Digital Rights Weekly | January 13 - 17

Team CommUNITY team at digitalrights.community
Mon Jan 20 20:55:42 CET 2025 

Hello Digital Rights Defenders!

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

What is in this issue:

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

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

1. How to Use the Digital Rights Job Board at Team CommUNITY

The Digital Rights Job Board is a free service that connects professionals with organizations working at the intersection of technology, human rights, and social justice in over 144 countries. It is part of Team CommUNITY’s global network of digital rights defenders and helps both job seekers and organizations by offering a platform to find or post relevant job opportunities. Learn how to use it:

https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/how-to-use-tcu-digital-rights-job-board


2. Upcoming January Digital Rights Town Halls

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. Keep up with the latest news and opportunities on our other platforms!

TCU BlueSky:https://bsky.app/profile/teamcommunity.bsky.social
TCU Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/digitalrightscommunity
TCU LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/teamcommunity


4. The 2025 Global Gathering Dates Are Set: Get Ready for September 8-10!
Get ready for an amazing experience at the 2025 Global Gathering in the stunning Estoril, Portugal, happening September 8, 9, and 10! We're excited to open up over 1,500 spots as we wrap up our three-year journey to grow the event in a safe and sustainable way. Registration opens soon—don’t miss out! In the meantime, take a look back at the amazing GG24 edition:
https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/global-gathering-2024-report

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### Community News ###


1. Call for Applications: ITS Global Policy Fellowship Program 2025

The Institute for Technology and Society (ITS) invites researchers, students, and professionals to apply for the ITS Global Policy Fellowship Program 2025. The Fellowship offers a unique chance to gain deeper insights into Brazil’s technological landscape. Deadline: January 30, 2025.

https://itsrio.org/en/comunicados/call-for-applications-its-global-policy-fellowship-program-2025/

2. 9th Edition of the Palestine Digital Activism Forum 2025
The 9th edition of the Palestine Digital Activism Forum (PDAF) is taking place on May 20 and 21. This year’s forum will focus on the theme “Disconnected: The Impact of War on Internet Access and Palestinian Digital Rights.” The forum will explore the harrowing consequences of war on digital rights, including the destruction of infrastructure, restricted access to information, censorship, and the silencing of Palestinian voices. Submit a proposal for the workshops and sessions. Deadline to submit: February 16, 2025.
https://2025.pdaf.net/about-theme

3. New Tactics in Human Rights in English and Arabic

New Tactics launched its new and improved website for advocates, activists, and human rights defenders. This platform provides strategic tools and resources, real-world success stories, and opportunities to learn from a global community of human rights defenders. Check out the website in English and Arabic:

newtactics.org


4. Reports from Our Community

a) Status of Palestinian Digital Rights for CSOs & Consequences of the Genocide

MIFTAH conducted an assessment survey on the cognitive capabilities of Palestinian civil society organizations (CSOs) regarding digital rights and their implementation. This survey reflects the complex reality of digital rights in occupied Palestine and assesses how prepared CSOs are to deal with growing digital challenges.

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=26877&CategoryId=4 


b) Platform Accountability: A Rule-of-Law Checklist for Policymakers

Platform regulations can be a minefield for human rights. It is imperative that all governments developing or deploying platform regulations ground them in the rule of law — a bulwark against abuse. Platform accountability: a rule-of-law checklist for policymakers, proposes a checklist to enable policymakers to examine the need for platform accountability regulations, and where necessary, enact regulations that are fit-for-purpose and protect human rights.

https://www.accessnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Platform-accountability-a-rule-of-law-checklist-for-policymakers-report-2024.pdf 


c) AfriSIG 2024: "Illuminating the Challenges & Opportunities that Arise in our Increasingly Digital World"

The 2024 edition of the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG) brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to explore the pressing issues surrounding the governance of the internet, with a particular focus on data governance and free trade in Africa. Read the main headlines from this gathering:

https://www.apc.org/en/news/afrisig-2024-illuminating-challenges-and-opportunities-arise-our-increasingly-digital-world

____________________________________________

### Community Resources  ###

1. Opinion Piece | 2025: The Year We Decide the Internet’s Future

Check out this piece on Global Voices that explores critical questions surrounding the future of global internet governance. It delves into the challenges to the multi-stakeholder model, the implications of the Global Digital Compact, the environmental and social impacts of connectivity, and the urgent need for civil society engagement to safeguard an open, inclusive, and rights-respecting internet.

https://globalvoices.org/2025/01/08/2025-the-year-we-decide-the-internets-future/


2. Opinion | The New Enlightenment: Reclaiming Our Digital Selves in GenAI Era

The current accumulation of endless data to fuel large language models (LLMs) poses a risk to every human’s right that their personal information belongs to them – that we all have the right to protect, share and profit from this data as much or as little as we choose.

