SumTips: 4 Digital Activists You Should Know

It’s February, which means the 2017 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards are right around the corner. This week, the shortlist of nominees was announced in four categories: arts, campaigning, digital activism and journalism. Featured below are the nominees for digital activism, recognized “for innovative uses of technology to circumvent censorship and enable free and independent exchange of information”.

• Jensiat: a (heavily censored) Iranian online graphic novel that offers accessible sexual health and cybersecurity awareness and provides access to verified digital security resources. According to Jensiat’s creators, “Our interactions with readers leads us to believe they have picked up what we’ve been discussing, and are incorporating them into their online lives.”

• Bill Marczak: Marczak’s Bahrain Watch promotes accountable and transparent governance by investigating and running campaigns in response to activists’ social media posts. Said Marczak, “There’s many an activist who face serious risks from their government of being beaten up or being tortured just because they express opinions. I think that’s unacceptable and that’s one of the things I am trying to prevent.”

• Evan Mawarire: When Pastor Mawarire expressed his displeasure with the Zimbabwean government by posting a video of himself draped in the country’s flag, people listened. More than eight million people joined a government boycott in response. Explained Mawarire, “I called the campaign #ThisFlag because it encouraged citizens to get involved in reclaiming national pride by condemning the shameless actions of government and its officials.”

• Turkey Blocks: an Alp Toker-led team that monitors, reports on and investigates internet restrictions in Turkey. Turkey Blocks’ successful tools have begun to be utilized elsewhere. Reported Alp Toker, “Our alerts, issued within minutes of detection, have helped Turkish citizens to stay online when shutdowns get implemented and provided the media with enough confidence to report assertively on digital censorship in Turkey.”

Index on Censorship will celebrate the award recipients at a gala on April 19.

Thank an activist, surf secure and stay Rando!

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SumTips: How to Protect Yourself Online in Uncertain Times

[Source: Shutterstock.com]

In 2016, the digital era giveth and the digital era taketh away. Citizens everywhere—from those outraged at the Turkish government to those outraged at the results of the American presidential election—have the power to use the internet to communicate their innermost thoughts, feelings and desires, but also risk persecution if those sentiments fall into the wrong hands.

Digital rights defender Access Now has created “A First Look at Digital Security,” an easy-to-access guide to enhancing security for those who choose to challenge the status quo online:

If you are a journalist:

• Protect your sources; correspondence with editors; time-sensitive research and written drafts.
• Use encrypted emails, instant messenger, texts, voice apps and document sharing daily; a Virtual Private Network (VPN) when on untrusted Wi-Fi; and full-disk encryption when going through security checkpoints.

If you are an activist or blogger:

• Protect your research and data; online accounts; and correspondence with other activists.
• Use two-factor authentication and strong passwords; security checkups offered by social media platforms; full-disk encryption and encryption of flash drives, hard drives and all other sensitive files; expanded short urls; and anonymous chat.

If you are a civil rights defender:

• Protect the financial information of donors and employees; contact information of partners and clients; integrity of your organization; and private documents.
• Use the latest version of available software; strong passwords; a Virtual Private Network (VPN) when on untrusted Wi-Fi; caution with opening links and attachments; full-disk encryption when going through security checkpoints; and discretion in personal postings online.

If you are a student engaged in a movement:

• Protect your personal privacy; online identity and persona(s); and access to information.
• Use circumvention and anonymity tools (including VPNs); privacy enhancing browser extensions; regular clearing of chat history; anonymous chat; separate online personas; and discretion in personal postings online.

If you are you:

• You just might find that everything above applies.

Right now, the election of Donald Trump to the American presidency has much of the United States wondering what exactly is the status quo and what online sentiments will be respected and protected, a state of uncertainty not unlike what individuals worldwide face daily. Check out the guide and if you need more support, the Access Now Helpline is there for you: help@accessnow.org.

Surf secure and stay Rando!

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SumTips: 140 Characters Stifled by More Than Space

140 characters is not just a tweet limit. 

Human Rights Watch’s latest report, 140 Characters, shares the stories of 140 well-known Bahrani, Kuwaiti, Omani, Qatari, Saudi and Emirati social and political rights activists and dissidents—and the retaliation they have encountered for making their perspectives heard. The report asks their governments to cease their acts of intimidation and harassment against activists and dissidents and to review their laws to comply with international human rights standards. 

The 140 stories of inhumane treatment towards activists and dissidents include:

Bahrain
Co-founders of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) Nabeel Rajab and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja have been imprisoned for their human rights activism. Most recently, Rajab was put on trial for “spreading false news,” “offending a foreign country,” and “offending national institutions.” Al-Khawaja is currently serving a life sentence for contributing to anti-government protests in 2011. The report includes 29 additional Bahrainis.

