Digital Rights Weekly | November 7 - 11

Team CommUNITY team at digitalrights.community
Thu Nov 10 21:46:27 CET 2022 

Hello Digital Rights Defenders!

Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
weeks of November 7 - 11. As a reminder, you can submit your news for
the newsletter here:
https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter

###  Upcoming Virtual TCU Events ###

Various VPN VIllage Sessions in November and December!
https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/vpn-village-2022

November 16 | Lingua Cafe
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/lingua_cafe_13

November 16 | Latin America Meetup
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/16_de_Noviembre,_2022_LATAM

November 17 | Glitter Meetup: Becoming Your Community’s VPN Provider with WEPN
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/November_17_2022_GM

November 23 | Africa Meetup
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/November_23_2022,_Africa_Meetup

November 23 | MENA Meetup
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/November_23_2022,_MENA_Meetup

November 24 | Glitter Meetup: The Tor Project and how it can support
our communities
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/November_24_2022_GM

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### TCU Updates ###

1. Join us for the VPN Village!

The VPN Village is a two-week virtual series of events focused on VPN
user education and solidarity. The events held over the last week of
November and first week of December will address gaps in user
education around VPNs, the challenge of analyzing and selecting a VPN,
and will show attendees how to set up their own VPN servers and
proxies to support their communities and users combatting censorship
globally.  Please note, you must RSVP for each session individually!

https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/vpn-village-2022


2. October Regional Briefs are Out!

TCU’s Regional Briefs cover updates, community news, opportunities,
emerging topics on digital justice, regional news, and more! Make sure
to check out the deep coverage of the Guacamaya hacking leaks in Latin
America, which exposed documents from military forces and other key
institutions, which were given to media and organizations for
publishing.

https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/regionalbriefsoctober2022


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### Digital Rights in the Community ###

1. Call for Proposals: Multiple Mozilla Foundation Grants

Mozilla Foundation has announced a call for proposals for various
grants they recently released, including  Creative Media Awards,
Responsible Computer Science Challenge, and Africa Innovation Mradi.
To find the deadline for each grant, visit the Mozilla Foundation
blog, or see them listed in our Funding Opportunities below. However,
note that many of the grants have November 30 as a deadline.

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/topic/fellowships-awards/


2. Kenya to Host 2023 Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum

Kenya will host the 10th Edition of the Digital Rights and Inclusion
Forum (DRIF). The forum, whose theme is ‘Building A Sustainable
Internet for All’ will take place in Nairobi between April 11 and 13,
2023. The forum is a critical platform where conversations on digital
policy in Africa can be shaped, policy directions debated, and
partnerships forged for action.

https://www.biometricupdate.com/202211/nypd-uses-obtuse-language-to-avoid-revealing-what-surveillance-biometrics-it-deploys


3. United Nations Democracy Fund Call for Proposals

UNDEF supports projects that strengthen the voice of civil society,
promote human rights, and encourage the participation of all groups in
democratic processes. UNDEF projects are two years long. Applicants
can request a grant of a minimum of $100,000 and a maximum of
$250,000. The large majority of UNDEF funds go to local civil society
organizations. In this way, UNDEF plays a distinct role in
complementing the UN's other work -- the work with Governments -- to
strengthen democratic governance around the world. Read more here:

https://www.un.org/democracyfund/


4. #FreeAlaa: Solidarity Actions during COP27; EFF Award

Alaa Abd El-Fattah is a political prisoner in Egypt, and was
instrumental to the creation of the Arab Blogger and techie networks,
running one of Egypt’s longest-running and most celebrated blogs. He
has been on hunger strike for more than 200 days. On November 6th, as
world leaders are arriving for COP27, he stopped drinking water,
increasing fears for his life. Check out the #FreeAlaa Campaign
rolling press release to get the latest information on solidarity
actions to support during COP27 and afterwards.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IL8TtpJk9afQICD4oL0068qu3ZdZyG5Bx4q0x_vg25E/edit

