Digital Safety Helpdesk

The Digital Safety Helpdesk supports activists, journalists, bloggers, marginalized groups and human rights defenders who have been affected by cybersecurity incidents and online threats in Arabic-speaking countries. Our main aim is to elevate the capabilities of the online civic space through digital safety tips, rapid response to digital attacks, and threat mitigation.

Because digital threats faced by users in the region have grown in both number and complexity, we’ve established the Digital Safety Helpdesk to formalize our incident-handling and reporting processes and to ensure our responses are efficient in the short and long terms.

Our Helpdesk team can offer support in the following cases:

• Doxxing is the act of sharing someone’s personal information online without their consent.
• Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else.
• Hate speech is abusive or threatening speech or writing on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation.
• Online harassment/blackmailing is the act of holding someone’s online data hostage until a ransom is paid.
• Accounts Suspension relates to accounts being wrongfully blocked/suspended/deleted on social media platforms.
• Sextortion is the practice of extorting money or sexual favours from someone by threatening to reveal evidence of their sexual activity or online content.
• Hacked/stolen accounts/devices
• Digital security tips
• Fake news
• Online impersonation
• Device suspicious behavior

Who can benefit the most from our services?

• Human Rights Defenders
• Civil Society Groups
• Alternative Media
• “Political” Collectives
• Activists
• Bloggers under real life harm
• Journalists 

The Helpdesk’s internal incident-handling system is designed to filter cases by urgency and capacity. Our incident handlers are available between 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM everyday, from Monday to Friday. We are currently expanding our team to be able to offer support on weekends as well. 

The duration and nature of the incident-handling process depends on the complexity and severity of the reported incident. For example, the involvement of a third party, such as a tech company or ISP, will increase the time taken to resolve the incident. Incidents which result in “real-world harm” — that is, when digital content poses an immediate, physical threat to the user — will be assigned the highest priority. Such incidents include doxxing, death threats, hate speech with incitement of violence towards vulnerable groups, and physical arrest or detention.

The Digital Safety Helpdesk follows a strict privacy policy to ensure personal information is processed safely and securely during incident handling. This privacy policy will be published on our website in the coming weeks.

The Digital Safety Helpdesk can be reached on:

• • Signal: +961 81 633 133
  • Email: helpdesk@smex.org
  • WhatsApp: +961 81 633 133
    

Please note that the Digital Safety Helpdesk’s WhatsApp and Signal channels can only receive messages; we are unable to answer voice calls.