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Jamaica Labour Party wins decisive second term in office amidst low voter turnout and COVID-19 fears · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Prime minister-elect, Andrew Holness, talks to the Jamaica Gleaner about his party's win in the September 3 general election. The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) was returned to government by a landslide. Screenshot taken from the Jamaica Gleaner's YouTube video “#JaVotes2020: Andrew Holness returns as Prime Minister”.
The results of Jamaica's general election, held on September 3, show that the country has “gone green” — but not in terms of environmental awareness. Rather, green is the colour of the incumbent Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which dealt a heavy blow to the opposition People's National Party (PNP) in the midst of a record low voter turnout of approximately 35 per cent.
A major factor in the low participation by electors — which outdid the 2016 elections’ previous low of 47 per cent — appears to have been growing concerns over COVID-19. To give electors ample opportunity to exercise their right to vote, the government lifted quarantine restrictions for several communities and groups, including those who had tested positive for the virus and thousands in home quarantine.
As the number of active COVID-19 cases in Jamaica continues to rise, there had been concerns regarding the timing of the elections. Under the Westminster parliamentary system, the prime minister may announce an election date before polls are constitutionally due. Jamaica's 63-seat parliament was therefore dissolved on August 13, six months ahead of constitutionally scheduled elections, leaving candidates with an unusually short period in which to campaign, as well as — with various COVID-19 restrictions in place — limitations on the ways they could do it.
Although protocols such as the mandatory wearing of masks during voting were put in place, concerns over the arrangements lingered. In the lead up to the election, several well-known figures tested positive for COVID-19, including police commissioner Major General Antony Anderson, political ombudsman Donna Parchment Brown, the general secretary of the opposition PNP, Julian Robinson, and veteran politician DK Duncan.
Duncan’s daughter, a first-time candidate for the PNP in the constituency of downtown Kingston, had been enthusiastically urging on supporters, but a video that was widely shared on social media showed that neither she nor many of her supporters were wearing masks.
On election day itself, images of voters failing to practise adequate physical distancing sparked concern:
A polling station today. This is so worrying. #COVID19 #JaCovid19 #Jamaica https://t.co/DXXaI3FIAm
— Susan Goffe (@suezeecue) September 3, 2020
In other communities, however, the procedure was calm and quiet. After he voted, blogger Dennis Jones shared his thoughts about the experience:
So far, I have no concerns: everyone was in masks […]
First impressions are that people are not voting with trepidation and I suspect that as word spreads that health controls are really being well executed, people will decide that it’s not such a big risk to go to vote.
Election protocols stipulate that special provisions should be made for senior citizens to vote ahead of others, but in general, people over 70 years old were advised to stay home. There was some anxiety, then, over a video of a 98-year-old woman who was wheeled into a polling station in Kingston, but did not appear to know where she was:
The lowest point of the day so far is this atrocity.
She’s 98, and you take her out her home in COVID19 times AND she nuh even know WHO she is voting for?
Everything wrong with this.
Everything.
Lord please cover this lady & keep her safe. https://t.co/assdOh8rE3
— The Word for 2020 is TIME (@yaneekpage) September 3, 2020
There were also some technological glitches, as the Electoral Office Of Jamaica’s website was overwhelmed, prompting journalist Cassius Watson to share on Facebook:
The @ecjamaica is failing Jamaica at this critical juncture […] people are being robbed of exercising their right to vote. […] It's clear they were not ready for this rushed election and many frustrated persons are gonna stay home. […]
The atmosphere, however, was generally friendly and tolerant. Jamaican elections are lively events and win or lose, party supporters have fun with their colleagues, neighbours, and even rival political supporters.
Even amid COVID-19 concerns, impromptu street parties began before the polls closed at 5:00 p.m., with little social distancing taking place, despite the fact that political parties were not keen to hold the usual celebrations at their headquarters. In Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ constituency, COVID-19 protocols took a back seat:
A party here in St Andrew West Central, the constituency @AndrewHolnessJM is seeking to represent in parliament for the sixth consecutive term. #JaVotes2020 pic.twitter.com/J65ogIZy82
— Jovan Johnson (@jovanthony) September 3, 2020
Another member of parliament posted a video of his constituents partying on Facebook.
The JLP’s emphatic win has been likened to the party's victory in the 1980 general election under the leadership of the late Edward Seaga, as well as the 1993 election won by the PNP, led at the time by PJ Patterson. On September 4, in the aftermath of his party's defeat, PNP leader Dr. Peter Phillips announced that he had submitted his resignation letter.
Now that election day is over, it’s back to the stark reality of COVID-19, with many Jamaicans expecting a tightening of restrictions, especially after Minister of Health and Wellness Christopher Tufton announced at a press briefing that Jamaica has entered the “community transmission” phase of the virus:
#COVID19 Update: I am now advising the Public that Jamaica is declaring community transmission of the SARS-CoV2 virus. @christufton
— MOHW JA (@themohwgovjm) September 4, 2020
How the country's drastically changed political landscape will shape up under the burden of the pandemic's second wave remains to be seen.