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/01/new-enlightenment-era-of-generative-ai-genai/ 


3. Human Rights Issues Increasing as Tech Development Rapidly Expands

Rapid development of emerging technologies poses significant human rights challenges, but with a collaborative effort, it is possible to establish frameworks that safeguard human rights.
​​https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/human-rights-crimes/human-rights-tech-development/ 


4. With Its Latest Rule, the U.S. Tries to Govern AI’s Global Spread

Joe Biden’s administration released a regulatory framework for the responsible diffusion of advanced Artificial Intelligence technology in the USA. The rule seeks to set the export and security terms for the AI market that will produce the world’s most powerful technological systems in the coming years.

https://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2025/01/ai-new-rule-chips-exports-diffusion-framework?lang=en 

____________________________________________

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


1. Cable Damage Slows Internet for Millions of Customers Across Russia

A damaged fiber-optic cable in central Russia disrupted internet access for nearly 4 million customers across 21 regions. The damage follows a widespread internet outage that impacted telecom providers and platforms such as Google, WhatsApp and TikTok across the country.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/01/15/cable-damage-slows-internet-for-millions-of-customers-across-russia-a87625 


2. Myanmar’s Junta-owned Telecoms Company Mytel added to US Sanctions List		
					
The company is accused of enabling human rights abuses by providing surveillance services and financial support to the country’s military regime.

https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/myanmars-junta-owned-telecoms-company-mytel-added-to-us-sanctions-list/


3. Mastodon’s CEO & Creator is Handing Control to a New Nonprofit Organization

Decentralized social network Mastodon has announced plans to transfer its ownership to a new nonprofit entity. Ownership of Mastodon will move away from the control of the CEO.

https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/13/24342603/mastodon-non-profit-ownership-ceo-eugen-rochko 


4. Global Fact-checkers Were Disappointed, Not Surprised, Meta Ended its Program

Meta’s fact-checking partners around the world are disappointed — but not surprised — by Facebook’s move to do away with fact-checking by trained teams. Meta’s recent change will start in the U.S. this year, before expanding to other countries. Fact-checking organizations in Pakistan, Argentina, and Brazil have been diversifying revenue streams beyond Meta’s program.

https://restofworld.org/2025/meta-drops-fact-checking-partnerships-global-watchdogs-scramble/


5. Meta's Rollback of DEI Threatens LGBTQ+ Rights

Meta’s decision to make sweeping changes to its content moderation policies - cutting its fact-checking division and loosening the rules on hateful rhetoric – are just the latest examples of an increasing acceptance of polarisation and hostility.

https://www.context.news/big-tech/opinion/metas-rollback-of-dei-threatens-lgbtq-rights 


6. Meta Is Blocking Links to Decentralized Instagram Competitor Pixelfed

On Facebook, the company is labeling links to Pixelfed.social as “spam” and deleting them immediately. The Fediverse website offers users the same photo-sharing experience as Instagram without any of the surveillance.

https://www.404media.co/meta-is-blocking-links-to-decentralized-instagram-competitor-pixelfed/ 

Pixelfed announced the rollout of its own mobile apps for iOS and Android, signaling a big expansion for a site that already has some 330,000 users and a growing base of support.

https://gizmodo.com/decentralized-instagram-killer-pixelfed-gets-a-mobile-app-2000550122 


7. EU Regulators Take a Hard Look at Elon Musk & X

Elon Musk and X could face penalties should EU investigators find that he manipulated the site's algorithm to influence voters. Musk livestreamed a conversation with Alice Weidel, the leader of the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD), and amplified the party's message ahead of February's elections.

https://www.dw.com/en/eu-regulators-take-a-hard-look-at-elon-musk-and-x/a-71268936


8. Working from Home: Surveillance Makes Employees Less Productive

Digital monitoring reduces the productivity of employees working from home. However, it also decreases when existing monitoring software is removed. It concludes that communication between employees and managers is more important for high work performance than monitoring mechanisms.

