Digital Rights Weekly | September 4 - 8

Thu Sep 7 17:09:16 CEST 2023

Hello Digital Rights Defenders!

Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
week of September 4 - 8. As a reminder, you can submit your news for
the newsletter here:
https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter

### Team CommUNITY (TCU) ###

1. Join "The Wellbeing Monthly", a monthly virtual educational
workshop series led by diverse mental health professionals.

The online series will run from June to December and are free of
charge, and  focus on psychoeducation and coping mechanisms on diverse
topics including anxiety and fear, guilt and survivors guilt, defeat
and hopelessness, trauma, and burnout and stress. Each month we will
be announcing new speakers, so check regularly! RVSP for the next
workshop:

October 3, Imposter Syndrome in Activism: How Do We Cope?:
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/wellbeingmonthly4

2. How we are Approaching Safety, Security and Challenges for the
Global Gathering

Find out how we are approaching the 2023 Global Gathering (GG) to
address real challenges that impact safety and security of
participants. This year’s edition in Portugal is part of a 3-year
vision to grow the GG in a sustainable way. The event is a few days
away, and will be used to collectively brainstorm not just how the GG
will evolve, but also the standards we want to see in our field of
practice.

https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/2023-global-gathering-how-we-are-approaching-safety-security-and-challenges

3. Glitter Meetups Season Break: They Will Resume on October 5!

We had our last Glitter Meetup for the season on July 13. We will
resume on October 5, so stay tuned. We want to take the opportunity to
thank all our featured guests and Team CommUNITY's staff who have made
Glitter Meetups amazing, glittertastic spaces for our community!
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### Digital Rights in the Community ###

1. Code for All Summit 2023

The Code for All Summit 2023, scheduled from September 18th to 21st,
serves as the premier gathering for civic tech enthusiasts worldwide,
providing a unique platform to discuss, explore, and evaluate the
work, lessons, and impact of civic tech on a global scale. Read more
and register here:

https://codeforall.org/summit-2023/

2. The Arab Feminist Forum For Digital Content

Considering the growing influence of digital media on feminist and
other progressive movements and vice-versa, No2ta, in partnership with
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), ABAAD, Open Society Foundation (OSF)
and HIVOS, is planning to organize the first regional feminist digital
media forum. Learn more about the initiative which will take place in
Lebanon from September 19 and 20 in the following link:

https://en.shift.no2ta.org/

3. Call for Applications: Digital Rights Hub for African Civil Society
Organizations

The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) in conjunction
with the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and
Southern Africa (CIPESA) is pleased to invite applications from
representatives of civil society organizations, lawyers and human
rights defenders interested in pursuing collective advocacy strategies
to address and respond to current and emerging threats to digital
freedoms in Africa. Deadline: September 10, 2023. Review the link
below:

https://cipesa.org/2023/09/call-for-applications-hub-for-african-civil-society-organisations-cso/

4. RSF: Modi Ramps Up Online Censorship in India

With less than a year to go to parliamentary elections in India,
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the government to guarantee
the online free flow of verified information after it blocked online
access to two news sites, The Kashmir Walla and Gaon Savera, in the
space of six days.

https://rsf.org/en/modi-ramps-online-censorship-india

5. European Court of Human Rights: Search of Journalists’ Devices at Border

ARTICLE 19, together with Privacy International, submitted a joint
amicus brief to the European Court of Human Rights. The case concerns
Polish journalists whose devices were forcibly searched by military
officers as they were documenting events close to the
Polish-Belarusian border in November 2021. In the submission, they
show that searches of digital devices constitute serious interferences
with the right to freedom of expression and privacy, guaranteed by the
European Convention, and urge the Court to outline necessary
safeguards to prevent violation of these rights.

https://www.article19.org/resources/european-court-of-human-rights-unwarranted-search-of-polish-journalists-violates-rights/