author: Emma Lewis


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COVID-19 leaves Indian tea workers struggling for survival · Global Voices
Rezwan

A plantation worker plucking tea in Kerala, India. Image via Flickr by Neil Faz. CC BY-NC 2.0
India, the fifth largest economy in the world, has suffered immensely during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The unemployment rate increased to 24 percent in May, leaving day labourers — like those who tend the country's tea plantations — facing poverty and hunger due to the scarcity of work and the lack of government assistance.
By April, many of them went back to work despite the country's COVID-19 restrictions, even though there were not enough healthcare or safety measures in place for their protection.
India is one of the world's largest tea producers. Two regions in particular, Assam and West Bengal, together produce over 70 percent of the country's tea. The industry is the second largest provider of formal sector employment in India, providing jobs for more than a million families on tea estates. A startling 70 percent of these workers are women, who are paid very low wages and made to work in appalling conditions.
As a result, the majority of them lead a life without dignity — a plight depicted in the #TruthAboutTea campaign series on YouTube by the non-profit Oxfam India. Even before the pandemic, the series claims, they had been living in unsanitary conditions, barely surviving on dirt-cheap wages with little or no access to healthcare and education systems:
According to the video, on average, a plantation worker walks 16 kilometres and carries 24 kilograms of tea leaves every day, only to earn a daily wage of about 150 Indian rupees (INR) daily. That's the equivalent of two United States dollars (USD), after 13 hours of work. Only 87 percent of workers receive the maximum salary of INR 4,500 (US $61) per month.
Some labourers work barefoot and only a small percentage of them are provided with protective gear like gloves, masks and boots. Women are sometimes forced to return to work mere days after giving birth and there are not enough well functioning creche facilities for babies. There are also lack of toilets on the tea plantations, and many labourers do not have one at home either.
The human cost of tea production in India is high; deprived of basic rights, workers and their families say they feel like slaves to the tea garden owners.
As India entered the first phase of its COVID-19 lockdown on March 25, many tea plantations ceased operation. By April 4, however, the Indian Tea Association had written to the state government asking for the “resumption of normal operations in tea gardens while adhering to the prescribed safety and social distancing guidelines”.
Concerned about the economic effects, journalist Pratim Ranjan Bose questioned the lockdown measures, but also noted the “stigma on the plantation sector with respect to sanitation, health and hygiene issues among labourers”.
Nevertheless, state administrations permitted some plantations to resume operations as early as April 10. By the time the third phase of the lockdown arrived (May 4-17), tea plantations were allowed to operate normally, even though the healthcare facilities supporting them were ill-equipped to manage COVID-19 patients.
Trade unions in North India's tea gardens soon began filing police complaints over lockdown violations, but at that time people were more concerned about the economy than about the wellbeing of tea workers.
Harihar Nagbansi, a community correspondent from VideoVolunteers whose family works and lives on the Bhatkawa tea estate in West Bengal, reported:
While the whole country is under lockdown to combat coronavirus, work continues as is in the tea estates of [the] Alipurduar district of West Bengal. These estates are in such far off areas that information regarding the virus has not reached everyone and they are willing to work without any protective [gear]. Quite obviously, the tea garden owners also don’t care what this pandemic will do to these workers.
As at the time of publication, COVID-19 cases in India have surpassed four million — nearly 0.3% of its total population.
In West Bengal, there are around 174,659 cases, with 3452 deaths; Assam has approximately 121,224 cases, with 345 deaths — but there is no available information on how many tea plantation workers have contracted COVID-19 to date.
According to a report coming out of an initiative jointly undertaken by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Indian Tea Association (ITA), plantation workers in these two regions had successfully managed to keep COVID-19 out of the tea gardens until the third week of May. The initiative involved enrolling the workers into mandatory hygiene programmes in order to improve their standards of sanitation.
In another video report, this time from the Madhu Tea Garden in North Bengal, Nagbansi said the tea plantation workers are not being provided with the minimum 100 days of work stipulated in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
With life made even more difficult because of the COVID-19 restrictions, the workers organised a protest on June 29, demanding to be provided with 200 days of work and an increase in payment to INR 600 (US $8) per day:
However, Indian tea plantation workers have been protesting against low wages for the past few years without any success.
A February 2019 research study titled ‘A cup full of woes’, in which Subhashri Sarkar and Reji Bhuvanendran examine the pay scale of tea labourers, revealed that the Indian tea industry is in crisis.
Stiff competition, increases in the cost of production, and the closing down of several tea plantations due to a decrease in demand has resulted in huge losses that hamper the industry's sustainability.
Compounding the issue of unfair wages is a myriad of factors, including a lack of interest from management, failure to implement state laws and the absence of effective monitoring by the central government.
In the meantime, COVID-19 rates continue to climb.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Rezwan