Notably, this week Alaa was awarded The Electronic Freedom Foundation
(EFF) Award, a new ceremony which recognizes the growing digital
rights communities whose technical, social, economic, and cultural
contributions are changing the world.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/11/eff-award-winner-alaa-abd-el-fattah


5. New Tech Report: Surveillance Tech Perpetuates Police Abuse of Power

Among global movements to reckon with police powers, a new report from
UK research group No Tech For Tyrants unveils how police use
surveillance technology to abuse power around the world.

https://notechfortyrants.org/2022/11/07/new-report-surveillance-tech-perpetuates-police-abuse-of-power/


6. COP27 Delegates Fighting for Climate Justice Must Also Speak Out on
Egypt’s Vicious Assault on Human Rights

COP27 is taking place amid concerns over the Egyptian authorities and
UNFCCC’ failure to accredit independent Egyptian human rights groups
for COP27. Additional barriers for the meaningful participation of a
wide range of stakeholders include mandatory registration processes
for access to the Green Zone, unaffordable hotel prices and increased
surveillance and security checks.

Amnesty International is calling on world leaders to publicly
demonstrate their solidarity with Egypt’s embattled civil society and
put pressure on Egyptian authorities to end their years-long assault
on human rights.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/11/cop27-delegates-fighting-for-climate-justice-must-also-speak-out-on-egypts-vicious-assault-on-human-rights/


7. Article19 Eastern Africa: Take Urgent Action to Support Free Speech
and Vital Rights

ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa provided oral submission at the 73rd
Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’
Rights, where they highlighted improvements and failures regarding
freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and access to information
in the African region. Improvements included: Burundi government’s
lifting of the ban on BBC and Voice of America that had been in place
since 2019, as well as a Kenyan High Court’s decision to reverse rules
preventing litigants and others from voicing opinions about the
hearing for the Presidential Election Petition. However, ARTICLE 19 EA
drew attention to events illustrating short fallings in the region on
meeting international standards for key freedoms, such as rife
disinformation and misinformation disseminated during Kenya’s general
election in August 2022. Read more here:

https://www.article19.org/resources/eastern-africa-african-commission-human-rghts/

_________________________________________________

### Digital Rights Resources ###

1. Book Review on Sarah Lamdan’s Data Cartels

>From friendships and genealogy to civic engagement, commercial
transactions and charitable works, people rely on networked
technologies that enable dialogue, authentication, payment and more.
It is difficult to remember our daily lives before smartphones; those
who have never known otherwise find those days impossible to imagine.
Sarah Lamdan’s Data Cartels is the latest in the genre of books that
critically analyzes such platforms, identifies bias, inequities and
resultant harms, and asks why these for-profit companies are allowed
to operate as they do. Lamdan focuses her attention on information and
data brokers. These are relatively unknown, unlike social-media and
search-engine companies

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03578-8

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

1. Exclusive: Indian ISPs: We Already Give Government Full Access to Web Traffic

The Internet Service Providers Association of India said in a filing
with the Department of Telecommunications obtained by Entrackr under
the RTI Act that they are already are providing the government with
full access to web traffic.  “All ILD [international long distance]
and ISP [internet service provider] licensees are mandated to connect
their systems to the CMS [Centralized Monitoring System] facility,”
and “law enforcement agencies are provided facility for on-line and
real-time monitoring of traffic,”

https://entrackr.com/2022/11/exclusive-indian-isps-we-already-give-govt-full-access-to-web-traffic/

In 2019, a UK-based research firm Comparitech claimed that data
analysis from companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google showed
that India has the highest takedown request worldwide, after Russia.

https://globalvoices.org/2022/11/04/the-tweets-may-flow-a-look-into-indias-take-down-requests/


2. Fears Mount that COP27 App Could Be Used by Egypt to Surveil Regime’s Critics

The official COP27 app, which has already been downloaded more than
5,000 times, requires sweeping permissions from users before it
installs, including the ability for Egypt’s ministry of communications
and information technology to view emails, scour photos and determine
users’ locations, according to an expert who analyzed it for the
Guardian.

