Digital Rights Weekly | March 13-17

[Team CommUNITY]

Hello Digital Rights Defenders!

Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
week of March 13 - 17. As a reminder, you can submit your news for the
newsletter here: https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter


### Team CommUNITY (TCU) ###

1. Apply for the Feira @ the Global Gathering before April 7!

Join us at the Feira @ the Global Gathering, a three day social and
networking festival for digital rights defenders, hosted in an idyllic
outdoor space in Estoril, Portugal. Feira attendees can expect to
recharge and reconnect alongside self organized meetups and
discussions, food, music, local vendors and a splash of glitter and
face paint. Apply before April 7!

https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/apply-feira-global-gathering


2. Check out the TCU ‘s Community Health Report 2022/2023!

In our latest Community Health Report find regional year-in-reviews
from our Community Leads in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and MENA,
based on their work nurturing community networks in their respective
regions, and more!

https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/announcing-the-community-health-report-20222023


3. Take a look at our February Digital Rights Regional Briefs!

Every month, TCU's Community Leads from Africa, Asia, Latin America,
and MENA, bring you critical info, opps and shed light on emerging
issues.  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 addition, we have detected a rise in phishing operations
in Asia.

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


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### Digital Rights in the Community ###


1. Pulse Research Fellowship

The Internet Society has launched the Pulse Research Fellowship to
support one researcher to work on data-driven analysis or develop
tools that add value to understanding one or more of the Internet
Society Pulse focus areas: Enabling Technologies, Internet Shutdowns,
Internet Resilience, Market Concentration, and Keeping Traffic Local.

The Pulse Research Fellowship is open to researchers based anywhere in
the world who want to research a specific area that helps in upholding
an open, globally-connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet using
state-of-the-art and/or novel Internet measurement techniques.
Deadline to Submit Statement of Interest: 19 March.

https://pulse.internetsociety.org/fellowship


2. Funding opportunity with the Dignity and Justice Fund

The Dignity and Justice Fund, established by the Ford Foundation,
issued the first open call for proposals from the Spyware
Accountability Initiative. The goal of these grants is to address the
harms of the global spyware industry on civil society through
regulation, litigation, research and investigation, and other means to
ensure that governments and corporations cannot use spyware to harm or
unjustly surveil the civil society organizations that aim to keep them
in check. Application deadline: April 16.

https://fordfoundation.forms.fm/spyware-accountability-initiative-spring-2023-request-for-concept-notes/forms/9600


3. Applications for the 2023 Oxford Media Policy Summer Institute

This year’s edition - Technology and Policy in Turbulent Times: Whose
Rights and Whose Responsibilities? - brings together regulators,
graduate students, academics, NGOs and others to discuss cutting-edge
issues around technology law and policy globally, with a focus on
governance and inequalities. Topics will include AI and online content
moderation; internet shutdowns during elections and conflict; AI for
social good and human rights; surveillance and smart cities;
inequalities and infrastructure; and the regulation of online
platforms and social media, particularly in the global south. Deadline
to apply: March 24. It will run from July 31 to August 11 2023.

http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk/oxford-media-policy-summer-institute-2023/


4. RSF Expands “Uncensored Library” in Minecraft with Room on Iran

To mark World Day Against Cyber Censorship (12 March), Reporters
Without Borders (RSF) has opened an additional room about Iran in its
“Uncensored Library” within the popular video game Minecraft. The room
contains information provided by the US-based Iranian TV channel Iran
International. RSF has also expanded the room dedicated to the Russian
media.

https://rsf.org/en/rsf-expands-uncensored-library-minecraft-room-iran


5. France: Reject Surveillance in Olympic Games Law

38 civil society organizations have written a March 7 public letter sharing that
the members of the French National Assembly should reject a provision
in a proposed law on the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games that would
establish a worrying precedent of unjustified and disproportionate
surveillance in public spaces - a legal basis for the use of
algorithm-driven cameras to detect suspicious events in public spaces.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/07/france-reject-surveillance-olympic-games-law


6. Digital Rights Watch Asking for help Demanding Australian
Government Get Privacy Right

DRW shares that Australia's Privacy Act does not adequately protect
people's privacy. It's both out of date and unfortunately for purpose
in the modern digital economy. They provide a list of different ways
citizens can join the fight for privacy.