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Julian Assange supporters rally to defeat extradition to United States · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Free Julian Assange graffiti in London March 2020 – Photo courtesy Flickr user Duncan C (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Time is fast running out to get justice for Julian Assange. The court hearing for his extradition to the United States continues in earnest on 7 September 2020 in the United Kingdom. The ongoing campaign to free the Wikileaks founder has ramped up in recent weeks.
Wikileaks was launched in 2006. It has published leaked and classified information from the U.S. government and other sources. Major instances include the Afghanistan and Iraq War Logs, and Cablegate. Assange collaborated with US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning on these leaks.
Eight years ago Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and was imprisoined in the United Kingdom’s Belmarsh Prison for breaching bail. The extradition case relates to indictments for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and espionage. He has been accused by the American government of putting lives at risk.
One hundred and sixty-nine journalists and academics recently sent a letter to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on him to bring an end to the proceeding. It followed a fresh US extradition request with amended charges:
The extradition to the US of a publisher and journalist, for engaging in journalistic activities while in Europe, would set a very dangerous precedent.
The Official Australian Website in Support of Julian Assange has published an interview with Andrew Fowler, Aussie investigative journalist and foreign correspondent. He raised concerns about Assange’s health:
It seems quite clear that there is an attempt by the British and US administrations to destroy Assange, either driving him to suicide or a psychological breakdown.
[…] The ultimate purpose of Assange’s treatment is a warning to others. Particularly other journalists. It’s the modern day equivalent of crucifixion, putting heads of enemies on spikes, or public hangings.
Many see this as a ‘show trial’, including the World Socialist Web Site. After the last hearing in mid-August, it argued:
[…] the US government has been building its extradition case and expanding the scope of its vendetta against all those who have helped WikiLeaks bring the truth to the people of the world.
The WSWS also called out the mainstream media for its inaction:
It is significant that not a single major news organization in the US even bothered to report the hearing yesterday.
In a recent post at OffGuardian, Binoy Kampmark attacked the British legal system for their treatment of Assange:
What awaits Assange next month promises to be resoundingly ugly. He will have to ready himself for more pain, applied by Judge Vanessa Baraitser. Throughout her steering of proceedings, Baraitser has remained chillingly indifferent to Assange’s needs, a model of considered cruelty.
Supporters can take their pick of a number of petitions that have been circulating online for some time. Amnesty International has one:
The right to freedom of expression and access to information must be protected.
Sign our petition to urge the US authorities to drop the charges against Julian Assange that stem solely from his publishing activities with Wikileaks https://t.co/derRZpt4Ba pic.twitter.com/GmELTNw9uw
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) August 30, 2020
Brisbane Assange Action Queensland has been promoting a campaign to involve Australian parliamentarians, believing it’s not too late to lobby them:
We want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all the latest Australian MPs Standing UP & Speaking OUT for #JulianAssange because his human rights and Free Speech Rights are OURS!
There are now 24! (of 225)
CALL your MP tomorrow & ask to join the group#auspol2020 https://t.co/3IwOfZSECU
— Brisbane Assange Action Queensland (@ActionAssange) September 2, 2020
The UK-based Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign has an extensive collection of materials and videos and their own petition. They have an detailed document canvassing the issues here.
Australian Phillip Adams has a petition with over 500,000 signatures so far. He also has an updated list of protests. Australian rallies include Darwin, Sydney, Brisbane and Hobart. Among the protests planned internationally are Mexico City, Hamburg and San Francisco:
Pls join live in San Francisco this Monday to protest the start of Julian Assange’s Extradition Hearing in solidarity with global #Candles4Assange – Any actions big or small help #FreeAssange #YellowRibbons4Assange #cloversforassange @action_4assange @MrsC_Assange @StellaMoris1 pic.twitter.com/Qjb5HVCWzu
— Jeanie Schmidt ? (@JeaniRN) September 2, 2020
Sputnik News interviewed Juan Passarelli, director of the new documentary The War on Journalism: The Case of Julian Assange. He worked with Wikileaks for ten years.
