroom-censorship
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### Digital Rights in the Wider World ###

1. Brutal Authoritarian Regimes Continue With Internet Shutdowns While
Committing their Crimes.

There are numerous reasons to why the genocide in Tigray, which has
left over 500,000 people killed, isn't being talked about the way it
should. From global racism to  the international community's selective
concern on human rights. Another reason is because of internet
censorship - the Ethiopian government cut internet access to over 7
million people in Tigray on November 4, right before the fighting
started. As a result, the only official news that comes out is from
mouthpieces of the ruling party.

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/genocide-in-tigray/

The Iranian Regime is also using this repressive tactic. Since the
beginning of protests in the Khuzestan Province over food prices, the
regime has shut off or severely limited the internet in the province
as well as neighboring cities where the situation is becoming
increasingly tense. The regime has a documented history of using
lethal force against peaceful protests during Internet blackouts to
prevent the world from seeing the brutal crackdown.

https://iran-hrm.com/2022/05/15/food-protests-in-iran-amid-internet-blackouts/

These horrific events show us how government ordered Internet
shutdowns are a key tactic to disconnecting people from each other,
restricting access to vital information, and obstructing journalists
from reporting violence.  They serve as a stark reminder of how
crucial it is to protect digital rights and access to the internet for
all.


2. Surveillance, Censorship, and Data Practices in Tanzania

Tanzania is lagging behind in its data protection and privacy act,
even though there has been conversation since 2013. The lack of strong
data protection and privacy laws means Tanzanians are still lacking
the right to browse the internet with privacy and anonymity, and that
the government is increasingly  surveilling and intercepting people’s
communications.

https://globalvoices.org/2022/05/13/not-yet-uhuru-surveillance-censorship-and-data-practices-in-the-new-tanzania/


3. Human Rights Organizations to Cambodian Authorities: Revoke the
Establishment of National Internet Gateway

Thirty two human rights organizations, call on the Cambodian
authorities to revoke the Sub-Decree on the Establishment of the
National Internet Gateway (NIG). Since passing the sub-decree on
February 16, 2021, the government has yet to address the serious human
rights concerns raised by civil society groups and tech companies. At
the same time, the government has been wholly non-transparent
regarding the infrastructure, implementation, financing, and
cooperating companies, agencies, and organizations involved in
supporting the NIG.

https://cchrcambodia.org/media/files/press_release/802_jsotnsdatloce_en.pdf

While the exact technical infrastructure and how it will be operated
is still unknown, there is little doubt the NIG’s true purpose is to
enable the Cambodian government to tighten the noose on what remains
of internet freedom in the country. Cambodia’s internet gateway
greatly risks restricting the free flow of information between
Cambodia and the rest of the world while establishing a system that
will cast a wide net of surveillance across the country. Foreign
governments, technology and telecommunications companies, internet
service providers, business groups, UN agencies and others concerned
should come together to halt this wholesale attempt at information
control.

Read their full statement here:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/05/16/cambodia-should-scrap-rights-abusing-national-internet-gateway


4. How ICE Became a $2.8 Billion Domestic Surveillance Agency

Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology recent research
shows that, in the last 14 years, the US Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) agency spent about $2.8 billion on a massive
surveillance "dragnet" that secretly spies on US residents. The report
concludes that  "ICE now operates as a domestic surveillance agency"
and its methods cross "legal and ethical lines,"

The agency  uses big data and facial-recognition technology to
secretly spy on US residents. It pulls citizen’s data from Department
of Motor Vehicle records, calls, child welfare reports, employment
records, geolocation information, health-care and housing records and
social media reports. ICE also buys customer records from utility
companies through  data brokers Thomson Reuters, since undocumented
people tend to avoid providing their information to government bodies
becasue of fear of deportation.

Authors of the report are calling on Congress to do a better job
overseeing ICE surveillance, including an update on the Driver's
Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) to prohibit, or at least require a
warrant or court order, the use of any DMV data for immigration
enforcement purposes. It also calls to prohibit the disclosure, sale
or resale of utility data for immigration purposes,

https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/14/ice_28bn_domestic_surveillance/


5. Online Platforms Continue to Censor and Shadow Ban Palestinian Content

Following the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip in May 2021 and the
forced eviction of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah,
activists reported their content was being shadow-banned on Facebook
and Instagram. Shadow banning is the practice of blocking or partially
blocking a user or their content in a way that is not readily apparent
to the user that they have been banned. Activists believe the problem
is still ongoing, and content focusing on the situation in Palestine
is still being shadowbanned.

Many activists believe that the blocking of content is a direct result
of Big Tech’s invested interest with the Israeli government,
compounded by Meta’s relationship with the government - in 2016, the
Israeli government and Meta agreed to work together to tackle
incitement on the platform, resulting in more than 87% of 5,000 report
posts about Palestine being taken down.

