The Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications recently announced that residents must register the International Mobile Equipment Identity number (IMEI) associated with their phone numbers on a new website. After people register their IMEI number, the ministry then sends them a link, which will activate their phone on the mobile network. It claims that this measure will […]
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, signifying that the environment for internet freedom became slightly more repressive. The country still remains “partly free,” according to Freedom […]
On Wednesday, the Syrian Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced that it was considering blocking voice calls on WhatsApp and other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to increase revenues in the telecommunications industry, according to an Al-Watan report. However, the decision will present a direct threat to Syrians’ rights to privacy, lead to an increase […]
Introduction One day in early 2015, Habib Battah, an investigative journalist who operates the website Beirut Report, noticed new construction works in the city’s Hamra district. Hoping that this was the physical manifestation of much-touted plans to upgrade the notoriously slow internet in Lebanon, he observed thin blue pipe being laid into newly dug trenches, […]