There is an increasingly dangerous authoritarianism growing in the West, where people are being surveilled to a much greater extent than than the Germany Stazi ever was able to achieve, because of our digital spying apparatuses that we have in our pockets called smartphones.
Julian’s partner Stella Morris is raising money to fund his defence. Her CrowdJustice page has the latest update:
The outcome of this case has huge repercussions for press freedom. It is the first time a publisher has been charged under the Espionage Act. It would be the first time any foreign journalist is prosecuted and extradited to the US for publishing truths they didn’t like.
Guatemalan lawyer Renata Avila (a member of the Global Voices community) shared her concerns:
#Australia failed Julian #Assange. It should be a scandal to the entire Nation that one of their most courageous and notable thinkers, a journalist and technologist, is locked under harsh conditions. The Australian gov must advocate for his release.
— Renata Avila (@avilarenata) September 3, 2020
Assange campaigner Monique Jolie tweeted this plea to Australians:
To Aussies everywhere,
please contact Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne: https://t.co/80rzp0F9An
and Prime Minister Scott Morrison: https://t.co/cRLuJgboam
Ask them to demand an end to any attempt to extradite #JulianAssange and then to #BringAssangeHome!! #auspol pic.twitter.com/rKOXcGRDuk
— ??Monique Jolie #TeamAssange⌛?? (@moniquejolie) September 3, 2020
We can certainly expect #FreeJulianAssange and #BringAssangeHome to be trending on social media during the court hearing, which could take a long as four weeks.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Myanmar activist poet convicted for protesting against internet shutdown · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Maung Saungkha on the day of his conviction. Photo by Radio Free Asia Burmese. Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. https://www.rfa.org.
A local Myanmar court has convicted poet and activist Maung Saungkha for violating the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law.
Maung Saungkha, a co-founder of the research-based free expression advocacy group Athan, was charged in relation to a June 21 protest in Yangon City which featured the unfurling of a banner that read: “Is the internet being shut down to hide war crimes and killing people?”
Maung Saungkha appeared at six hearings between July 7 and August 21. A police officer testified against him, saying the activist had organized a protest without informing authorities. His sentencing was announced on September 4, when he was asked by the court to choose between serving a 15-day jail term or paying a fine of 30,000 Kyat (US$22.50). He opted for the latter.
Court implied a fine of the 30,000 MMK or 15-day imprisonment sentence to me today for organizing a campaign demanding an end to internet shutdown in Rakhine and Chin States. Thank you everyone for your support ✊@pen_int @HRWBurma @amnesty @article19asia @accessnow @athan_info pic.twitter.com/wHOJXRzdxg
— Maung Saungkha (@maung_saungkha) September 4, 2020
June 21 marked one year since internet and communication networks were restricted in Myanmar's Rakhine state following clashes between the Myanmar military and an ethnic armed group. Local telecom operators said they were directed by authorities to restrict 3G service in the area until October 2020.
Athan and other civil society groups have been petitioning the government to restore full internet connectivity in Rakhine, especially as local residents need to access vital public health information about COVID-19.
In an email to Human Rights Watch on August 12, Maung Saungkha had bemoaned the continued use of laws that undermine freedom of expression:
I don’t see any signs or attempts to improve the freedom of expression in Myanmar. In my opinion, the government prosecutes people for protesting against the internet shutdown because it still wants to have the internet cut off in those areas.
Myanmar’s ruling party, the National League for Democracy, came to power in 2015 in a landslide victory. It was led by prominent opposition figures in the democracy movement which fiercely opposed the military dictatorship.
Maung Saungkha’s conviction is another indicator of the NLD’s failure to reverse the policies used by the previous military government to stifle dissent.
According to Athan’s research, 91 criminal complaints under the Peaceful Assembly Law have been filed against activists, students, and peaceful protestors since 2015.
Ismail Wolff, regional director of Fortify Rights, emphasized that Maung Saungkha should not have been prosecuted for simply protesting against a policy of the government:
Maung Saungkha may not be in prison this time around but he should never have been arrested in the first place or faced trial simply for defending human rights. These arrests and convictions are part of a systematic attempt to silence those who speak out against human rights abuses.