https://digitalrightswatch.org.au/2023/03/07/get-privacy-right/


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### Digital Rights Resources ###


1. How OONI is Improving Data Quality: An Analysis of Failed Measurements

The Open Observatory of Network Interference (ONNI) manually analyses
failed measurements to assess why they were classified as such,
whether they are symptomatic of censorship, and whether they still
carry helpful information for researchers. This post focuses on
measurements from three countries (India, Pakistan, and Indonesia) and
outlines steps on how OONI will improve overall data quality.

https://ooni.org/post/improving-data-quality-analysis-of-failed-measurements/


2. How to Strengthen Your Digital Safety in 3 Steps

For most human rights defenders, storing information and communicating
digitally is a necessity to carry out the fight for democracy. How do
you make sure to do it in a secure way? Civil Rights Defenders talks
to two experts on the subject for advice.

https://crd.org/2023/03/08/how-to-strengthen-your-digital-safety-in-3-steps/


3. A Framework for Developing Gender-Responsive Cybersecurity Policy

APC produced a literature review that explores how cybersecurity as a
gendered space has been addressed in research, as a contribution to
promote more gender-sensitive cybersecurity policy. Among the things
you will find in this document include positioning on important
concepts around gender and a background context that precedes the idea
of cybersecurity as a gendered space.

https://www.apc.org/sites/default/files/gender-cybersecurity-policy-litreview.pdf

APC gives an overview of the relevant tools, agendas and frameworks
that cybersecurity advocates can draw upon.

https://www.apc.org/sites/default/files/gender-cybersecurity-policy-norms.pdf


4. Why Ban Online Behavioral Advertising?

The Online behavioral surveillance apparatus turns our lives into open
books - every mouse click and screen swipe can be tracked and then
disseminated throughout the vast ad tech ecosystem. Sometimes this
system is called “online behavioral advertising.” The time has come
for the U.S. Congress and the states to ban the targeting of ads to us
based on our online behavior. This post from the Electronic Freedom
Frontier (EFF) explains why and how.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/ban-online-behavioral-advertising


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


1. Ethiopia: Authorities Must Immediately Lift Blockade on Selected
Social Media Access in the Country
Following tensions caused by the disagreement in Ethiopia’s Orthodox
Church, the government blocked social media platforms since 9 February
2023 as the Church leaders threatened to call for country wide rallies
and counter rallies.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/03/ethiopians-in-social-media-blackout-for-second-month/


2. How Denmark’s Welfare State Became a Nightmare Surveillance Tool

Once praised for its generous social safety net, the country now
collects troves of data on welfare claimants. Documents obtained by
Lighthouse Reports and WIRED through freedom-of-information requests
show how Denmark is building algorithms to profile benefits recipients
based on everything from their nationality to whom they may be
sleeping next to at night. They reveal a system where technology and
political agendas have become entwined, with potentially dangerous
consequences.

https://www.wired.com/story/algorithms-welfare-state-politics/ (paywall)


3. Meta’s Oversight Board Grapples with Facebook and Instagram’s
Opaque Content Guidelines

Meta's algorithms remove content raising awareness about human rights
abuses. In recent months, users raising awareness of human rights
abuses on Instagram and Facebook have found themselves at the mercy of
Meta’s algorithms and opaque content guidelines. As a result, Meta’s
“Oversight Board” has found itself not only reversing Meta’s original
decisions but also issuing policy guidance to enable the tech giant to
better protect the rights of users.

https://advox.globalvoices.org/2023/03/09/metas-oversight-board-grapples-with-facebook-and-instagrams-opaque-content-guidelines/


4. Cerebral Admits to Sharing Patient Data with Meta, TikTok, and Google

Cerebral, a telehealth startup specializing in mental health, says it
inadvertently shared the sensitive information of over 3.1 million
patients with Google, Meta, TikTok, and other third-party advertisers,
as reported earlier by TechCrunch. The breach is currently under
investigation by the US Office for Civil Rights.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/11/23635518/cerebral-patient-data-meta-tiktok-google-pixel


