Digital Rights Weekly | September 16 - 20

[Team CommUNITY]

Hello Digital Rights Defenders!

Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
week of September 16 - 20. 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. This newsletter and our digital rights weekly town halls, Glitter
Meetups, will be on pause from September 23 to October 4. Both will
resume during the week of October 7.


2. Next Digital Rights Town Halls in October!

Oct. 10 | The Social Networking Glitter Meetup
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=October_10_2024_GM

Oct. 24 | What is Happening in Digital Rights Around the World?
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=October_24_2024_GM

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### Digital Rights in the Community ###


1. October 30: RSVP for the Outline Managers Meetup!

If you are a current user of Outline Manager, join us on October 30 at
9am EST/1pm UTC for the Outline Manager Meetup! This is also a great
place for folks new to Outline Manager to familiarize themselves with
the tool. During this meetup you will have the opportunity to learn
about updates and new developments, get your questions answered by the
Jigsaw team, and network with other users of Outline Manager. Make
sure to RSVP on the following form (for safety reasons we will be
verifying everyone that attends):


https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/outline_manager_meetup_october_30



2. Applications Open for the SEEDIG Youth School

Applications are now open for the South Eastern European Dialogue on
Internet Governance (SEEDIG) Youth School 2024, a capacity-building
program designed for the next generation of Internet governance
leaders from South Eastern Europe. This program aims to equip students
and young professionals with the skills and knowledge needed to
actively participate in Internet governance discussions and contribute
to digital policymaking. When? 25 and 26 November, 2024. Where?
Belgrade, Serbia. Deadline to apply: September 30, 2024.

https://seedig.net/youth-school/


3. Open Call for German-Speaking Workshop Facilitators in Berlin

Tactical Tech's ‘What the Future Wants’ project is seeking
German-speaking workshop facilitators in Berlin. If you have 5+ years
of experience in facilitation and expertise in adult education, check
out this training-of-trainers focused on digital literacy for youth
workers and educators. Deadline to apply: September 22, 2024.

https://tacticaltech.org/news/open-calls/open-call-facilitator-berlin-wtfw-2024/


4. G20 Engagement Groups Issue Joint Declaration on Artificial Intelligence

The main G20 engagement groups released a joint statement on the
ethical, sustainable and inclusive development and deployment of
artificial intelligence (AI), titled the “São Luís Declaration”. The
declaration outlines a shared vision and strategic recommendations for
AI’s future within the G20 framework.

https://www.dataprivacybr.org/en/g20-engagement-groups-issue-joint-declaration-on-artificial-intelligence/


5. Jordan: Marking a Year of Oppression, Organizations Continue to
Calls for a Scrap of Cybercrime Law

Last week marked one year since Jordan’s new draconian Cybercrime Law
entered into force. Local and international human rights organizations
urge the new Jordanian Parliament to repeal or substantially amend the
new Cybercrime Law, ensuring that any legislation tackling cybercrime
fully complies with international human rights law and standards on
freedom of expression, privacy and due process.

https://www.article19.org/resources/jordan-fresh-calls-to-scrap-cybercrime-law/


6. The New U.S. House Version of KOSA Doesn’t Fix Its Biggest Problems

An amended version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is being
considered in the U.S. House, but it is still a dangerous online
censorship bill that contains many of the same fundamental problems of
a similar version the Senate passed in July. KOSA will continue to
coerce the largest social media platforms into blocking or filtering a
variety of entirely legal content, and subject a large portion of
users to privacy-invasive age verification.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/09/new-us-house-version-kosa-doesnt-fix-its-biggest-problems


7. Reports from Our Community

a) Palestinian Digital Rights, Genocide, & Big Tech Accountability

7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media published
a new report, "Palestinian Digital Rights, Genocide, and Big Tech
Accountability", which highlights Israel’s extensive use of technology
in committing and exacerbating human rights violations. The report
also emphasizes tech companies’s significant role in facilitating
censorship, withholding information, and contributing to the Israeli
government’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

https://7amleh.org/2024/09/15/report-on-palestinian-digital-rights-in-the-context-of-genocide-and-big-tech-accountability-one-year-after-the-war-on-gaza-en

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### Community Resources ###


1. Balkan Insight’s August Digital Rights Review

The Balkan Insights August Dights Rights Review documents the region’s
digital rights violations over the past month, including social media
companies’ shadowbanning, and government bans on platforms and
content.

https://balkaninsight.com/2024/09/16/digital-rights-review-august-marked-by-online-bans-and-pressure-on-protesters/


2. Why We Need Tailored Identity Systems for Our Digital World

Digital identification or “digital ID” systems use digital technology
to establish an individual’s identity. Some of these systems demand
extensive and excessive amounts of personal information. Some require
only the minimum necessary information for each transaction, which may
have the capacity to respect and protect human rights. Check out this
post that outlines the human rights impact of how both kinds of
systems are designed and implemented.

