Digital Rights Weekly | December 16 - 20

[Team CommUNITY]

Hello Digital Rights Defenders!

Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
week of December 16 - 20. As a reminder, you can submit your news to
be included in the newsletter here:
https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter

Have feedback on how to improve this newsletter? Share it anonymously
in this Riseup Pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/TCUFeedback-keep

What is in this issue:

TCU News
Community News
Community Resources
Digital Rights in the Wider World
Recent Statements from Our Community
Job Opportunities
Events
Grants, Fellowships, & Awards

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### Team CommUNITY (TCU News) ###

1. TCU’s Office Holiday Break: December 23 to January 6

Team CommUNITY’s office will be on holiday break from December 23 and
will reopen on January 6. Our Newsletter, Job Board, and Digital
Rights Town Halls (Glitter Meetups) will be paused during this period.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our staff, 2024
featured guests, and our community!

2. Upcoming January Digital Rights Town Halls: Undersea Cables in
Africa, Automated Messages over Signal, and more!

Jan 9 | Welcome Back Glitter Meetup
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=January_9_2025_GM

Jan 16 | Bitpart: Sending Secure Automated Messages Over Signal (Glitter Meetup)
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=January_16_2025_GM

Jan 23 | What is Happening in Digital Rights Around the World? (Glitter Meetup)
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=January_23_2025_GM

Jan 30 | Undersea Cables in Africa - New Frontiers for Digital
Colonialism (Glitter Meetup)
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=January_30_2025_GM


3. Save the Date: 2025 Global Gathering September 8, 9, and 10!

The 2025 Global Gathering will take place on September 8, 9 and 10. It
will grow to over 1,500 participants, and feature more restorative
community programming! Registration opens in January! Check out what a
7amleh staff member thought about the 2024 edition:

https://www.apc.org/en/blog/reflecting-global-gathering-2024-advancing-digital-rights-and-security

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### Community News ###

1. Call for Proposals: Cross-Border Media Literacy Projects

The European Union’s Creative Europe Programme has a call for
proposals for projects that encourage knowledge-sharing and exchanges
on media literacy policies and practices to enable the development of
cross-border media literacy initiatives and communities across
countries. Projects can request up to EUR 500,000 for a two-year
project. Deadline: March 6, 2025

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/funding/call-proposals-cross-border-media-literacy-projects


2. Call for Proposals: Reclaim the Public Nature of the Internet

The NLnet Foundation has a call for proposals for projects that help
deliver, mature, and scale new Internet commons across the whole
technology spectrum, and help reclaim the public nature of the
Internet. Between now and 2027 they will award an unprecedented 21.6
million euro in small to medium-size R&D grants towards solutions that
bring the next generation of the internet closer. Deadline: February
1, 2025.

https://nlnet.nl/commonsfund/


3. Science for Public Good Fund for Small Grants

The Science for Public Good Fund is a funding opportunity through the
Union of Concerned Scientists designed to financially support online
advocacy actions, digital community building, in-person convenings,
and other types of efforts that specifically aim to advance equitable
science-based policy and emphasize local and community impacts. This
grant program is for both UCS Science Network members and people who
are Science Network eligible. Awardees can receive up to $1500 in
financial support, as well as nonfinancial logistical support and
strategy planning for their projects. Deadline to apply: January 6,
2025.

https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/science-public-good-fund


4. Linux Foundation Sets Up India Entity to Boost Open Source Collaboration

The Linux Foundation has announced the launch of its India entity. The
organization is looking to promote open source contributions across
the South Asian nation’s ecosystem of enterprises, startups, and the
government, as well as increase the number of open source developers.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/11/linux-foundation-sets-up-india-entity-to-boost-open-source-collaboration/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky


5. Portugal’s Infrastructure Technology Poverty and Current Digital Right Issues
Portugal faces infrastructure technology poverty and outsourcing,
according to D3. Read the interview we conducted with D3’s president,
Ricardo Lafuente, to learn more about the digital rights issues
Portugal is confronting.

https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/community-series-d3-defesa-dos-direitos-digitais