6. EFF: Internet Service Providers Should Not Police Online Speech -
No Matter How Awful It Is

Entrusting our speech to multiple different corporate actors is always
risky. Yet given how most of the Internet is currently structured, our
online expression largely depends on a set of private companies
ranging from our direct Internet service providers and platforms, to
upstream ISPs that have no direct relationships with most users.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/08/isps-should-not-police-online-speech-no-matter-how-awful-it

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### Digital Rights Resources ###

1. Kelluwün: Digital Utopias! at RightsCon Costa Rica

Get to play Kelluwün: Digital Utopias! on the new blog. They share the
starting point of the game at RightsCon, how they tested it and some
reflections from its participants. Discover the story and join the
adventure. How would you act in a digital crisis? Let's re-code the
world!

https://jaaklac.org/blog/kelluwun-digital-utopias/

2. Podcasts:

"Zoom on Digital Causes" Podcast

Tune into the second episode of "Zoom on Digital Causes" podcast [ES]
about the passions, perspectives and work of young Latin American
activists at the intersections of digital technologies and social
justice. Causas Digitales spoke with De Aprendices Para Aprendices
(DAPA) from Mexico, a social project focused on education and social
recreation. The podcast includes a link to the audio transcripts in
Spanish.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jaaklac/episodes/Zoom-a-Causas-Digitales---DAPA-e28e367

Listen to The Latest Episode of Techtonic Podcast

Join host Chris Stokel-Walker and guest Doug Madory, Director of
Internet Analysis at Kentik, as they share insights on how control
over online communication impacts freedom of expression and human
rights. Available on all podcast platforms.

https://lnkd.in/efWagAar

3. Book Review | Freedom to Think: The Long Struggle to Liberate Our
Minds by Susie Alegre

Freedom of thought is a right we have treated complacently–but
worrying developments in technology are causing us to think again.

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/62848/susie-alegre-hands-off-our-minds
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### Digital Rights in the Wider World ###

1. Meta Overhauls Controversial “Dangerous Organizations” Censorship Policy

Meta recently updated the rulebook it uses to censor online discussion
of people and groups it deems “dangerous,” according to internal
materials obtained by The Intercept. The policy had come under fire in
the past for casting an overly wide net that ended up removing
legitimate, nonviolent content. The goal of the change is to remove
less of this material. In updating the policy, Meta also made an
internal admission that the policy has censored speech beyond what the
company intended.

https://theintercept.com/2023/08/30/meta-censorship-policy-dangerous-organizations/

2. Twitter, Now X, Will Begin Collecting Users’ Biometric Data

The policy, which takes effect Sept. 29, follows intense scrutiny over
Twitter's lack of account authentication and fraud on the platform.

https://cyberscoop.com/twitter-x-user-biometric-data/

3. Atlas VPN Team: Big Tech Doesn’t Care About Your Digital Rights

According to the data presented by the Atlas VPN team, Twitter scored
the best on its policies and practices affecting people’s rights to
freedom of expression and privacy. While Amazon and Tencent got the
worst ratings for their actions on people’s digital rights. However,
none of the companies earned a passing grade.

https://atlasvpn.com/blog/big-tech-doesnt-care-about-your-digital-rights

4. UK Pulls Back from Clash with Big Tech Over Private Messaging

Ministers will not immediately enforce online safety bill powers to
scan apps after WhatsApp threatened shutdown.

https://www.ft.com/content/770e58b1-a299-4b7b-a129-bded8649a43b

WhatsApp and Signal have threatened to shut down services in Britain
if the Online Safety Bill includes restrictions that undermine
encryption. The government is pushing it through anyway.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/the-uk-is-poised-to-force-a-bad-law-on-the-internet

If it was passed, the Online Safety Bill would make the United Kingdom
the first liberal democracy to require the routine scanning of
people’s private chat messages, including chats secured by end-to-end
encryption like WhatsApp and Signal. Implementing what is known as
‘client-side scanning’ to monitor users would likely violate UK and
international human rights law.

https://www.article19.org/resources/uk-online-safety-bill-must-protect-encrypted-messaging/

5. Russia is Commandeering the U.N. Cybercrime Treaty

The last international agreement on digital crime was in 2001. Why are
experts so worried about this one?