https://www.accessnow.org/digital-identity-systems/


3. Opinion: Why We Need an AI Safety Hotline

Having an AI safety hotline might help with mitigating AI risks. The
details of how precisely the hotline would work deserve more debate
among AI community members, regulators, and civil society. For the
hotline to realize its full potential, for instance, it may need some
way to escalate the most urgent, verified reports to the appropriate
authorities.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/16/1103959/why-we-need-an-ai-safety-hotline/


4. Opinion: Wikipedia is Facing an Existential Crisis. Can gen Z save it?

Wikipedia operates on a model of unpaid and independent contributors
who create, update, and maintain the content. This article explains
why it needs young editors to rescue it from chatbots and its outdated
practices. According to a 2022 survey, about 20% of Wikipedia editors
are between the ages of 18 and 24, and there is a clear desire to
increase this percentage.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/12/wikipedia-generation-z-young-editors-chatbots


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

1. Mass Attack Targeting Pagers in Lebanon: What Happened?

SMEX recommends discarding any pagers currently being used in Lebanon.
In this piece, they cover their analysis of the recent incident this
past Tuesday where Israel triggered the explosion of handheld pagers
which killed 10 people and injured over 2,750 in Lebanon. According to
SMEX, three scenarios could explain what happened: tampered devices,
overheated batteries, or explosions activated through radio waves.

On Wednesday, walkie-talkies exploded in Beirut, where 14 people were
killed and more than 450 wounded. Axios has reported that Israel
conducted pager attacks in Lebanon and Syria out of concern that its
secret operation might have been discovered by Hezbollah. In addition,
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke on Wednesday about
“excellent achievements” by Israel’s military and intelligence
branches leading to “impressive results” though not mentioning the
explosions directly.


https://smex.org/mass-attack-targeting-pagers-in-lebanon-what-happened/

https://www.axios.com/2024/09/18/hezbollah-pager-explosions-israel-suspicions

The attack raises fears about the weaponization of personal
technology, cyberterrorism, and its impact on civilians. This attack
signals an additional frontier in the use of everyday technology for
mass harm.

https://globalvoices.org/2024/09/18/mass-pager-attack-in-lebanon-raises-concerns-over-cyber-warfare-and-terrorism/


2. Israel is Joining the First Global AI Convention

Israel is joining the first global treaty on artificial intelligence
(AI)—an agreement meant to regulate AI’s responsible use while
upholding human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Israel’s
participation, however, raises serious questions, considering that it
has weaponized AI in its genocide in Gaza for more than 11 months,
deploying AI-driven surveillance and automated targeting systems which
has killed tens of thousands. It has also been using AI to maintain
its occupation and surveillance of Palestinians.

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/09/israel-is-joining-the-first-global-ai-convention-heres-why-thats-dangerous/


3. Meta Bans Russian State Media Outlets Over ‘Foreign Interference Activity’

Facebook said it was banning “Russia Today” (RT) and other Russian
state media networks, alleging the outlets used deceptive tactics to
carry out influence operations while evading detection on the social
media company’s platforms.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/meta-bans-rt-russian-media-outlets


4. Data Center Emissions Probably 662% Higher than Big Tech Claims -
Amazon's is the Largest

Big tech has made some big claims about greenhouse gas emissions in
recent years. But as the rise of artificial intelligence creates ever
bigger energy demands, it’s getting hard for the industry to hide the
true costs of the data centers powering the tech revolution. Emissions
from in-house data centers of Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple may be
7.62x higher than official tally, and Amazon is the largest emitter.
As energy demands for these data centers grow, many are worried that
carbon emissions will, too.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/15/data-center-gas-emissions-tech


5. Apple Seeks to Drop its Lawsuit Against Israeli Spyware Pioneer NSO

Apple asked a court to dismiss its three-year-old lawsuit against
spyware NSO Group, maker of the Pegasus spyware suite. The company
argued that it might never be able to get the most critical files
about NSO’s Pegasus surveillance tool and that its own disclosures
could aid NSO and its increasing number of rivals. iPhone maker also
says factors including the Israeli government’s alleged seizure of
files from the maker of Pegasus surveillance app undermine the suit’s
potential.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/13/apple-lawsuit-nso-pegasus-spyware/
(paywall)


6. Google is Funding an AI-powered Satellite Constellation That Will
Spot Wildfires Faster

The full FireSat system should be able to detect tiny fires anywhere
in the world, and provide updated images every 20 minutes.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/16/1103962/google-is-funding-an-ai-powered-satellite-constellation-that-will-spot-wildfires-faster/