6. Reports from Our Community

a) Serbia: Surveillance & the Suppression of Civil Society

Amnesty International’s new report reveals how Serbian police and
intelligence authorities are using advanced phone spyware alongside
mobile phone forensic products to unlawfully target journalists,
environmental activists and other individuals in a covert surveillance
campaign.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/serbia-authorities-using-spyware-and-cellebrite-forensic-extraction-tools-to-hack-journalists-and-activists/

Media Freedom Rapid Response partners and SafeJournalists Network urge
the Serbian authorities to conduct an investigation into the alleged
use of spyware against journalists, which is prohibited as a criminal
offence under the Serbian Criminal Code.
 https://www.article19.org/resources/serbia-investigate-surveillance-of-journalists-and-sources-now/


b) Chinese Law Enforcement Caught Using Android Spyware to Track Mobile Devices

Chinese law enforcement have been using EagleMsgSpy surveillance tools
to collect mobile device data since at least 2017. EagleMeSpy,
developed by a Chinese software company for legal use by the country's
public security bureaus, scraped sensitive data from targeted Android
devices.

https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/chinese-cops-using-android-spyware-track-mobile-devices


c) Moderating Kiswahili Content on Social Media

One of the few African languages benefiting from human moderation is
Kiswahili, a language that is spoken by over 100 million people in
East and some parts of Central Africa. A new CDT report investigates
how the content moderation systems of select online platforms deal
with user-generated content in Kiswahili.

https://cdt.org/insights/moderating-kiswahili-content-on-social-media/


d) Palestinian Testimonies of Meta's Censorship

A new report by 7amleh highlights direct testimonies from Palestinian
influencers, journalists, and media outlets who have faced Meta's
discriminatory practices. It exposes Meta's approach to silencing
Palestinian content and suppressing the Palestinian narrative.

https://7amleh.org/2024/12/18/erased-and-suppressed-palestinian-testimonies-of-meta-s-censorship-en


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### Community Resources  ###

1. A Practical Guide to Technology-Related Whistleblowing

The Human Rights Law Centre guide builds on resources in the United
States and European Union, where a number of high-profile
whistleblowers in the technology sector have sparked reform and
accountability – including Facebook Files whistleblower Frances Haugen
who has contributed a foreword to the report.

https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/tech-whistleblowing-guide


2. The Power of the Collective Purse: Open-Source AI Governance & the
GovAI Coalition

Conventional wisdom suggests that local governments, and even state
governments, do not possess the requisite bargaining power to compel
vendors to comply with AI governance requirements. But that is only
true when localities stand alone in their efforts to influence the
private sector’s AI practices. Find out how the GovAI Coalition is
seeking to change this.

https://www.techpolicy.press/the-power-of-the-collective-purse-opensource-ai-governance-and-the-govai-coalition/


3. Hackers Can Jailbreak Digital License Plates to Make Others Pay
Their Tolls and Tickets

U.S. digital license plates sold by Reviver can be hacked by their
owners to evade traffic regulations or even law enforcement
surveillance.

https://www.wired.com/story/digital-license-plate-jailbreak-hack/

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

1. El Salvador’s NEW Cybersecurity Agency Threatens Media Freedom and
Privacy Rights

El Salvador 's recently approved cybersecurity law establishes a new
state agency (Agencia de Ciberseguridad del Estado). The agency will
have “overly broad powers” to order the removal of online information
about individuals, and be led by a presidential appointee. Human
rights experts warn this threatens media freedom and privacy rights.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/12/el-salvador-new-laws-threaten-free-expression-privacy


2. Pakistan Authorities Want to Establish an Agency to Tighten Control
Over Online Content

Pakistani authorities have announced their intention to establish a
new state agency to tighten government control over online content.
Called “the Digital Rights Protection Authority, the new body, if
approved by parliament, will be authorised to prosecute people for
sharing or accessing prohibited content, and take action against
social media platforms that host such content.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/12/dangerous-digital-crackdown


3. Mexico to Dissolve Seven Government Watchdog Agencies, Including
the Public Information and Data Protection Office

The Mexican Senate passed a measure in November to abolish the
autonomous bodies that ensure government transparency and regulate
some economic sectors.This includes agencies such as antitrust
watchdog Cofece, telecoms regulator IFT, energy regulator CRE,
hydrocarbon regulator CNH and public information and data protection
office INAI. Their functions would be transferred to other government
bodies, such as the official statistics office, the electoral
authority, and various government ministries. Opposition lawmakers and
analysts argue that the reform threatens democracy and could impede
accountability for government wrongdoings.

