Digital Rights Weekly | February 6 - 10

Fri Feb 10 13:23:35 CET 2023

Hello Digital Rights Defenders!

Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
week of February 6 - 10. As a reminder, you can submit your news for
the newsletter here:
https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter

### Special ###

How You Can Support Folks in Turkey, Syria and Neighboring Countries

We have collected an extensive list of ways to help - both monetarily
and via actions - to help individuals and communities impacted by the
earthquake in Turkey and neighboring countries. The list of
initiatives collected have been verified by trusted community members.

https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/how-you-can-support-folks-in-turkey-syria-and-neighboring-countries

### TCU ###

Enroll in TCU’s Psychosocial Circles by March 2

Make sure to sign up for Team CommUNITY Spring psychosocial Circles by
March 2!  They include two Activist Fatigue Circles, and one Diaspora
support Circle. They are open to all digital rights defenders and are
free of charge.

https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/psychosocial-circles-spring-2023

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### Digital Rights in the Community ###

1. Turkey, Iraq" People Need the Internet During Emergencies

Authorities are blocking social media and messaging platforms,
including Twitter, in Turkey and Iraq. The #KeepItOn coalition are
calling on authorities to ensure unfettered access to full internet
access across the nations, especially important during emergencies, so
that people can connect and share vital information.

#KeepItOn Turkey: https://www.accessnow.org/earthquake-turkey-keepiton/
#KeepItOn Iraq: https://www.accessnow.org/internet-keepiton-iraq/

2. CSOs, Researchers sign Letter Noting the Effect Twitter's New Fees
for their API will Threaten Public-Interest Research

The Twitter Development team announced that the platform will no
longer allow free access to the Twitter API starting February 9.
Numerous organizations and researchers have signed a letter calling on
Twitter to ensure APIs for studying public content on the platform
remains easily accessible for journalists, academic and civil society
- given that this work offers critical insight that inforrm the
public, policy makers, and Twitter itself.

https://independenttechresearch.org/letter-twitter-api-access-threatens-public-interest-research/

3. Fair Trials’ Tool Shows How ‘Predictive Policing' Discriminates &
Unjustly Criminalizes People

Fair Trials has launched an interactive online tool designed to show
how the police and other criminal justice authorities are using
predictive systems to profile people and areas as criminal, even
before alleged crimes have occurred. Each question in the tool relates
directly to information used by criminal justice authorities across
Europe, and shows how it leads to
racist outcomes. Fair Trials is also calling on MEPs to ban predictive
systems when they vote on the Artificial Intelligence Act in the
upcoming months.

https://www.fairtrials.org/articles/news/fair-trials-tool-shows-how-predictive-policing-discriminates-and-unjustly-criminalises-people/

4. Masters in Data & AI Ethics at Edinburgh Futures Institute

The Centre for Technomoral Futures at Edinburgh Futures Institute is
pleased to announce a new masters programme, MSc in Data and AI
Ethics, which focuses on interdisciplinary skills and knowledge in the
ethical design, use and governance of artificial intelligence and
other data-intensive technologies. Applications are open now with
rolling deadlines.
https://efi.ed.ac.uk/data-and-artificial-intelligence-ethics/

5. Feminist Perspectives on Social Media Governance

Last year, IT for Change’s ‘Recognize-Resist-Remedy’ project
co-organized a roundtable to catalyze a productive debate around what
new imaginaries of social media governance will be adequate to
eradicate the unfreedoms arising from misogyny in online
communications agora? Read this curated compendium of essay
submissions from the roundtables here:

https://itforchange.net/feminist-perspectives-on-social-media-governance-0

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### Digital Rights Resources ###

1. Critical Books on Technology, Science, and Race

Check out this list of books from Black scholars related to
Technology, Science, and Race , compiled UCLA’s Center for Critical
Internet Inquiry.