7. Meta to Introduce “Teen Accounts” to Instagram as Governments
Consider Social Media Age Limits

In an announcement made a week after the Australian government
proposed restricting children from accessing such platforms, Meta says
it is launching teen accounts for Instagram that will apply to new
users. “Teen accounts” allow parents greater control over their
activities, including the ability to block children from viewing the
app at night. The setting will then be extended to existing accounts
held by teenagers over time.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/17/meta-instagram-facebook-teen-accounts-social-media-ban-australia


8. The US Election Will Take Place in a Polluted Information Space

The US election will take place in a polluted information space. The
trickle of generative AI-enabled spam, deepfakes and memes has added
fuel to longer term trends in personalized digital political
advertising, the disintegration of local news media and the
vulnerability of digital democratic infrastructure to misuse and
abuse.

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2024/09/us-election-will-take-place-polluted-information-space


9. Opinion: OpenAI Says the Latest ChatGPT Can ‘Think’ -- and I Have Thoughts

OpenAI is casting around investors for money to fund future
development that would see the company valued at $150 billion. That
would put it on a par with Cisco, Shell and McDonalds. And last week,
it unveiled its latest model, called o1, which it has touted as a step
change in the development of generative AI. The AI company says its
‘o1’ model is capable of reason, a key blocker in the way of truly
game changing artificial intelligence. But is it that simple?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/17/techcsape-openai-chatgpt-thoughts

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

Open Call for German-Speaking Workshop Facilitators in Berlin
Tactical Tech
Deadline: September 22, 2024
https://tacticaltech.org/news/open-calls/open-call-facilitator-berlin-wtfw-2024/

Digital Public Infrastructure Journalism Fellowship
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)
Deadline: September 24, 2024
https://mfwa.org/call-for-applications-mfwa-dpi-journalism-fellowship-phase-ii/

MyData Awards
Deadline: September 30, 2024
https://mydataglobal.typeform.com/nominate

Palestinian Journalist Fellowship
Priority Deadline: October 16, 2024
Final Deadline: November 27, 2024
https://logicmag.io/palestinian-journalist-fellowship/

Public Interest Technology Fund
Deadline: Rolling
https://pitg.network/fund/

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

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/

__________________________________________

### Events Calendar ###

FIFAfrica24
September 25-27, 2024
Dakar, Senegal
https://internetfreedom.africa/now-open-call-for-session-proposals-and-travel-support-applications/

4D European Conference
Fundacio Cat & XNet
October 9, 2024
Barcelona, Spain
https://4d.cat/en/conference/

The Social Networking Glitter Meetup
Team CommUNITY
October 10, 2024
9am EDT / 1pm UTC
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=October_10_2024_GM

What is Happening in Digital Rights Around the World? (Glitter Meetup)
Team CommUNITY
October 24, 2024
9am EDT / 1pm UTC
Online
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=October_24_2024_GM

Outline Managers Meetup
Jigsaw, Team CommUNITY
October 30, 2024
9am EDT / 1pm UTC
Online
https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/outline_manager_meetup_october_30

Digital Investigation Residency
Tactical Tech
November 18-22, 2024
Berlin, Germany
Deadline to apply: August 30, 2024.
https://exposingtheinvisible.org/en/news/call-investigation-institute-2024/

South Eastern European Dialogue on Internet Governance Youth School 2024
Deadline to apply: September 30, 2024
November 25-26, 2024
Belgrade, Serbia
https://seedig.net/youth-school/

13th Edition of RightsCon
Access Now
February 24-27, 2025
February 2025
East Asia and online
https://www.rightscon.org/registration/

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

✎ Communications Manager | Wikimedia
+ Remote
https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/wikimedia/jobs/5645603?gh_src=c1487fa41us

✎ Consultor de Monitoreo, Evaluación, y Aprendizaje | International
Research and Exchange Board (IREX)
+ Mexico
https://irex.applytojob.com/apply/bYxk9LvW24/Consultor-De-Monitoreo-Evaluacin-Y-Aprendizaje-MEL

✎ Frontend Engineer (Consultant) | Syria Justice and Accountability Center
+ Remote/Washington DC, USA
https://syriaaccountability.org/frontend-engineer-consultant/

✎ Learning and Communications Intern, Freedom of Peaceful Assembly
(FoPA) | CIVICUS
+ Remote
https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit-internship/120e3e49da23490e96eee1e1f3c3c047-learning-and-communications-intern-freedom-of-peaceful-assembly-fopa-civicus-johannesburg

✎ Program Director | The Global Investigative Journalism Network
+ Washington DC, USA
https://gijn.org/jobs/program-director/

✎ Executive Director | GNOME Foundation
+ Not Specified
https://foundation.gnome.org/careers/

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 Global Gathering
PGP: 2E1D CC33 A362 0BD6 236E  540A F60A 89AD 6FF9 7A2F

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