Kuwait
Kuwaiti teachers Huda al-Ajmi and Sara al-Drees were arrested on separate occasions for charges including insulting the emir. In 2013, al-Ajmi was sentenced to 11 years in prison for charges she denies; later that year, al-Drees received a prison sentence of 20 months. The report includes 42 additional Kuwaitis.

Oman
Former Omani parliamentarian Talib al-Maamari recently received a royal pardon from a four-year prison sentence for participating in an environmental pollution protest. Al-Maamari was convicted of “illegal gathering” and “blocking traffic.” The report includes 15 additional Omanis.

Qatar
Qatari poet Muhammad ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami’s 15-year prison sentence was pardoned in March of this year. In 2011, Al-Ajami had been found guilty of “inciting the overthrow of the ruling regime” when poetry that was critical of the ruling family was discovered online.

Saudi Arabia
Activists Manal al-Sharif and Samar Badawi have suffered the consequences of advocating for women’s rights. Al-Sharif’s “Women2Drive” campaign fought for women’s independence behind the wheel, and then led to her own imprisonment. Further activism cost al-Sharif her job as an internet security consultant. Badawi ran away from an abusive father, only to be imprisoned for seven months under the charge of “parental disobedience.” The report includes 24 additional Saudis.

United Arab Emirates
Social media activists Obaid Yousef al-Zaabi and Waleed Al-Shehhi were arrested for their tweets. Al-Zaabi’s punished crimes included the “founding and maintenance of an electronic page on Twitter…disseminating his thought and stories that stir hate and disturb public order.” Al-Shehhi received a two-year prison sentence for tweets critical of government conduct in the UAE 94 mass trial. The report includes 15 additional Emiratis.

Be an advocate, surf secure and stay Rando!

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This Tiradentes Day, Take a Stance Against Censorship in Brazil

[Source: Change.org]

Happy Tiradentes Day, Brazil! This year, in honor of Brazilian liberation movement leader Joaquim “the Tooth Puller” Xavier, consider fighting for your freedom in a different way: by signing the Institute for Technology and Society’s petition against Internet censorship in Brazil.

On March 31, Brazil’s parliamentary Inquiry Commission on Cybercrimes proposed a series of amendments that would undermine the freedom of expression, net neutrality and data protection currently guaranteed under Marco Civil da Internet, Brazil’s Internet Bill of Rights.

By April 1, the participants of RightsCon Silicon Valley 2016 had already drafted a list of grievances against the proposed legislation:

• It allows law enforcement agencies to access IP addresses without a court order.  

• Internet service providers (ISPs) will be obliged to remove content considered “harmful to personal honor” upon notification within 48 hours, under the penalty of criminal and civil liability. 

• ­Contrary to all international human rights guidelines, Internet service providers (ISPs) will be obliged to actively monitor user content in order to impede future uploads of the same material that was removed for being “harmful to personal honor,” and also everything potentially related to it.

• ­It broadens the definition of what constitutes the crime of invasion of electronic devices to cases in which there is no proven harm and regardless of the intent. It possibly criminalizes practices such as whistleblowing or circumventing technical protection measures (TPMs) that hamper personal use of content protected by copyright.

• ­It creates a blank check for courts to block the use of application and services on the infrastructure level of the Internet, which creates negative consequences for freedom of expression. In addition to potentially negatively affecting the freedom of particular companies and/or business models, blocking and filtering measures fail to comply with the principle of proportionality, do not respect the principle of network neutrality, and may have a spillover effect on other jurisdictions, causing collateral damage the stability of the internet.

Already, the pushback has been strong enough to convince legislators to rewrite several clauses in the initial proposal, but privacy advocates argue that the adjustments are simply not enough. For example, the content removal clause has been modified to remove the 48-hour time limit and also so that only content already established as illegal is required to be removed.

For groups such as Oficina Antivigilancia, such change is an improvement, but also carries its own set of concerns: “It worries us the way in which this obligation will be implemented, mainly when it comes to content in which the public intentionally wants to subvert the blockade, once sophisticated techniques (and others not so much, like flipping/mirroring the image or accelerating the reproduction of videos) could be very hard to technically detect, especially considering the volume of new posts in the Internet’s main platforms like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter.”

For more information, a complete overview of changes made can be found on Oficina Antivigilancia’s website; the revised version of the legislation is available as well. Be sure to do your part and sign the petition. Tiradentes would thank you.

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