Digital Rights Weekly | February 27 - March 3

Thu Mar 2 19:43:25 CET 2023

Hello Digital Rights Defenders!

Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
week of February 27 - March 3. As a reminder, you can submit your news
for the newsletter here:
https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter

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### Team CommUNITY (TCU) ###

1. February Regional Briefs are Out!

Every month, our Community Leads from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and
MENA, bring critical information about digital justice issues around
the globe, current opportunities for digital rights defenders,
insights into emerging issues, community news, regional developments,
and more!

This month’s briefs features an interview with Ariel Koren, former
Google employee who was fired for protesting Project Nimbus - a $1.2
billion agreement between Google and Amazon to supply artificial
intelligence tools and other computing services to Israel and its
military.

In good news, Ola Bini was released, hopefully setting a precedent for
the safeguarding of online freedoms.

https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/regionalbriefsfebruary2023

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### Digital Rights in the Community ###

1. Calling Young People: Apply for the Responsible Technology Youth
Power Fund by April 1, 2023

Omidyar Network, along with 11 other funders, have launched the
Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund, which supports youth and
intergenerationally led organizations working to shape the responsible
technology movement. This means, helping create a more inclusive and
equitable technology ecosystem. The Fund has raised $1.5 million, and
is now accepting applications for award amounts ranging from $25K -
$200K. Deadline is April 1.

https://www.rtyouthpower.org/apply-now

2. Fusion Center Fund Open Call For Grant Applications 2023

The Calyx Institute has an open call for applications for their Fusion
Center Microgrants Fund,  which will disburse up to $50,000 in grants,
with a maximum amount of $10,000 per grant, to projects researching
Fusion Centers and their impact on digital privacy and freedom of
expression. Fusion Centers are law enforcement intelligence sharing
centers in the USA that integrate local, federal, and private
intelligence gathering and dissemination which have documented
deleterious impacts on privacy and freedom of expression.  Deadline is
March 17, 2023.
 https://calyxinstitute.org/projects/microgrants-and-small-project-support/fusion-center-fund-2023

3. Digital Good Research Fund AND Good Network Summer School

Keep an eye out for the Digital Good Research Fund, which will launch
on March 7, and will provide funding for small-scale, pilot and
scoping projects focused on how digital technologies can work for
people and society. Grants will range from  £20,000 to £50,000, with
the deadline being 28 April 2023.

The Digital Good Network Summer School for PhD students will also open
on March 7. It will provide PhD researchers with the opportunity to
engage with a range of theoretical, methodological and professional
development topics relating to the digital good. It will take place in
Sheffield on 22 & 23 June 2023. Deadline is March  24, 2023.

Both of these opportunities are being offered by the Digital Good
Network, a cross-discipline, cross-sector network exploring how to
ensure that digital technologies benefit people, society, and the
economy.

https://digitalgood.net

4. CyberPeace Institute Launches the Humanitarian Cybersecurity Center (HCC)

The CyberPeace Institute has launched the Humanitarian Cybersecurity
Center (HCC) - providing humanitarian NGOs with free tools, workforce
and knowledge to face threats such as cyberattacks and information
operations, among others. The launch of this center is recognition
that NGOs usually lack the capacity to be both on the frontline of aid
delivery and respond to cyber threats, which many times erode trust in
these organizations.

http://cpi.link/hcc-news

5. Call for Papers for LIMITS 2023

LIMITS 2023 will take place on June 14-15, online. The event brings
together an interdisciplinary group of researchers, practitioners, and
scholars, seeking to reshape the computing research agenda, grounded
by an awareness that contemporary computer research is intertwined
with ecological limits, and climate and climate justice-related
limits. They currently have a call out for papers that will help move
closer towards computing that supports diverse human and non-human
lifeforms and thriving biospheres. Abstract registration deadline:
March 17, 2023

https://computingwithinlimits.org/2023/

6. New Reports from Across the Digital Rights Community Released This Week!

a) Internet Shutdowns in 2022: Weapons of Control, Shield of Impunity

AccessNow released a report looking into last year’s internet
shutdown. In 2022 alone, governments and other actors disrupted the
internet at least 187 times across 35 countries — breaking their
#KeepItOn record for the number of countries to hit the kill switch in
a single year.

https://www.accessnow.org/internet-shutdowns-2022/

b) How Internet Censorship Changed in Russia During the 1st Year of
Military Conflict in Ukraine

The Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) provides an
analysis of measurements collected from Russia between January 2022 to
February 2023, with a focus on answering whether internet censorship
has changed over the last year. The findings are supplemented with
information from relevant legal analysis and desk research provided by
Roskomsvoboda.