author: Mong Palatino


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For Asian activists, boycotting Disney’s ‘Mulan’ says no to China’s nationalist propaganda, censorship and police brutality · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Detail from an image by Badiucao. Used with permission.
Activists from a number of Asian countries are calling for the boycott of the film “Mulan,” released by Disney on September 4, on the grounds that production's lead actor, Liu Yi Fei, has publicly expressed support for the police crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong.
The latest release from Disney, “Mulan” is an adaptation of “The Ballad of Mulan,” a story from Chinese folklore, in which Hua Mulan, an ancient Chinese heroine from AD 386-534, disguises herself as a man so that her ailing aged father would not have to serve in the army.
The action drama, a live-action version of the animated film released by Disney in 1998, was originally scheduled for release in March 2020 but was delayed due to the global outbreak of COVID-19. On September 4 it was released on both the Disney+ streaming service as is also scheduled for theatrical release in regions currently unaffected by the pandemic.
Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong called publicly for a boycott, with #boycottMulan becoming the most popular hashtag on Hong Kong Twitter on September 5. The boycott soon spread to other Asian countries, including Taiwan and Thailand, members of the newly formed pro-democracy Milk Tea Alliance, a regional netizen network dedicated to counteracting Chinese trolls and nationalist commentators on social media.
Prominent Hong Kong activist and politician Joshua Wong was among the first to call for a boycott:
Hong Kongers disapprove Cop Backer @yifei_cc and Blackface @DonnieYenCT. That’s why we are calling for freedom-loving peoples everywhere to #BoycottMulan.#Mulan #MilkTeaAlliance pic.twitter.com/lp0iZWYg4R
— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 ? (@joshuawongcf) September 5, 2020
“Mulan”‘s lead actor Lui Yifei was born in China and emigrated to the U.S in 1997, at the age of 10. She returned back to China in 2002 and began starring in local television dramas.
At the peak of last year's anti-China extradition protests in Hong Kong, Lui shared a graphic on the Weibo social media platform that was shared by China's state-funded People's Daily newspaper. The graphic, posted on August 14, 2019, featured the quote: “I support Hong Kong police. You can beat me now. What a shame for Hong Kong.” Hong Kong activists believe the graphic to be part of a propaganda campaign designed to present an image of protesters as perpetrators of violence, in preparation for the brutal police crackdowns that were to follow.
Screen capture of Lui Yifei's Weibo post.
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping placed ideological struggle as at the top of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) top agenda in 2012, in addition to the imposing of heavy censorship on all forms of media, celebrities have been pressured to spread patriotic messages and propaganda on social media. Participating in Chinese state propaganda has become a common path for actors, both Chinese and non-Chinese, who wish to forge successful careers on the large and lucrative Chinese entertainment scene.
The other lead actor in “Mulan”, Donnie Yen, has also projected a pro-Beijing public image on social media. As activist lawyer Kevin Yan noted on Twitter:
Actually Donnie Yen is worse than Liu Yifei. At least Liu can be said to have spent years behind the Great Firewall after returning to China from America for her career. Donnie Yen’s career actually benefited from being in a city that enjoyed artistic freedom. #BoycottMulan https://t.co/G9uMOTXwe3
— Kevin Yam 任建峰 (@kevinkfyam) September 5, 2020
In Thailand, student activist Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal invited Thai netizens to join the #boycottmulan campaign.
“I would like to invite everybody to #BoycottMulan, #BanMulan, so that Disney and the Chinese government realize that state violence against the people is something that cannot be accepted.” https://t.co/fexXKFEZe7
— Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal (@NetiwitC) September 4, 2020
A boycott call posted by a community of movie-lovers in Taiwan's Taichung City on September 4 has been shared over 7,500 times. The hashtag #boycottMulan has also been trending in Taiwan over the weekend of September 5.
#BoycottMulan trending in Taiwan as film premiershttps://t.co/9g12fXMh4b pic.twitter.com/nNb60qc8Q4
— Taiwan News (@TaiwanNews886) September 6, 2020
Australia-based political cartoonist Badiucao took the opportunity to urge corporations to stop abetting Chinese censorship and ideological control in exchange for market access:
#BoycottMulan
if u support universal human rights,
if u hate police brutality,
If u believe artists, actors/actresses and companies shall carry social responsibilities,
if u respect Asians and refuse seeing us as money mining market and tokens.
Boycott #Mulan pic.twitter.com/lUE3pCM7WN
— 巴丢草 Badiucao (@badiucao) September 5, 2020
In recent years, global corporations such as Apple, Disney, HSBC and others have been heavily criticized for caving in to unreasonable censorship or political loyalty performance demands by the Chinese government. As JS, an editor at Lausan, an online journal devoted to exploring social movements in Chinese-speaking regions, has pointed out, Chinese government norms not only undermine the value of human rights across civic and business sectors, they also help China reinvent and promote Han-centric ethnic nationalism in the global market:
#BoycottMulan seems like a simple gesture, but its actually really rad. What we're boycotting is the Western commercialization (Disney) of Chinese nationalism / Han supremacy, which points to how intertwined and convoluted the interests of global capital really is.
— js (@organizejs) September 4, 2020

