With the onset of the economic crisis and the pandemic, Lebanon’s educational system has been thrown into turmoil. Education in Lebanon changed dramatically with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is taking place remotely on digital platforms. This abrupt shift to the digital realm has significant academic and social[...]
This article is a crosspost from Global Voices. Editor’s note: This article is part of UPROAR, a Small Media initiative that is urging governments to address digital rights challenges at the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). As new protests erupt in Lebanon, online repression is set to continue. In recent weeks,[...]
Governments in various Arab countries are increasingly investing in financial and human resources to control internet content and the free flow of information. They exercise systematic censorship of information by targeting different aspects of communications technologies. By contrast, several civil society organizations and activists in the Arab region are countering[...]
This article is a crosspost from Global Voices. This article is part of UPROAR, a Small Media initiative that is urging governments to address digital rights challenges at the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). If the Arab Spring highlighted one phenomenon about digital upheaval, cyber-activism and democratization, it was this: the[...]
On September 1, the Ministry of Public Health launched Ma3an – Together Against Corona, a contact-tracing application intended to stop the spread of Covid-19. After a preliminary review, SMEX found that although the application collects limited personal data, it contains a few security flaws. The Ministry of Public Health, in[...]
On September 8, many websites in Lebanon, including governmental ones, were hacked by an alleged Iranian hacker. After a quick analysis, the SMEX tech team found that all the hacked websites are hosted on the same server managed by Terranet, a local Lebanese ISP and hosting provider. A deeper look[...]
The advent of COVID-19 (known locally as the coronavirus) in Lebanon last February has further deepened existing divisions within certain cities and villages: communities were either branded “epicentres” of the COVID-19 outbreak, or residents were considered blessed to have genetic and/or layered immunity against the virus. This was largely due[...]
In the wake of the August 4th explosion in Beirut, there was a significant response from civil society trying to help in every way possible. Some NGOs undertook the task of distributing essential and urgent humanitarian aid, while others prepared for the reconstruction phase. The organizations working on all these[...]
On Sunday afternoon, Lebanese internet users reported an internet disruption that made it almost impossible to access platforms like Twitter. Users were under the impression the disruption was due to a telecommunication outage because of the recent fuel and electricity crisis, or some new repressive action by the government. But[...]
SMEX is seeking a part-time researcher to work on a project analyzing the threats to internet access and digital privacy faced by Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The mixed methods research project will combine interviews with relevant stakeholders, a survey, and desk research. The ideal candidate should be comfortable conducting interviews[...]