https://ooni.org/post/2023-russia-a-year-after-the-conflict/

c) Online Public Discourse in MENA: Regional Trends and Local Narratives
The Democracy Reporting International (DRI) newest report is the
second of four regional social media monitoring reports covering
political events from April to December 2022.  This edition
analyzes and provides recommendations to combat disinformation and
hate speech in Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan and Sudan.

https://democracy-reporting.org/en/office/global/publications/online-public-discourse-in-mena-regional-trends-and-local-narratives

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### Digital Rights Resources ###

1. Gigpedia: A Global Database on Platform Work

Gigpedia provides an overview of available information on the global
platform economy. Find information about existing legislation, court
cases and ratings of labor standards for specific platforms. Data
housed at Gigpedia was collected by leading research organizations in
the field, including WageIndicator, Fairwork and Leeds Index of
Platform Labour Protest. This includes Platform Labour Ratings,
Platform Case Studies, Repository of Court Cases and Platform Economy
News.

https://gigpedia.org

2. IT for Change: Feminist Perspectives on Social Media Governance

Barriers to equal political participation are affected by negative
online activities, which have real-life implications and ramifications
for women and historically oppressed groups. This includes tactics
such as shadow banning, trolling, cyberbullying, mob attacks, and more
 IT for Change has been working on tackling pervasive online
misogynistic speech, and better understanding the scale of the
problem. Read about the findings from their April 2022 roundtable with
a cross section of profiles working on this issue and working to
create a more feminist internet.

https://botpopuli.net/feminist-perspectives-on-social-media-governance-a-snapshot/

3. Kenya: How Language Denies People Access to Public Information

In Kenya, the use of English as the official language, particularly by
digital media, has raised concern about digital rights and social
exclusion. The rights to usage, creation and publishing of digital
media are directly connected to freedom of expression and privacy.
This points to a crucial question; which language would make it easy
for every internet user, not only to use the information on the
internet but to understand their rights as well?

https://nation.africa/kenya/life-and-style/art-books/language-access-to-public-information-4131464

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

1. European Commission and Canada Bans TikTok on Government Devices

The European Commission banned TikTok from work-issued phones and
personal phones with work applications downloaded on Thursday.
Employees have until March 15 to delete the application. TikTok has
been under increasing scrutiny in both the European Union and United
States as a potential security risk, as well as Canada that followed
suit this week as well.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/eu-commission-staff-told-remove-tiktok-phones-eu-industry-chief-says-2023-02-23.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64792894

2. Internet for Trust Conference discusses guidelines for online platforms

The first-ever conference to discuss draft global guidelines for
regulating digital platforms ended on Thursday in Paris with a call to
uphold the right to seek and receive information in the face of rising
disinformation online. More than 4,300 people participated in the
Internet for Trust Conference, organized by the UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which will launch the
guidelines in September.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/02/1133827

3. The Privacy and Security of 93 million Nigerians at Risk Following
Landmark Election

Experts fear that Nigeria’s new election mechanism, utilized this past
Saturday for Africa’s biggest electorate, is putting the privacy and
security of 93 million Nigerians at risk. Citizens were asked to
relinquish reams of personal data to cast their vote - from facial
recognition to fingerprints, ID cards to mobile numbers.
Justification for the new system was the ability to “stamp out
electoral fraud” However, privacy experts fear that tens of millions
of Nigerians risk exposure to fraudsters, identity theft or state
surveillance under the new system.

https://www.reuters.com/article/nigeria-election-id-idAFL8N35360C

4. Google Doesn’t Want to Pay Websites for Content, so It’s Blocking
News in Canada

The company began limiting access to news content in search of around
4% of users in Canada in response to a new bill that would require
Google to pay news publishers

https://gizmodo.com/google-search-block-news-canada-law-australia-facebook-1850150207

5. Turkish Telecommunications Entity Blocks Access to Popular Website

Turkey's top telecommunications watchdog, the Information Technologies
and Communications Authority (BTK), blocked access to a popular
website “Ekşi Sözlük” (Sour Dictionary), a user-contribution-based
collaborative hypertext dictionary. The Ekşi Sözlük's editorial team
was not informed what content specifically prompted the blocking.

https://globalvoices.org/2023/02/22/in-turkey-telecommunications-censor-blocks-access-to-popular-website-eksi-sozluk/