author: Oiwan Lam


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Surveillance in Lebanon: A crisis of privacy · Global Voices
Global Voices MENA

Graffiti art of surveillance camera. Published and labeled for reuse on Pixabay.
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 wave of uprisings that shook the Middle East starting in 2011 have fallen victim to the very same factor that initially served as their catalyst—technology.
One of the places where this has occurred is Lebanon, whose citizens today face serious technological threats to their freedoms, and where intrusions on citizens’ privacy are pervasive and often conducted without proper judicial oversight.
Tensions between citizens and the government intensified during the October Revolution protests—which began in 2019 and are ongoing—when protestors who were detained raised the issue of security agencies seizing protestors’ phones and demanding the passwords to unlock them. Although some perceive the protest movement to be anti-austerity, the protesters’ wide range of demands point to a revolutionary goal of redefining Lebanon's sectarian political system, which is plagued by patronage, partisanship, duplicity and poor governance, amongst other issues. Along with pressing for women’s rights, a stable economy, the provision of jobs and public services, demands have also touched upon online freedoms, such as: “I want to tweet without being arrested”.
Lebanese security agencies are also known for their use of invasive spyware. The Lookout and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published a report in 2018 which revealed the existence of “hundreds of gigabytes of exfiltrated data” that violated the very basic privacy rights of Lebanese citizens. Perhaps the most shocking of the report's allegations was the assertion that the global cyber espionage crusade called “Dark Caracal” that has targeted 21 countries since 2012, an advanced persistent threat-level (APT) level global campaign, was believed to be “administered out of a building belonging to the Lebanese General Security Directorate in Beirut. APT groups are organizations that spearhead “attacks on a country’s information assets of national security or strategic economic importance through either cyberespionage or cybersabotage” and also prey on megabusinesses. They generally avail themselves of various mechanisms to extract important data/intelligence on white-collar crimes, including the acquisition of ransom or cyber vandalism.
Given its consumerist and proxy nature, the spyware program that has spanned more than 20 states and external (non-state) catalysts has been deemed “government surveillance as a paid service.” It has been alleged that Dark Caracal, using simple hackware and age-old ‘phishing’ tricks, has been able to invade fully encrypted correspondence on social media applications, including Whatsapp.
Some argue that surveillance technology prevents crime and helps maintain law and order and low-intensity discipline, including in domains such as education. But some human rights activists claim that the surveillance program was used to target thousands of people, including activists and journalists.
A statement refuting the EFF report was issued by Lebanese General Security Directorate (GDGS) Director-General Abbas Ibrahim, who is known as “the eyes and ears of the Lebanese state.” Ibrahim said that “General Security does not have these type of capabilities. We wish we had these capabilities.”
Rights groups have also previously documented the directorate’s use of the spyware FinFisher. FinFisher possesses the capability to wiretap various social media applications —including Whatsapp, Viber and Skype—and access private details, including location, passwords, call log, text messages, files, photos, videos and calendar events.
The legal aspects of surveillance regulation are a conundrum in itself and have been interpreted in various ways. The Telecommunication Interception Act of 27 December 1999, more commonly known as Law 140/1999, upholds the privacy of Lebanese citizens, barring in emergencies, such as criminal activity. Article 14 of the Lebanese Constitution ordains that “The citizen's place of residence is inviolable. No one may enter it except in the circumstances and manners prescribed by law.”
Even so, it is not to be taken for granted that a “citizen’s place of residence” is a separate entity from a citizen’s intangible presence and privacy on their electronic devices. These two domains are yet to be connected—or distinguished from each other—in the eyes of Lebanese law. For many people who find themselves attached to their phones in a country where the majority of the population uses the internet, the digital realm is, in fact, a home of sorts. Legal protection for privacy should be expanded to include one’s electronic devices and online communications, rather than just one’s “residence.”
According to Article 14, a “judicial or administrative order” has to be decreed to allow the surveillance of communications. This ruling is ineffective as a means of keeping the intelligence agencies accountable and in check, because they come directly under the authority of the Ministry of Interior, which also possesses the authority to sanction interception.
Article 9 of the Interception Act ordains that administrative approval can be given by the Minister of Interior or the Minister of Defence, after the Prime Minister ratifies the act and manner of the interception. This type of investigation, which cannot exceed a period of two months, can only be allowed in exceptional circumstances, such as to combat terrorism, organized crime or security threats to the state. The loophole, however, is that any of these crimes can easily be associated with activists or dissidents.
Meanwhile, activists and common citizens can try to protect their online privacy by downloading digital safety software such as Detekt and by reporting abnormalities to the authorities. Naturally, however, the latter is useless if the authorities themselves are involved in extrajudicial surveillance and breach of privacy.
Lebanon has historically maintained its reputation as a country that is more liberal than other Arab nations. In what seems to be a wave of efforts by state agencies grappling with, or denying, digital privacy, interference with online human rights is a concern.
To fundamentally secure digital rights, old laws will have to be amended or new laws created to limit intrusions on citizens’ privacy and to allow for strong independent oversight of surveillance practices  Only then will the citizenry be assured of genuine digital privacy, freedom and security.