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Working-from-home-surveillance-makes-employees-less-productive-10233672.html 

____________________________________________

### Recent Statements from our Community ###

1. Fighting Disinformation Must Be Part of Disaster-Relief Efforts

Misleading claims about California's efforts to fight the fires near Los Angeles have been amplified by public figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump, who have spread disinformation on social media. This has politicized the disaster, which is the city's most destructive. There is a critical need to enhance support for accurate civic information during emergencies and explore how governments can help distinguish fact from fiction.

https://www.freepress.net/blog/musk-disinformation-disasters 


2. Statement on the Historic Decision in the WhatsApp v NSO Case

AccessNow welcomes the historic ruling in the case of WhatsApp v NSO Group, where the U.S. District Court of Northern California found that NSO violated federal and California state hacking statutes and breached WhatsApp’s Terms of Service by targeting WhatsApp’s users and infrastructure with Pegasus spyware.

https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/statement-on-whatsapp-v-nso-case-decision/ 

Within hours of the first-of-its-kind decision, close observers of the commercial surveillance marketplace were asking what impact the ruling might have on the company’s continued operations and the industry as a whole. The answer could be: not that much.

https://therecord.media/nso-whatsapp-ruling-may-have-limited-impact-on-spyware-ecosystem 


3. Iraq: Balgh Platform Marks Two Years as a Tool of Repression
			 					 		 		
Various human rights organizations strongly condemn the Iraqi authorities’ continued use of the Balgh platform to monitor online speech and curtail freedom of expression. Launched two years ago under the pretext of combatting ‘indecent content’ on social media, the platform has been instrumentalized to facilitate arbitrary arrests, harassment, and prosecution of content creators and activists.

https://www.article19.org/resources/iraq-balgh-platform-marks-two-years-as-tool-of-repression/ 


4. Supreme Court May Decide if the Government Can Childproof the Internet

More than two decades of precedent are at stake in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. And there are other things at stake, too — a free and open internet and the future of speech both online and off.

https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/supreme-court-may-decide-if-the-government-can-childproof-the-internet 

____________________________________________

### 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


✎https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/gni-job-opportunity-policy-associate-or-manager

✎ Development Manager | Creative Commons
+ United States or Canada
https://creativecommons.org/mission/opportunities/development-manager/

✎ Communications Coordinator | Tecnologia Critica
+ Remote
https://criti.ca/team/job-posting-communications-coordinator/

✎ IT Support Assistant | SMEX
+ Beirut, Lebanon
https://daleel-madani.org/civil-society-directory/smex/jobs/it-support-assistant

✎ Measurement Lab (M-Lab) Director, Technical Lead | Code for Science & Society
+ Remote
https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/codeforsciencesociety/jobs/4607021007?gh_jid=4607021007

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

__________________________________________

### Events Calendar ###

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

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

Digital Forensic Fellowship 2025
Amnesty Tech
Deadline: January 23, 2025
https://careers.amnesty.org/jobs/vacancy/digital-forensic-fellowship-4051/4079/description/

Global Policy Fellowship Program 2025
The Institute for Technology and Society (ITS)
Deadline: January 30, 2025.
https://itsrio.org/en/comunicados/call-for-applications-its-global-policy-fellowship-program-2025/

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

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

The Sepal Fund
The Calyx Institute
Deadline: February 19, 2025.
https://calyxinstitute.org/projects/the-sepal-fund 

Information Controls Fellowship Program
Open Technology Fund
Deadline: February 28, 2025.
https://www.opentech.fund/fellowships/icfp/ 

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

Reclaim Your Lost Website: Resilience Grant for NGOs, Non-profits, & Individuals
https://sutty.nl/en/recovery-form/

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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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 atteam at digitalrights.community. We are always looking for like-minded organizations and people.

(((Hugs & light)))

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Team CommUNITY at ARTICLE 19
www.digitalrights.community 
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