Digital Rights Weekly | December 15 to 19
Team CommUNITY
team at digitalrights.community
Thu Dec 18 22:02:12 CET 2025
Hello Digital Rights Defenders!
Here is your weekly update on digital rights around the world for the
week of December 15 to 19
As the year comes to a close, we want to take a moment to wish everyone
an early 🎉 Happy New Year 🎉
For many of us, 2025 felt like a hurricane — intense, exhausting, and at
times overwhelming. Yet through it all, it also revealed who we are as
individuals and as a community. The kindness, solidarity, and sheer grit
we’ve witnessed on a daily basis have been deeply humbling.
Things won’t always feel—or be—this way. And as always, we’re here to
offer support, a laugh, or a moment of calm when you need it.
💛 Make sure to spend as much with loved ones this time of the year, as
they are the ones that can keep you grounded in what truly matters.
With much glitter,
The Staff of Team CommUNITY
___________________
What is in this issue:
TCU
Community News
NEW Job Opportunities
Community Resources
Digital Rights in the Wider World
Events Calendar
Grants, Fellowships, & Awards
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### TCU ###
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1. Newsletter and Job Board Closed Until the Week of January 12
Please note: we will be pausing the Digital Rights Newsletter and Job
Board over the holidays Both will resume the week of January 12. We wish
you and your loved ones a happy new year!
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### Community News ###
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1. 🎉 Global Gathering Applications Now Open !!! 🎉
We are happy to announce that applications for the Global Gathering are
now open! Join defenders from around the world working at the
intersection of rights and tech in Portugal on September 4, 5, and 6.
Not sure yet if you can attend? Apply anyway!!!! We have a rigorous
vetting process to ensure the security and safety of the event, which
takes time. You can always let us know later if you are unable to
attend. Additionally, please note that this year we will not be
accepting applications after the deadline.
Have questions? Want to know how to use the event to better achieve your
goals? We want to hear from you - reach out!!!! Please RSVP here:
https://gathering.digitalrights.community/
2. Become a Beta Tester
Open Archive, in collaboration with Hypha Worker Co-operative, has
created the first ever secure, decentralized, peer-to-peer (p2p) mobile
storage backend. Their new white paper, Privacy-First Archiving:
Implementing Secure, Decentralized Storage to Protect Mobile Media,
explores this groundbreaking work in detail. Now in beta, the DWeb,
privacy-first storage backend enables communities to preserve and verify
mobile media independently without relying on centralized platforms.
Sign up to become a beta tester!
https://www.open-archive.org/pdf/Mobile_DWeb_Archiving.pdf
3. The Digital Blackout: State Control, Violence, and the Silencing of
Tanzania’s 2025 General Election
A new evidence-based policy brief analyzes the nationwide internet
blackout imposed around Tanzania’s 29 October 2025 general election. The
brief argues that the shutdown was used not as a neutral security
measure, but as an instrument of state control that helped suppress
dissent, hide widespread violence and human rights violations, and shape
public narratives about the election results. It was based on network
connectivity analyses, eyewitness accounts, and documentation from civil
society and human rights. The brief was done by Tech & Media Convergency
(TMC), in collaboration with the Internet Governance Tanzania Working
Group (IGTWG), and is part of the Tanzania State of Internet Governance
Series.
http://tmc.co.tz/sdc_download/10949/?key=452wcwa11yjw5uudy558urygtrhoal
4. Advent Calendar of Media Literacy
For the next month, the Advent Calendar of media literacy will examine
the real cases of foreign information manipulation and interference
(FIMI) from around the world - from annulled elections in Romania and
deepfake campaigns in Canada, to Russian operations in Sahel and Chinese
influence networks in the Indo-Pacific. Each day will bring a new case
study with primary sources, methodological insights, and lessons for
building resilience against information manipulation. The project is
being lead by Factcheck.LT, an independent media and analytical center
strengthening information integrity in the Baltic-Eastern European region.
https://factcheck.lt/eng/news/advent_2025/
5. Curtailing Misuse of Spyware and Surveillance Technologies
A new tool by Freedom House will facilitate civil society efforts to
submit timely information on the malicious use of surveillance
technologies to relevant officials at the US Commerce Department, State
Department, and Treasury Department, enabling them to pursue
accountability measures.
https://freedomhouse.org/curtailing-misuse-spyware-and-surveillance-technologies-us
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### NEW Job Opportunities ###
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You can access these and other jobs by visiting our job board:
https://www.digitalrights.community/job-board
+ Full stack developer, Digital Commons Cooperative
- Fully remote in the UK
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### Community Resources ###
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1. Internet Shutdowns are Increasing Dramatically in Africa – A New Book
Explains Why
Between 2016 and 2024 there were 193 internet shutdowns imposed in 41
African countries. This form of social control is a growing trend in the
continent, according to a new open access source book. It has provided
the first-ever comparative analysis of how and why African states use
blackouts. The book, co-edited by digital rights activist and internet
shutdown specialist Felicia Anthonio and digital researcher Tony
Roberts, offers 11 in-depth case studies of state-sponsored shutdowns.