author: Global Voices MENA


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French media ignores minority role models during COVID-19 coverage · Global Voices
Eric Tevoedjre

A boy wears a mask while being held by his father. Photo by Xavier Donat via Flickr under CC BY-NC-ND 2.5.
Fifteen years ago a best-seller by sociologist Eric Maurin, “Le Ghetto Français,” described the processes responsible for the social and geographical segregation characterizing French society.
Is French TV replicating the same processes? Often accused of segregation against minorities, especially Black people, French TV has not corrected itself. Coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic is a case in point.
On March 12, a record 35 million people watched president Emmanuel Macron explain that he had decided to impose a nation-wide lockdown to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Almost immediately, major TV networks began to organize lengthy debates featuring doctors, researchers, and public health specialists from the most reputable hospitals, schools or laboratories in France, Switzerland, and the USA. Millions of citizens held their breath as these experts conveyed, day after day, key information that would assuage our fears and potentially save lives.
While informative, these daily debates revealed a sad and painful truth: In today's ethnically diverse France, people who appeared on TV because they were deemed uniquely qualified to explain global crises and suggest solutions to the world's problems had the same skin color. They were all White.
Coincidentally, in its annual report on the fight against racism, antisemitism and xenophobia by the French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNDH), one of its major 2020 recommendations are as follows:
The CNCDH calls on the Higher council for the audiovisual sector (CSA) to encourage representation of black men and women, including in advisory roles.
The recommendation only confirms what dozens of articles, papers and websites had been denouncing for several years now—that too often, French TV networks fail to present minority personalities in positive, leadership positions. This is significant because television has the power to manufacture role models and thus empower young people of all origins.
France, a former colonial power, is well aware that it needs to do a better job of promoting and integrating minority people.
A 2013 study by Catherine Ghosn compared minority representation on American, Belgian, British, Canadian and French TV. Ghosn noted that French policies in this area are much less effective and efficient than for all the other countries in the study.
In 2007, scholar Catherine Humblot observed that although France has shown progress in its portrayal of minorities, much remains to be done. She explains, for example, that it was only in 2006 that a major French channel took the bold decision to have Black journalist, Harry Roselmack, present primetime news—and that was only on an interim basis. In comparison, that same year, according to Dutch journalist, Stefan de Vries, the first Black woman to present the news on Dutch TV entered retirement.
Late last year, Judy Woodruff, host of PBS Newshour, a US-based program, introduced a young African-American biomedical engineer named Elizabeth Wayne in these terms:
More than half the children in American schools are students of color, but their teachers are overwhelmingly white. [Tonight] we hear from an African-American biomedical engineer on why it is so important to see ourselves in front of the classroom.
Dr. Elizabeth Wayne had a powerful experience at graduate school when she attended a conference featuring a speaker who was a Black woman. Wayne explained:
I had never realized that I had never had someone who looked like me, teaching me. … I have always thought that seeing is believing …
Wayne's discovery was published and later discussed in over 700 articles. She says that some of the e-mails she received were from people who told her: “I have never seen a Black woman in a lab coat being pictured as having contributed to a major discovery.”
Is the problem in France perhaps of a different nature? Could it be that France has too few minority specialists from the medical profession? Probably not. In 2007, the French daily Libération quoted  United Nations official Habib Ouane, who said: “There are more Beninese physicians in Ile-de-France alone than in Benin itself!”
And Journalist Majed Nehme wrote last April:
French health care system is increasingly benefiting from the massive influx of sub-Saharan African health professionals coming especially from Senegal, Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, Congo and all French-speaking countries.
There may well be a sinister reason why minorities, especially Black people, are constantly cast in specific stereotypical roles on French TV. Of course, great minority role models in entertainment are essential and minority youth often look up to them, knowing they can one day be an Oscar winner or Olympic legend. But what about promising minority young scientists who could help discover the next cure?
The media—especially TV—plays a significant role in how individuals see themselves. Television can help create positive minority role models for children, helping them reach beyond what they ever thought possible.
We’ve all heard the story of “the eagle who lived like a chicken”: After falling from his nest, an eaglet lands in a chicken farm where he is quickly adopted by the chicks. He grows up thinking he is a chicken. One day he meets an older eagle who teaches him to fly and helps him develop his true potential.
The politics of continuous and systematic segregation on the part of French TV will not only prevent the emergence of positive minority role models but may well exacerbate social tensions by consolidating old ghettos.