5. Recognition Site Crawled the Web for Dead People’s Photos

PimEyes appears to have scraped a major ancestry website for pics,
without permission. Experts fear the images could be used to identify
living relatives.

https://www.wired.com/story/a-face-recognition-site-crawled-the-web-for-dead-peoples-photos/


6. Welcome to the Age of Yassifying to Maintain Anonymity

When our desire to post and need for privacy are at odds, is a FaceApp
makeover from the depths of hell enough to protect identity online?

https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/v7b4g9/yassification-filter-censorship


7. China Censors Women Modeling Lingerie on Livestream Shopping - So
Men are Doing It

China deploys one of the world’s most stringent censorship regimes,
with a track record of blocking out not just politically sensitive
information but images of women’s bodies deemed marginally racy.
Several businesses specializing in selling lingerie through
livestreaming have had their sessions cut short after they featured a
female model and their brush with internet censorship came to light in
January. Hence the use of men instead.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/07/tech/china-livestream-lingerie-censor-intl-hnk/index.html

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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, 2023
https://calyxinstitute.org/projects/microgrants-and-small-project-support/fusion-center-fund-2023

Pulse Research Fellowship
The Internet Society
Deadline: March 19, 2023
https://pulse.internetsociety.org/fellowship

National Media Defence Centre Indo-Pacific Region
International Center for Non-Profit Law & Media Defence
Deadline: March 31, 2023
https://www.mediadefence.org/news/special-call-grant-indo-pacific/

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

Ford Foundation
Dignity and Justice Fund
Spyware Accountability Initiative
Deadline: April 16, 2023
https://fordfoundation.forms.fm/spyware-accountability-initiative-spring-2023-request-for-concept-notes/forms/9600

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 ###

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

Glitter Meetup: TCU’s 2023 Community Health Report Q&A
9am EST / 1pm UTC
March 23, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=March_23_2023_GM

Asia Monthly Meetup
11am EDT / 3pm UTC
March 24, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=March_24_2023,_Asia_Meetup

MENA Monthly Meetup
9:30 EDT / 1:30pm UTC
March 29, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=March_29_2023,_MENA_Meetup

Glitterest Glitter Meetup
9am EDT / 1pm UTC
March 30, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=March_30_2023_GM

Africa Monthly Meetup
9am EST / 1pm UTC
March 31, 2023
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=March_31_2023,_Africa_Meetup

DRIF23
April 12 to 14, 2023
Hybrid/Nairobi
https://whova.com/portal/registration/draif_202304/

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

Advocacy Evaluation Workshop
Center for Victims of Torture
May 29 - June 1, 2023
Mexico City
https://www.newtactics.org/e2a-upcoming-training-opportunities

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

North American School of Internet Governance
June 10 - 11, 2023
Washington DC, USA
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdST3GSV-nNF-8j7H9hO9ZDCaWMHJylM-oo9Z1VSpzUORhoig/viewform

Oxford Media Policy Summer Institute
July 31 - August 11, 2023
Oxford, USA
http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk/oxford-media-policy-summer-institute-2023/

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

✎ Fundraising & Community Development Liaison, Iran | Lantern
+ Remote
https://lanternio.applytojob.com/apply/lJF5M4Hriv/Fundraising-Community-Development-Liaison-Iran

✎ Project Officer | Digital Defenders Partnership
+ Remote
https://www.digitaldefenders.org/en/open-vacancy-project-officer-for-francophone-africa/

✎ CEO [Maternity Cover] | Chayn
+ Remote
https://www.notion.so/chayn/CEO-Maternity-Cover-23ff1dc6d9a5409f8518bdd1ed30cf83

✎ Head of Movement Building and Policy | Chayn
+ Remote
https://www.notion.so/chayn/Head-of-Movement-Building-and-Policy-917b92da1c6846e8867618e77b8a8759

✎ Programs Coordinator | Code for Science & Society
+ Remote
https://www.codeforsociety.org/jobs/programs-coordinator-code-for-science-and-society

✎ Research Consulting | UT Austin's Propaganda Research Lab
+ Remote
https://utexas.app.box.com/s/476rh9ld7zyjlzmu96564ryqsx8vg56k

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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They can sign up here:
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### 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
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