6. Big Tech Agree to Guidelines on How to Build AI-generated Content
Responsibly.

A group of 10 companies, including OpenAI, TikTok, Adobe, the BBC, and
the dating app Bumble, have signed up to a new set of guidelines on
how to build, create, and share AI-generated content responsibly. The
recommendations call for both the builders of the technology, such as
OpenAI, and creators and distributors of digitally created synthetic
media, such as the BBC and TikTok, to be more transparent about what
the technology can and cannot do, and disclose when people might be
interacting with this type of content

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/27/1069166/how-to-create-release-and-share-generative-ai-responsibly/

7. OpenAI Is Now Everything It Promised Not to Be: Corporate,
Closed-Source, and For-Profit

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research organization
committed to research “to advance digital intelligence in the way that
is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need
to generate financial return.” Now, eight years later, the company is
neither transparent nor driven by positive human impact, but instead,
is powered by speed and profit.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d3naz/openai-is-now-everything-it-promised-not-to-be-corporate-closed-source-and-for-profit

Researchers have spent years warning that text-generation algorithms
can spew bias and falsehoods. Tech giants are rushing them into
products anyway. For example, authoritarian censors could shape the
future of such AI-generated content.

https://www.wired.com/story/chatbots-got-big-and-their-ethical-red-flags-got-bigger/
(paywall)

While AI tools have grown in popularity in recent years, 2023 has been
declared the year in which AI becomes a more visible part of daily
life. Any examination of the design, use and effects of artificial
intelligence must give ample consideration to trends in China.
AI-driven tools are used widely inside the country for politicized
content monitoring, censorship and public surveillance.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2023/02/27/commentary/world-commentary/china-artificial-intelligence/

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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

The Calyx Institute
Fusion Center Microgrants Fund
Deadline: March 17, 2021
https://calyxinstitute.org/projects/microgrants-and-small-project-support/fusion-center-fund-2023

Omidyar Network
Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund
Deadline: April 1st, 2023
https://bit.ly/3I9Y3NR

Digital Good Network
Digital Good Research Fund
Deadline: April 28, 2023
https://digitalgood.net

Digital Rights Research Grant
PrivacyCo
Deadline: Rolling
https://www.top10vpn.com/research-grant/

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 ###

Thoughtful Biometrics Workshop
March 16, 2023
Online
https://www.thoughtfulbiometrics.org/

Glitter Meetup: SocorroBot, a chatbot guiding people reporting a
missing person in México
9am EDT / 1pm UTC
March 16, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=March_16_2023_GM

LATAM Monthly Meetup
6:30pm EST / 10:30pm UTC
March 22, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=22_de_Marzo,_2023_LATAM

DRIF23
April 12 to 14, 2023
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

Freedom Not Fear
September 1- 4, 2023
Brussels
https://freedomnotfear.org

The Global Gathering
Team CommUNITY
September 15-17, 2023
Portugal
https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/announcing-team-communitys-global-gathering

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

✎ Program Officer | National Democratic Institute
+ Washington, DC, USA
https://ndiprod.my.salesforce-sites.com/careers/ts2__JobDetails?jobId=a0x2R00000Ml3ErQAJ&tSource=

✎ Project Officer Design (Monitoring and Evaluation) | Digital
Defenders Partnership
+ Remote
https://www.digitaldefenders.org/open-vacancy-dmeal-officer/

✎ Social Media Officer | SMEX
+ Remote
https://smex.org/job-opening-social-media-officer/

✎ Manager, Technology and Human Rights | BSR
+ Remote in USA, UK, France, Denmark
https://boards.greenhouse.io/bsr/jobs/6632885002

✎ Chatfuel Fellow | Accelerate Change
+ Remote
https://bit.ly/3HoWJoE

✎ Associate Director, Advocacy and Partnerships | ADL
+ USA Location Options
https://careers-adl.icims.com/jobs/2004/associate-director%2c-advocacy-and-partnerships/job

✎ Network Coordinator | Privacy International
+ London, UK
https://privacyinternational.org/opportunities/5050/network-coordinator

✎ Short-Term Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consultant | The Center
for Victims of Torture
+ Remote
https://cvt.simplicant.com/

✎ Part-Time Researcher on Yemen | Internews
+ Remote
https://internews.org/call-for-applications-part-time-researcher-yemen/

✎ Researcher | SMEX
+ Beirut, Lebanon (Preferred)
https://smex.org/job-opening-researcher/

✎ Director of Policy and International Programs | Access Now
+ Global Location Options
https://accessnow.bamboohr.com/careers/169?source=aWQ9MjA%3D

✎ Senior Finance Officer | Access Now
+ Brussels, Belgium
http://accessnow.bamboohr.com/careers/172?source=aWQ9MjA%3D

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)))

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Team CommUNITY at ARTICLE 19
www.digitalrights.community
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