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/08/31/united-nations-russia-china-cybercrime-treaty/

6. China’s Version of ChatGPT is Public, but Will Censorship Limit Its Power

Ernie Bot, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, is now
fully accessible to the public, following Chinese government approval
late last week. Unlike other countries, China requires companies to
submit security assessments and receive clearance before releasing
mass-market AI products.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-06/china-artificial-intelligence-chatbot-chatgpt-ernie-baidu/102803758

7. Meta Takes Down ‘Largest Ever’ Chinese Influence Operation

A sprawling network of fake accounts linked to Chinese law enforcement
was taken down by Meta this week in what the social-media company
called “the largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in
the world.” The operation was the largest the company has removed in
its history: on Facebook alone, Meta says it removed 7,704 accounts,
954 pages, and 15 groups linked to the effort to push pro-China
talking points and attack the government’s critics.

https://time.com/6310040/chinese-influence-operation-meta/

8. Austrialian Police Calls on Public to Donate Childhood Photos in
Bid to Combat Child Abuse with AI

The Australian federal police want the public to donate their
childhood photos to an artificial intelligence project aimed at
helping save children from abuse. The project, run by AFP and Monash
University, will help detect child abuse material on the dark web, or
on devices that have been seized during criminal investigations.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/06/afp-calls-on-public-to-donate-childhood-photos-in-bid-to-combat-child-abuse-with-ai

9. The Digital Economy is Broken - But It’s Not Too Late

Tech titans are fostering new forms of digital colonialism, both
within wealthy countries and on the global stage. But it’s not too
late to build a digital economy that works for everyone.

https://ssir.org/articles/entry/building_the_future_of_work_we_want

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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

Digital Rights Hub for African Civil Society Organizations
ICNL and CIPESA
Deadline: September 10, 2023
https://cipesa.org/2023/09/call-for-applications-hub-for-african-civil-society-organisations-cso/

Muslim Counterpublics Lab
Muslim Narrative Power Fellowship
September 22, 2023
https://www.muslimcounterpublicslab.org/fellowship

FOSS United
https://fossunited.org/grants

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

Sovereign Tech Fund
Deadline: Rolling
https://sovereigntechfund.de/en/applications/

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/

Urgent Action Fund - Asia & Pacific
Deadline: Rolling
https://www.uafanp.org/our_grants

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

Virtual School on Internet Governance
September 4 - November 25, 2023
Online
https://www.virtualsig.org/2023/05/30/vsig-registration-now-open/

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

Code for All Summit 2023
September 18 - 21, 2023
Online
https://codeforall.org/summit-2023/

The Arab Feminist Forum For Digital Content
No2ta, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, ABAAD, OSF and HIVOS
September 19 and 20, 2023
Lebanon
https://en.shift.no2ta.org/

Digital Sovereignty Conference
October 24 - 26, 2023
Ljubljana, Slovenia
https://disco.si

Check out a list of our virtual events here:
https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/Calendar_of_Events

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### 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 administrator for the Feminist Internet Research Network |
Association for Progressive Communications
+ Remote
https://www.apc.org/en/node/38912/

✎ Technology Fellow | Temple University’s Institute for Law,
Innovation & Technology (iLIT)
+ Hybrid in USA
http://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit-job/9619aa3e704e4436929d35683d04deaf-technology-fellow-temple-university-beasley-school-of-law-philadelphia

✎ Linux generalist | Tails
+ Remote
https://tails.net/jobs/Linux_generalist/

✎ Program Coordinator (Mozambique) | Pollicy
+ Mozambique
https://pollicy.org/events/were-hiring-program-coordinator-mozambique/

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:
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
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