English: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexican-senate-passes-proposal-abolish-autonomous-bodies-2024-11-29/

Spanish: https://elpais.com/mexico/2024-11-29/el-senado-extermina-siete-organos-y-entes-autonomos-incluido-el-inai.html


4. Meta’s Adversarial Threat Report for Q3 2024 includes Covert
Influence Operations India, Iran, Lebanon, Moldova, and Russia

Meta’s most recent Adversarial Threat Report covers five covert
influence operations Meta disrupted in India, Iran, Lebanon and
Moldova. The report also includes an update on the Russian covert
influence operation known as Doppelganger.

https://transparency.fb.com/sr/Q3-2024-Adversarial-threat-report


5. More Than 140 Kenya Facebook Moderators Diagnosed with Severe PTSD

More than 140 Facebook content moderators have been diagnosed with
severe post-traumatic stress disorder caused by exposure to graphic
social media content. The moderators worked eight- to 10-hour days at
a facility in Kenya for a company contracted by the social media firm.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/18/kenya-facebook-moderators-sue-after-diagnoses-of-severe-ptsd


6. UK Proposes Letting Tech Firms Use Copyrighted Work to Train AI

Campaigners for the protection of the rights of creatives have
criticised a UK government proposal to let artificial intelligence
companies train their algorithms on their works under a new copyright
exemption.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/17/uk-proposes-letting-tech-firms-use-copyrighted-work-to-train-ai


7. Potential Payouts for up to 300,000 Australian Facebook Users in
Cambridge Analytica Settlement

Hundreds of thousands of people who had their Facebook data harvested
as part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal may potentially be
compensated, after Meta agreed to a $50 million settlement with
Australia’s privacy regulator.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/17/facebook-cambridge-analytica-scandal-settlement-australia


____________________________________________

### Recent Statements from Our Community ###

1. Saudi Arabia: Civil Society Demands Action Ahead of Internet Governance Forum

A number of human rights organisations urged the government of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to release people imprisoned for their online
expression and to foster transparency and accountability ahead of the
Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2024.

https://www.article19.org/resources/saudi-arabia-civil-society-demands-action-ahead-of-internet-governance-forum/

Many are charged under the country’s abusive counterterrorism law, and
the authorities conduct invasive surveillance of civil society members
at home and abroad.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/13/saudi-arabia-hosting-un-internet-conference-amid-crackdown


2. Malaysia: Passage of Online Safety Bill a Grave Blow to Free Expression

The Online Safety Advocacy Group and other civil society organisations
strongly condemn the passage of the Online Safety Bill in Malaysia.
They say that the bill poses significant risks to freedom of
expression, instead of providing transparency and accountability
mechanisms.

https://www.article19.org/resources/malaysia-passage-of-the-online-safety-bill-a-grave-blow-to-foe/


3. UN: Global Digital Compact Must Build a Truly Collaborative Digital Future

Civil society organisations welcomed the consensus adoption of the
United Nations Global Digital Compact (GDC) annexed to the Pact for
the Future, acknowledging that a set of shared principles and
commitments will build a more collaborative digital future. They also
highlight the need for more concrete commitments to ensure an open,
inclusive and transparent, people-centred and rights-based approach to
the implementation of the GDC.

https://www.article19.org/resources/un-global-digital-compact-collaborative-digital-future/

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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

✎ Senior Researcher, Technology and Human Rights | Human Rights Watch
+ Remote
https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/humanrightswatch/jobs/7774018002

✎ Community Coordinator | ASL 19
+ Toronto, Canada
https://asl19.org/en/join-us/community-coordinator