We asked five questions about it.
https://theconversation.com/internet-shutdowns-are-increasing-dramatically-in-africa-a-new-book-explains-why-271222
2. Is My Phone Listening to Me? Perceived Surveillance in a Digital World
We’ve almost all experienced it: you’re talking with someone in the
offline world and a short while later you start seeing online ads
relating to the topic of that conversation. Smartphones, apps and smart
devices are more and more often leaving people with the uneasy sense
that someone is monitoring them. Communication scientist Dong (Daisy)
Zhang argues that this feeling – known as perceived surveillance – is
predictable psychological reaction to today’s data-driven technologies.
https://www.uva.nl/shared-content/uva/en/news/press-releases/2025/12/is-my-phone-listening-to-me-perceived-surveillance-in-a-digital-world.html
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### Digital Rights in the Wider World ###
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1. Creating Apps like Signal or WhatsApp Could Be 'Hostile Activity,'
Claims UK Watchdog
Developers of apps that use end-to-end encryption to protect private
communications could be considered hostile actors in the UK. That is the
stark warning from Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s Independent
Reviewer of State Threats Legislation and Independent Reviewer of
Terrorism Legislation, in a new report on national security laws. He
warns that developers of apps like Signal and WhatsApp could technically
fall within the legal definition of "hostile activity" simply because
their technology "make[s] it more difficult for UK security and
intelligence agencies to monitor communications."
https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/creating-apps-like-signal-or-whatsapp-could-be-hostile-activity-claims-uk-watchdog?utm_source=chatgpt.com
2. TikTok Tracked User’s Grindr Activity in Violation of European Law
TikTok and Grindr are violating European data protection laws by
tracking user activities across apps. Digital rights Vienna-based
organization, None of Your Business (noyb), says that TikTok
acknowledged under pressure that it tracked a user’s activities on
Grindr as well as other apps.
https://therecord.media/tiktok-grindr-data-tracking-noyb
3. Inside Vietnam’s Disinformation Machine and the Journalists Exposing
It from Exile
Vietnam’s tightly controlled media environment relies on narrative
distortion, selective omission, and propaganda to manage politically
sensitive news. Exiled journalists and overseas outlets have become
essential in exposing these practices, documenting forced confessions
and smear campaigns, and preserving access to information that would
otherwise remain hidden.
https://institute.aljazeera.net/en/ajr/article/3487
4. Russia Names German Broadcaster Deutsche Welle as ‘Undesirable
Organization’
Russian authorities have named German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle
as an “undesirable organization,” effectively outlawing its operation in
the country. Under Russian law, involvement with an “undesirable
organization,” including sharing its content, is a criminal
offense.Authorities also criticized the broadcaster’s academy program,
accusing it of training “disinformation specialists.”
https://apnews.com/article/russia-crackdown-deutsche-welle-broadcaster-2408f44576e82b725cdb335cc414672e
_____________________________________
### Events Calendar ###
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Did you know you could submit your events for inclusion in our
newsletter? It takes a few minutes to submit:
https://www.digitalrights.community/weekly-newsletter
Additionally, we maintain a calendar of events in our wiki:
https://wiki.digitalrights.community/index.php?title=Calendar_of_Events
Strategy Design Festival
January 20, 2026
London
https://www.fabriders.net/strategy-design-festival/
Palestine Digital Activism Forum (PDAF) 2026
March 30 to 31, 2026
https://pdaf.net/about-theme
International Journalism Festival (IJF)
April 15 to 18, 2026
Perugia, Italy
https://www.journalismfestival.com/
Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum
April 14-16
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
https://sessionize.com/digital-rights-and-inclusion-forum26/
RightCon 2026
May 5-8
Lusaka, Zambia
https://www.rightscon.org/
Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI)
July 20, 2026
Hybrid, co-located with PETS in Calgary, Canada
https://foci.community/
Global Gathering
September 4 to 6, 2026
Portugal
https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/applications/global-gathering-2026-applications-open
Digital Commons:Infrastructures, Design, and the Ethics of Autonomy
October 8 to 10
Athens, Greece
www.digicommons.org
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### Grants, Fellowships, & Awards ###
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AI Reporting Grant Program
December 31, 2025
https://pulitzercenter.org/grants-fellowships/opportunities-journalists/ai-reporting-grants
Dr Goodluck Jonathan Freedom of Information Awards 2026
Deadline: January 31, 2026.
https://mediarightsagenda.org/media-rights-agenda-invites-entries-from-journalists-for-goodluck-jonathan-foi-awards-2026/
- Carr-Ryan Center Fellowship
- Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Fellowship
- Racial Justice Fellowship
- Technology and Human Rights Fellowship.
Deadline: February 22, 2026
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr-ryan/opportunities/fellowship-opportunities/technology-and-human-rights-fellowship
La Escuela Virtual de Gobernanza de Internet
Deadline: February 8, 2026
https://www.virtualsig.org/2025/12/02/982/
Digital Freedom Fund
Deadline: February 17
https://digitalfreedomfund.org/grants/
InDiCo-Global. Deadline
Deadline: June 30, 2026
https://indico-global-grants.eu/indico-global-third-open-call
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(((Hugs & light)))
--
Team CommUNITY at ARTICLE 19
www.digitalrights.community
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