https://www.c2i2.ucla.edu/racial-justice-and-tech/

2. CYPER: Iran’s AI-Powered Surveillance State

In Iran, the state is using AI and facial recognition technology to
enforce draconian laws. On this episode of Cyber, Mahsa Alimardani—a
senior researcher at Article 19 and a doctoral candidate at the
University of Oxford—comes on the show to talk about how Iran is
pioneering the modern surveillance state.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/epze9w/cyber-irans-ai-powered-surveillance-state

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

1. New Details about the Suspected Chinese Surveillance Balloon

As US officials have begun analyzing parts recovered from a balloon
shot down last week, they are sharing what they are discovering. They
say the Chinese government has undertaken using a fleet of
high-altitude surveillance balloons over more than 40 countries in
five regions, that were capable of conducting signal intelligence
collection operations, including monitoring communication systems.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/09/politics/spy-balloon-technology/index.html

2. Sprawling US Intel Project to Improve Long-Distance Biometrics,
Using Community College Students as Test Subjects

A face, gait and whole-body biometric recognition project begun in
2019 by U.S. national labs continues. The project, known as BRIAR, or
Biometric Recognition and Identification at Altitude and Range, is
supposed to come up with better situational awareness for U.S.
intelligence agencies and the military. Research teams across the
nation are working on better ways to more accurately identify subjects
outdoors and from a distance. This includes recently using community
college students as test subjects. The article also lists various
public and private entities that were awarded grants for this
research.

https://www.biometricupdate.com/202302/sprawling-us-intel-project-to-improve-long-distance-biometrics-on-college-campus

3. Inside Safe City, Moscow’s AI Surveillance Dystopia

The Russian capital is now the seventh-most-surveilled city in the
world. Across Russia, there are an estimated 21 million surveillance
cameras, and the country ranks among the top in the world in terms of
the number of connected surveillance cameras. The system created by
Moscow’s government, dubbed Safe City, was touted by city officials as
a way to streamline its public safety systems.  In recent years,
however, its 217,000 surveillance cameras, designed to catch criminals
and terrorists, have been turned against protestors, political rivals,
and journalists.

https://www.wired.com/story/moscow-safe-city-ntechlab/

4. Meta Fails to Stop Court Case in Kenya

The Employment and Labour Relations Court has ruled that the Facebook
parent firm Meta can be sued in Kenya. Justice Jacob Gakeri declined
to strike out Meta Platforms Inc and Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd from a
case filed by a former South African Facebook moderator Daniel
Motaung, who has sued the social technology company over a toxic work
environment.

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/corporate/companies/facebook-parent-firm-fails-to-stop-court-case-in-kenya-4112968

5. Digital Injustice and Gender Violence in Myanmar, Iraq

In Myanmar, the military uses doxxing to target politically active
women. When men are targeted, posts typically insinuate that they are
linked to terrorist groups working to bring down the junta, multiple
experts from NGOs and digital rights groups in the region told CNN.
But when women are doxxed, the attacks frequently feature sexist hate
speech, often coupled with explicit sexual imagery and video footage
of them.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/07/asia/myanmar-military-sexual-images-doxxing-telegram-as-equals-intl-cmd/index.html

Dozens of Iraqi protesters gathered Sunday to decry the so-called
“honor killing” of a 22-year-old YouTube star who was allegedly
strangled by her father, adding fuel to calls for legal reforms
protecting women. Various groups are calling for reform to legislation
to impose harsher punishments on perpetrators.

https://apnews.com/article/iraq-government-crime-womens-rights-7ad0d8f321cce229e0f5d240679587bd

6. Australians: Petition to Free Julian Assange

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently revealed he has
made private representations to the US Government on behalf of Julian
Assange. A new campaign is seeking signatures asking for the charges
against Assange to be dropped.

 https://www.action.assangecampaign.org.au

7. New York City’s Law on Using Tech to Make Hiring Decisions Keeps
Getting Weaker

More employers are using automated employment decision tools, known as
AEDTs, to make employment decisions. This year, New York City was the
first in the USA to pass laws to regulate these tools.  Local Law 144
was weak from the outset. During every step of the process to craft
it, vendors and employers worked to ensure that it’s toothless. Now,
new draft regulations threaten to water down the law’s already
inadequate requirements still further.

