One Year Since the October 17 Uprising in Lebanon: Summons and Arrests for Online Speech It’s been one year since the October 17 uprising in Lebanon, which was ignited over the imposition of a “WhatsApp tax.” During this time, Lebanon witnessed an increase in summons and arrests resulting from online[...]
Palestinian journalist Hani Al-Shaer was not surprised when his Facebook account was deleted for the tenth time during the past three years. However, he was surprised to receive a letter in June from the social media company stating that he has not adhered to the Facebook Community Standards. This came[...]
On September 23, Zoom cancelled a virtual event featuring the Palestinian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s (PFLP) veteran Leila Khaled. The virtual event was organized by the Arab and Muslim Ethnicity and Diasporas Studies (AMED Studies) at San Francisco State University (SFSU). After the event was announced on[...]
On October 4, SMEX and many other civil society organizations shared an open letter to Facebook and other tech companies to continue increasing end-to-end security across its messaging tools and resist law enforcement calls to create backdoors or exceptional access to the content of users’ messages. 4 October 2019 Dear[...]
Feature image via facebook May 15, 2018: A bar graph shows newest Transparency report displaying the number of content restrictions in Lebanon. In Facebook’s newly published Transparency report, the company revealed it restricted or removed content in Lebanon for the first time since it began issuing the reports in 2013.[...]
Feature image: Speakers of the Workshop ” Net Neutrality”. Net neutrality (also known as net equality) means that internet data should be easily accessed without discrimination, financial charges or blocking the source, therefore it should promote free speech. Net neutrality involves many stakeholders, such as: The state, regulators, users,[...]
Feature image via Twitter @zahri_abbas: The Beirut blasts, claimed by ISIS, killed 43 people. After the deadly Beirut blasts, friends and families from outside and inside of Lebanon immediately began checking in on one another, using Whatsapp, Facebook messenger, SMS, and of course, phones. It was a chaotic moment for[...]
If you’ve been active on social media in the past four days, you probably know about the tragedies that have struck all over the world in the last week. You’ve likely also noticed that people are showing their support and solidarity by overlaying a flag on their Facebook profile pictures.[...]