This data could be used by Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s regime to further
crack down on dissent in a country that already holds about 65,000
political prisoners. Egypt has conducted a series of mass arrests of
people accused of being protesters in the lead-up to COP27 and sought
to vet and isolate any activists near the talks, which will see
governments attempting to hammer out an agreement over dealing with
the climate crisis.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/06/egypt-cop27-climate-surveillance-cybersecurity


3. Ecuador: The Temptation to Control Technology

Ecuadorian Digital rights organizations remain attentive to the
state's attempts to control telecommunications in the country in
recent years. During the Indigenous strike in June 2022, the
government attempted to legalize internet shutdowns. The October 2019
protest showed evidence that decisions were possibly taken under the
table - citizens experienced intentional interruptions in internet
connectivity during the protests. In fact, Access Now in its report
“Targeted, Cut Off, and Left in the Dark” indicated that 14 percent of
internet outages in the region were attributed to Ecuador in 2019.

https://globalvoices.org/2022/11/03/ecuador-the-temptation-to-control-technology/


4. Greece’s Surveillance Scandal Put Rights at Risk

Last year, Greek Journalist Stavros Malichoudis found out through a
newspaper article that the National Intelligence Service has been
monitoring his work.

https://www.investigate-europe.eu/en/2021/stavros-malichudis-journalist-being-watched-by-the-greek-secret-service-press-freedom/

The surveillance scandal is part of a pattern of the Greek government
curbing media freedom, which impacts the rule of law. Greece fell  38
positions within a year in Reporters Without Borders’ 2022 press
freedom index, with the organization marking it the  lowest-ranked EU
country.

State surveillance of journalists raises serious privacy and free
expression concerns. It also interferes with media freedom and
violates the confidentiality of journalistic sources, protected under
the European Convention on Human Rights and EU Charter of Fundamental
Rights. Such surveillance can also have a chilling effect on
journalism and its role in a democratic society.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/11/07/greeces-surveillance-scandal-puts-rights-risk


5. Gen Z: A Driving Force Behind Iran’s Protests

Gen Z, the generation born between 1997 and 2012, is social media
savvy despite intermittent internet shutdowns and draconian internet
censorship. Frustrated and angry with the status quo, they are not
afraid to express themselves online or in person nor to push the red
lines of the Islamic Republic. And they’re shaking up the aging,
sclerotic clerical establishment to a degree not seen since the
country’s 1979 revolution.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/11/01/iran-protests-gen-z-mahsa-amini-social-media/


6. Australia Bets on Facial Recognition for Problem Gamblers

As guests arrive at eastern Australia’s Warilla Hotel, a small camera
equipped with facial recognition software scans their faces as part of
a scheme to tackle problem gambling. The tech – which uses artificial
intelligence to identify addicts who have asked to be barred from
betting sites – is set to be rolled out across gambling venues in the
state of New South Wales next year. Supporters say it will help curb
problem gambling in a country where the addiction affects about 1
percent of the population and annual losses run to billions of
dollars.

But the technology is “invasive, dangerous and undermines our most
basic and fundamental rights”, said Samantha Floreani, programme lead
at the non-profit group Digital Rights Watch. “We should be
exceptionally wary of introducing it into more areas of our lives and
it should not be seen as a simple quick-fix solution to complex social
issues,” she said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/11/4/australia-bets-on-facial-recognition-for-problem-gamblers

_________________________________________________

### 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

The Creative Media Awards
Mozilla
Deadline: November 30, 2022
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/mozillas-creative-media-awards-seek-projects-exploring-ai-and-responsible-design/

The Africa Innovation Mrad
Mozilla
Deadline: November 30, 2022
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/mozillas-africa-innovation-mradi-introduces-its-in-real-life-fund/

