Our work this month

Our team member, Maria, went to visit her family in Jezzine, a village in southern Lebanon and found that her family’s home had become an unexpected hub.

Displacement had hit the community hard, with people sheltering in an abandoned hotel turned school. Someone among the displaced knew Maria's family and sent a young woman their way and Maria's mother took her in. Maria noticed the young woman just sitting--not on her phone-- so she offered her the wifi password.

Two weeks later, Maria came back to find a crowd gathered outside her house, everyone holding their phones. When she asked her parents what was happening, her mother said that people were connecting to the wifi and that her father had called the internet provider and upgraded the connection to unlimited so the whole community could use it.

With more than 1.2 million people displaced in Lebanon, connectivity in Lebanon today means knowing what is happening and where to go. Yet for many, reaching aid agencies, keeping up with work and school, or figuring out what threats are real is getting harder with unreliable internet, drained batteries, and in some cases, no devices at all.

Our donation campaign is about supporting communities with connectivity, digital safety training, and guidance on navigating threats and disinformation. For now, we’ve trained more than 60 participants from mixed nationalities in Lebanon on digital safety, and we are planning for a wider reach of the displaced community in Lebanon.

Staying connected is a right and not a privilege. Donate to help us continue supporting impacted communities.

What we are watching

Next time you share a link, make sure to look at it carefully. Our Senior Cybersecurity Analyst Madeleine Belesi broke down how the string of text after the “?” in any URL quietly sends back information about who clicked, where they came from and how they got there. This data builds over time, but removing it takes seconds. Here is how:

• Look at the link before you share it

• Delete everything after the "?" in the URL before you share it.

For example: https://example.com/article?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social becomes simply https://example.com/article.

• If the page still loads, you're good. Share the clean version.

For automatic tracking removal, you can use browser extensions like ClearURLs or Neat URL, or switch to the browser Brave, which strips trackers by default.

Note: not all parameters are trackers, some are necessary for pages to load correctly. Read more to find out which ones to keep.

Your Instagram DMs are no longer private

If you've sent a private message on Instagram since May 8, Meta can now read it. This is because the company announced it was removing end-to-end encryption from direct messages.  Even on WhatsApp, where encryption remains, Meta still collects metadata: who you message, when, from where, and from what device. Data can be misused and weaponized, so this is not a minor update.

Our Executive Director, Mohamad Najem, has a piece of advice: switch to Signal. It is secure, encrypted, and supports open-source technology. Share this with someone who needs to know

What does the targeting of data centers mean for civilians?

Earlier this year, Amazon data centers in the UAE and Bahrain were struck during the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran.

Today, nearly every aspect of civilian life depends on data centers: payment systems, delivery and service applications, hospital records, communications, and cloud-based public infrastructure. When AWS facilities were hit, disruptions rippled across the Gulf, affecting essential services.

We argue that data centers should not be treated as legitimate military targets. However, preserving that distinction will require urgent international safeguards, clearer legal frameworks, and stronger boundaries between civilian digital infrastructure and military operations. Read the full analysis here.

Digital situation across the WANA region:

Some countries in the WANA region are progressing with their digital practices, pursuing modernization through technology and financial inclusion. The UAE launched a “Tourist Identity” initiative to allow visitors to instantly open digital bank accounts using biometric verification. Meanwhile, Syria is taking major steps to rebuild and modernize its financial infrastructure by allowing local banks and payment providers to work with global networks such as Visa and Mastercard, following a long period of dependency on traditional tools. In contrast, Egypt’s increase in internet prices between 2016 and 2026 leads to citizens’ limited digital inclusion. In Jordan, freedom of expression may be at risk due to the high annual license fees imposed on content creators by the media Media Commission a few days ago. This step creates a barrier among content creators who cannot afford paying those fees.

Gulf governments should no longer silence people documenting the war

Across Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia, authorities have issued sweeping bans on filming, sharing, or commenting on footage related to Iranian attacks on their territory.

Each government has reached for its own legal toolkit, but the underlying logic is the same across the region: cybercrime, state security, and public order laws are drafted broadly enough to criminalize almost any act of documentation, news gathering and dissemination.

SMEX, alongside 28 organizations, are calling on Gulf governments to immediately take measures to uphold freedom of expression and human rights. Read the full statement.

May opportunities

EU Commission Call for Proposals: The European Commission has launched a new €3 million call for proposals to support initiatives focused on media and freedom of expression, as well as civil society engagement in local development across Jordan.  Apply by June 14, 2026.

Open Call for Contributors : SMEX is opening its editorial opportunities under the CADE project to writers, researchers, advocates, and practitioners working on internet governance and digital rights in the WANA region. If you have a story, analysis, or perspective on civil society's role in internet policymaking, we want to read it.  Pitch your idea to SMEX through this form!

Job Opportunity: Committee to Protect Journalists: The Committee to Protect Journalists is recruiting a Senior Director of Information Technology and Digital Safety to oversee cybersecurity, data governance, and global IT operations supporting press freedom initiatives. Applications close on June 3, 2026.

Call for Papers on Digital Rights: Call for Papers: A conference on digital human rights, gender, and artificial intelligence will be held in Tunis from 22–24 October 2026, exploring issues of digital governance, inclusion, algorithmic bias, and rights in contemporary societies. Submit your abstract by May 30.