https://slate.com/technology/2023/02/aedts-new-york-city-ll-144-automated-employment-decision-tools.html

8. Developers Created AI to Generate Police Sketches. Experts are Horrified.

Two developers have used OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 image generation model to
create a forensic sketch program that can create “hyper-realistic”
police sketches of a suspect based on user inputs. AI ethicists and
researchers told Motherboard that the use of generative AI in police
forensics is incredibly dangerous, with the potential to worsen
existing racial and gender biases that appear in initial witness
descriptions.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjk745/ai-police-sketches

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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

Alliance for Gender Equality in Europe
February 12, 2023
https://alliance-genderequality.org/

Open Source Software Sustainability Fund
February 20, 2023
https://www.opentech.fund/news/open-technology-fund-announces-free-and-open-source-software-sustainability-fund/

Digital Freedom Fund
Deadline: February 28, 2023
https://digitalfreedomfund.org/grants/

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

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

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/

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### Events Calendar ###

Digital Privacy at Texas Legislature
EFF Austin
February 14, 2023
Hybrid
https://www.eff.org/event/eff-austin-digital-privacy-texas-legislature

LATAM Monthly Meetup
6:30pm EST / 11:30pm UTC
February 15, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=15_de_Febrero,_2023_LATAM

Glitter Meetup: Everything You Should Know about OTF FOSS Fund
9am EST / 2pm UTC
February 16, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=February_16_2023_GM

Africa Meetup
8am EST / 1pm UTC
February 23, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=February_23_2023,_Africa_Meetup

Glitter Meetup: Perú: The Digital Rights in the Country and in a
Social Demonstration Context
9am EST / 2pm UTC
February 23, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=February_23_2023_GM

MENA Monthly Meetup
10am EST / 3pm UTC
February 28, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=February_28_2023,_MENA_Meetup

DRIF23
April 12 to 14
Hybrid/Nairobi
https://whova.com/portal/registration/draif_202304/

RightsCon
Access Now
June 5 - 8, 2023
Hybrid
https://www.rightscon.org/attend/

7th Palestine Digital Activism Forum
7amleh
May 23-25, 2023
TBD
https://7amleh.org/2023/01/24/palestine-digital-activism-forum

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 sent to us 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

✎ Project Lead | Code for All
+ Remote
https://bit.ly/3Yimuhd

✎ Deputy Director | Free Software Foundation
+ Boston, MA, USA
https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-job-opportunity-deputy-director

✎ International Programs Tech Fellow | Ford Foundation
+ New York, USA
https://fordfoundation.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/FordFoundationCareerPage/job/Civic-Engagement-and-Government-Technology-Fellow_R991-1

✎ Doctoral Studentship | Sodertorn University
+ Sweden
https://www.sh.se/english/sodertorn-university/meet-sodertorn-university/this-is-sodertorn-university/vacant-positions

✎ Network Engagement Coordinator | IFEX
+ Remote
https://ifex.bamboohr.com/careers/27?source=aWQ9MTM%3D

✎ Project Manager, Community Engagement | Connect the Dots
+ Philadelphia, PA, USA
https://www.connectthedotsinsights.com/2023/01/january-2023-pm-role/

✎ Social Media Editor | The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting
Project (OCCRP)
+ Amsterdam, The Netherlands or Remote (European time zones)
https://www.occrp.org/en/occrp-jobs/social-media-editor

✎ Program Manager | Open Technology Fund
+ Remote
https://www.opentech.fund/about/jobs/program-manager-2023/

✎ Investigative Reporter (International) | The Gecko Project
+ Remote
https://thegeckoproject.org/articles/we-re-hiring-apply-to-be-our-new-investigative-reporter-international/

✎ Investigative Reporter (Indonesia) | The Gecko Project
+ Jakarta, Indonesia
https://thegeckoproject.org/articles/we-re-hiring-apply-to-be-our-new-investigative-reporter-indonesian/

✎ Programs Director | UPENDO
+ Malaba, Uganda
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn6zMkvtWbr/

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

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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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