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

__________________________________________

### Events Calendar ###

Welcome Back! (Glitter Meetup)
Team CommUNITY
January 9, 2025
9am EST / 2pm UTC
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=January_9_2025_GM

Virtual School of Internet Governance
January 14, 2025 - April 1, 2025
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdxElbmLzzGNUpUuoW3jDieHkNZpvO35hhDDlH9-Ia8jwKNww/viewform

Bitpart: Sending Secure Automated Messages Over Signal (Glitter Meetup)
Team CommUNITY
January 16, 2025
9am EST / 2pm UTC
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=January_16_2025_GM

What is Happening in Digital Rights Around the World? (Glitter Meetup)
Team CommUNITY
January 23, 2025
9am EST / 2pm UTC
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=January_23_2025_GM

ConnectBridge Hackathon
January 24–26, 2025
Deadline to apply: December 10, 2024
Brussels
https://connecthack.org/

Undersea Cables in Africa - New Frontiers for Digital Colonialism
(Glitter Meetup)
Team CommUNITY
January 30, 2025
9am EST / 2pm UTC
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=January_30_2025_GM

FOSDEM
February 1-2, 2025
https://fosdem.org/2025/

RightsCon
February 24 - 27, 2025
Taiwan
https://www.rightscon.org/registration/

Check out a list of our virtual events here:
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=Calendar_of_Events

__________________________________________

### 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://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=Fundraising_Opportunities

Internet Society Pulse Research Fellowship
Deadline: 23 December, 2024
https://pulse.internetsociety.org/blog/apply-now-for-the-2025-pulse-research-fellowship-and-mentorship

Migration & Tech Monitor
Deadline: 31 December, 2024
https://www.migrationtechmonitor.com/aboutmtmfellowship

IDREAM Call For Applications: Capacity Building for Human Right
Defenders in Exile
Deadline: 31 December, 2024
https://www.cvt.org/what-we-do/movement-building/building-resilience/idream/idream-call-for-applications

AI-Cybersecurity Essay Prize Competition
Munich Security Conference (MSC) and Binding Hook
Deadline: 2 January, 2025
https://bindinghook.com/ai-cybersecurity-essay-prize-competition/

The Prototype Fund
Deadline: January 2, 2025
https://new.prototypefund.de/en/

Science for Public Good Fund
Deadline to apply: January 6, 2025.
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/science-public-good-fund

European AI & Society Fund
AI Accountability Grants
Deadline: January 6, 2025
https://europeanaifund.org/funding/

Funding Opportunity for Internet Freedom Programs from U.S. Department of State
Deadline for statements of interest: January 9, 2024
https://www.state.gov/bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor-request-for-statements-of-interest-drl-internet-freedom-annual-program-statement-2/

NGI Zero Commons Fund
Reclaim the Public Nature of the Internet
Deadline: February 1, 2025
https://nlnet.nl/commonsfund/

Fellowship on Digital Rights & Gender Justice
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law, & Development (APWLD)
Deadline: January 15, 2025
https://ijnet.org/en/opportunity/fellowship-digital-rights-and-gender-justice-opens-asia-pacific

Digital Freedom Fund
Deadline: February 17, 2025
https://digitalfreedomfund.org/grants/

Cross-Border Media Literacy Projects
Deadline: March 6, 2025
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/funding/call-proposals-cross-border-media-literacy-projects

Digital Rights Fund for WANA Region
Deadline: Rolling
SMEX
https://smex.org/digital-rights-fund/

FOSS United
Deadline: Rolling
https://fossunited.org/grants

Open Tech Fund
Deadline: Rolling
https://apply.opentech.fund

Digital Impact Alliance Fellowship
Deadline: Rolling
https://dial.global/apply-to-our-fellows-program/

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 Feminist Activism
Deadline: Rolling Basis
https://urgentactionfund.org

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

Apoyos de Respuesta Rápida
Fondo Acción Urgente
Deadline: Rolling
https://fondoaccionurgente.org.co/es/que-hacemos/apoyos-de-respuesta-rapida

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

__________________________________________

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