Fellowship on Technology and Human Rights
SMEX
Deadline: December 11, 2022
https://smex.org/2023-smex-fellowship-on-technology-and-human-rights/

The Responsible Computer Science Challenge
Mozilla
Deadline: December 15, 2022
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/mozillas-responsible-computer-science-challenge-opens-applications-in-kenya/

Incident Emergency Fund
Digital Defenders Partnership
Deadline: Rolling Basis
https://www.digitaldefenders.org/incident-emergency-fund/

Rapid Response Fund
Open Tech Fund
Deadline: Rolling Basis
https://www.opentech.fund/news/request-for-proposal-otfs-rapid-response-fund/

Digital Freedom Fund
Deadline: Check website, call for proposal will open soon.
https://digitalfreedomfund.org/grants/

Safety Net Fund
Deadline: Ongoing
https://wphfund.org/whrds-safety-net/

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/

Secure Usability and Accessibility Lab
Open Tech Fund
Deadline: Rolling
https://www.opentech.fund/labs/sua-lab/
_________________________________________________

### Global Events Calendar ###

Lingua Cafe
November 16
9am EST / 2pm UTC
Online
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/lingua_cafe_13

Latin America Meetup
November 16
6:30pm EST / 10:30pm UTC
Online
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/16_de_Noviembre,_2022_LATAM

Glitter Meetup: Becoming Your Community’s VPN Provider with WEPN
9am EST / 2pm UTC
November 17
Online
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/November_17_2022_GM

Africa Meetup
November 23
8am EST / 1pm UTC
Online
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/November_23_2022,_Africa_Meetup

MENA Meetup
November 23
12pm EST / 5pm UTC
Online
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/November_23_2022,_MENA_Meetup

Glitter Meetup: The Tor Project and how it can support our communities
November 24
9am EST / 2pm UTC
Online
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/November_24_2022_GM

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

✎ International Grant Accountant (US based) | Article 19
+ NY, Maryland or Washington DC, USA
https://equalit.ie/job-post/python-developer-for-deflect-ca/

✎ Head of Operations | Miaan Group
+ Remote or Austin, TX, USA
https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit-job/6730059feaf24ed6b9b7d32dd17c19a9-operations-manager-miaan-group-austin

✎ Senior Investigative Editor | The Organized Crime and Corruption
Reporting Project (OCCRP)
+ Remote in Asia region
https://www.occrp.org/en/occrp-jobs/senior-investigative-editor

✎ MENA Investigative Editor | The Organized Crime and Corruption
Reporting Project (OCCRP)
+ Remote in MENA region
https://www.occrp.org/en/occrp-jobs/mena-investigative-editor

✎ Program Associate (Localization Management) | Localization Lab
+ Remote
https://www.localizationlab.org/careers

✎ Senior Associate, Events Programming | McCourt School of Public
Policy – Georgetown University
+ Washington, D.C., USA
https://georgetown.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Georgetown_Admin_Careers/job/Main-Campus/Senior-Associate--Events-Programming---McCourt-School-of-Public-Policy---Georgetown-University_JR13642

✎ Cyber Security Consultant | Syria Justice and Accountability Centre
+ Remote
https://syriaaccountability.org/careers/#csc

If you feel like sending some digital glitter our way, or need further
assistance, feel free to reply to this message.
_________________________________________________

### Know someone that wants to subscribe to our newsletter? ###

They can sign up here:
https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter

### Want to partner with us?###

If you have any questions or want to learn more about partnerships,
get in touch at team at digitalrights.community. We are always looking
for like-minded organizations and people.

(((Hugs & light)))

--
Team CommUNITY at ARTICLE 19
www.digitalrights.community
Organizers of the Internet Freedom Festival
PGP: 2E1D CC33 A362 0BD6 236E  540A F60A 89AD 6FF9 7A2F

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