The recent, mass protests in the region have challenged the closing of online and offline civic space by governments and companies who, through their policies and other means, restrict online speech, limit access to the internet, expand surveillance, and contribute to the spread of hate speech and disinformation online. SMEX[...]
Feature image via SMEX,Geneva, December 19, 2017: SMEX Executive Co-Director Jessica Dheere welcomes participants to our interactive workshop on data, digital rights and law co-hosted with HURIDOCS. The relationships between digital technologies and networks, and their national and regional legal frameworks, are rapidly evolving. Poorly drafted and arbitrarily applied legislation[...]
This article was written by SMEX’s Jessica Dheere and Asser Khattab and published in the Global Information Society Watch 2017 annual report. Despite auspicious beginnings, the evolution of the Arab Internet Governance Forum (IGF) over the last six years has left stakeholders around the region deeply skeptical of its future.[...]
The undersigned Arab group members of IFEX have studied the document issued by the consultative meeting held in November 2015 in Rabat, Morocco, on the regional initiative for the formation of a special mechanism to support media freedom in the Arab region. The initiative, launched in October[...]
Feature image: Panel of workshop “Freedom of Expression on the Internet in the Arab Region and Their Impact on Human Development” “70% of opinion prisoners in the Arab world are imprisoned on charges of unlawful Internet use. 70% of those are prosecuted because of social media content.” 55%[...]
