Feature image via Freedom House, November 2018: A map of Freedom House’s “Internet Freedom” rankings. In collaboration with Freedom House, SMEX assessed internet freedom in Lebanon as part of the organization’s Freedom on the Net 2018 Report. Lebanon’s “Internet Freedom Score” increased from 46 in 2017 to 47 in 2018,[...]
Feature image via the Daily Star, August 2018: An “Ugly” New Data Protection Law in Lebanon. The English translation of Chapter 5 of the E-Transactions Law concerning the processing of personal data can be found at the end of the article. An “Ugly” New Data Protection Law in Lebanon The[...]
Feature image April 2018: A screenshot of the API used to track social media posts. SMEX and LADE collaborated to monitor candidates’ social media speech during the most recent Lebanese parliamentary elections. The increasing role of social media in shaping public opinion – especially during national elections – goes hand[...]
Last week, protests broke out in Basra and quickly spread across southern Iraq. On Saturday, the Iraqi government began intermittently shutting down the internet and reduced the connection speed across the country. #End_internet_shutdowns because they violate Iraqis’ rights to freedom of expression and puts them in great danger.
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.[...]
As part of an ongoing collaboration with Privacy International, SMEX produced ”State of Privacy Lebanon,” a new briefing that intends to establish foundational knowledge about privacy in Lebanon. The report tackles the right to privacy, communication surveillance, data protection, identification schemes, and policies and sectoral initiatives. The report not only details[...]
Feature image: Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Data depicts the outage of the internet in Yemen on the night of Thursday, December 7. On Thursday night, the Houthis, the northern Yemen-based insurgent group in control of most of Sana’a since 2015, completely shut down the internet for close to 30 minutes.[...]
With many tools emerging everyday, resource-strapped organizations and activists are finding it challenging to make use of them all, in ways that would leverage their performance, develop core competencies, and simplify the complex issues that they regularly deal with. The Tasharuk platform has been providing a rich collaborative knowledge library[...]
Feature image via U.S army: Iraqi school students, Basra University. SPOTLIGHT ON INTERNET SHUTDOWNS In early June, Algeria’s Baccalaureate exams were leaked, prompting authorities to temporarily shut down mobile internet access. As a result, the Ministry of Education ordered a retake of some of the exams. During the retake, the[...]
Feature image via literalis.net: Podcasting” by Nicolas Solop CC BY 2.0. SMEX is pleased to announce the launch of its Arabic-language digital rights podcast series under the name of “Net-Wasel” or نِت-وَاصِل which means “to be connected through the Internet”. It will be presented by the blogger and digital media trainer[...]