Coordinated campaigns on Twitter were also used against Palestinian
human rights activists ranging from the use of a diversity of online
tactics to intimidate activists, to coordinated asks by Israeli
supported orgnazations, asking subscribers to content.

https://www.dazeddigital.com/science-tech/article/56106/1/is-pro-palestine-content-being-censored-on-social-media


6. Uganda Sued Over Digital ID System That Excludes Millions

The three charities - the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights,
Unwanted Witness and the Health Equity and Policy Initiative, estimate
up to one-third of adults do not have the biometric ID card, seven
years after the system was introduced. The organizations said that
most of those affected are poor and marginalized such as the elderly
who have been unable to claim welfare payments, as well as pregnant
women who have been turned away from health centers.

The lack of a national ID has also prevented many Ugandans from
opening a bank account, buying a mobile SIM card, enrolling in
college, gaining formal employment and getting a passport, they added.
The three organizations filed the lawsuit on April 25, saying the
mandatory use of the national ID was exclusionary and violated
citizens' rights to key services.

https://news.trust.org/item/20220513155511-l53t0/


7. German-Palestinian academic wins case against state-backed
'profiling' of Israel critics

A Berlin court has ruled in favour of German-Palestinian academic Dr
Anna-Esther Younes and ordered a state-funded body to release a secret
dossier compiled by the pro-Israel group which painted the scholar of
critical race theory as an anti-Semite. The Society for a Democratic
Culture in Berlin (VDK) was ordered to disclose to Younes a dossier
that it had complied about her, how it was processed and with whom it
was shared, according to a 6 May judgement by the Berlin District
Court.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220518-german-palestinian-academic-wins-case-against-state-backed-profiling-of-israel-critics/

 ____________________________

### 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

Digital Freedom Fund
23 May - 1 July 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/

Open Briefing’s Responsive Assistance
Deadline: Rolling Basis
https://www.openbriefing.org/support/referral/

Global Change Makers
Deadline: Rolling basis until 29 May
http://global-changemakers.net/grants

_________________________________________________

### Global Events Calendar ###

The Wikimedia Hackathon 2022
May 20-22
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2022

CKS: Tor on Mobile Devices, Pluggable Transports / Snowflake
May 24
3pm UTC/11am EDT
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/cks56

Africa Monthly Meetup
May 25
9am EDT / 1pm UTC
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/May_25,_2022_,_Africa_Meetup

MENA Monthly Meetup
May 25
11am EDT / 3pm UTC
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/May_25_2022,_MENA_Meetup

Glitter Meetup: Bread&Net Festival - The 5th Edition
May 26
9 EDT / 1pm UTC
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/May_26_2022_GM

Communities of Practice: Lessons and considerations for the civic tech community
Code for All
May 26
2pm UTC
https://bit.ly/3vUZA2N

Virtual School of Internet Governance - French Version
May 2022
Online
http://www.virtualsig.org/

Digital Rights Job Fair
June 16
Online
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/jobfair

LATAM Monthly Meetup
June 22
6:30pm EDT / 10:30pm UTC
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/22_de_Junio,_2022_LATAM

PETS 2022
July 11 - 15
Sydney, Australia
https://petsymposium.org/2022/stipends.php

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

✎ Back-end Developer | IVPN
+ Remote
https://ivpn.recruitee.com/o/backend-developer-gibraltar

✎ System Administrator | IVPN
+ Remote
https://ivpn.recruitee.com/o/system-administrator-gibraltar

✎ Executive Director | Centre for Internet and Society
+ India
https://cis-india.org/jobs/call-for-applications-executive-director

✎ Research and Engagement Assistant | The Engine Room
+ Remote
https://www.theengineroom.org/join-our-team-were-looking-for-a-research-and-engagement-assistant/

✎ Campaigner - Surveillance | Access Now
+ Africa, Asia-Pacific/Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Europe
(Belgium, Germany, UK)
https://accessnow.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=120&source=aWQ9MjA%3D

✎ Go developer | LEAP Encryption Access Project
+ Remote
https://leap.se/post/2022_05_16_go_dev/

✎ IT Systems Specialist | Wikimedia Foundation
+ Remote
https://grnh.se/852f33541us

✎ OONI Community Coordinator | Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI)
+ Remote
https://ooni.org/post/2022-job-opening-ooni-community-coordinator/

✎ Communications and Media Officer | European Digital Rights (EDRi)
+ Brussels, Belgium
https://edri.org/take-action/careers/edri-is-looking-for-a-communications-and-media-officer-permanent-position/

✎ Program Officer | Ford Foundation’s U.S. Technology and Society
+ New York
https://fordfoundation.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/FordFoundationCareerPage/job/New-York-USA/Program-Officer_R925

✎ Policy Manager - Data Protection | Open Rights Group
+ Remote. Eligible to work in the UK
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/policy-manager-data-protection/

✎ Research Consultant | Pollicy
+ Remote
https://cryptpad.fr/file/#/2/file/h4N7CmL4AUwjMRyFEbJunwUT/

✎ Research & Engagement Assistant | The Engine Room
+ Remote
https://www.theengineroom.org/join-our-team-were-looking-for-a-research-and-engagement-assistant/

✎ Country-Level Researchers | Global Voices Advox Project
+ Remote, multiple locations
https://advox.globalvoices.org/2022/05/18/global-voices-seeks-country-level-researchers-for-our-advox-project/

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_________________________________________________

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(((Hugs & light)))

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