author: Eric Tevoedjre


text:
How indigenous women in Canada heal through art · Global Voices
Sabrina Velandia

“Fringe”, by artist Rebecca Belmore. Photo taken by the author at the Exhibit “Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental“, at Montreal's Musée d'art Contemporain in 2019
In the Canadian winter of 2002, passers-by walking through Vancouver’s Downtown East Side could see Rebecca Belmore, from the Indigenous Anishinaabe Nation, nailing her long red dress to a telephone pole. She struggled to free herself, and then once released, her dress hanging in tatters and her underwear exposed, she silently read the names of the missing women that she had written on her arm. She concluded her performance by shouting the names one by one.
Belmore is a multidisciplinary artist, and this is part of her work, called “Vigil”. Through it, she commemorates the lives of the missing and murdered Indigenous women who have disappeared from the streets of Vancouver. She wants “to let each woman know that she is not forgotten: her spirit is evoked, and she is given life by the power of naming”.
The performance, now shown in a video in Belmore's exhibits, may surprise distracted observers, but the reality is that in Canada — frequently ranked at the top of lists rating global quality of life – Indigenous women suffer high rates of violence. In 2014, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) confirmed that 1,017 indigenous women have been murdered and that 164 have disappeared since 1980, even though indigenous women only constitute 4.3 percent of the country's female population.
“Vigil”, by artist Rebecca Belmore. Photo taken by the author at the Exhibit “Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental“, at Montreal's Musé d'art Contemporain, in 2019
Research conducted by the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) has found that aboriginal women are almost three times more likely than non-aboriginal to be killed by a stranger. Indigenous women and girls are either murdered by strangers (16.5 percent of the time), acquaintances (17 percent), or a partner (23 percent).
NWAC’s research concludes that aboriginal women experience violence by both aboriginal and non-aboriginal offenders, the vast majority of whom are men. It also reveals that only 53 percent of murder cases involving aboriginal women and girls have resulted in charges of homicide — well below the 84 percent national clearance rate for homicides in the country.
The association Quebec Native Women (QNW) has stated that before the arrival of Europeans, indigenous women played an essential role in the health, spirituality, education, economy and politics of their communities. This dynamic changed drastically through the imposition of “European patriarchy” policies, which have continued to the present.
According to researchers from various Canadian universities, such as Marie-Pierre Bousquet and Sigfrid Tremblay, systematic colonialist policies imposed by the Canadian federal government have sought to assimilate indigenous people into a Euro-Canadian lifestyle, thereby eroding native culture and identity.
One such policy is the Indian Act, in force since 1876,  which dictates how the federal government rules on matters related to indigenous people. Originally aimed at the progressive extinction of Canada's indigenous population, anthropologist Pierre Lepage says this law still affects their legal capacity and undermines their autonomy.
QNW calls this “erasure ideology”, which began with “the progressive theft of the territories” of indigenous women and forced them to go “from loss to loss” of resources, autonomy, identity, and culture.
For QNW, the consequences of colonialism include the disadvantageous socio-economic context in which indigenous women live today, which in turn leads to increased risks to their very existence. In fact, violence against indigenous women in Canada has been called genocide.
To overcome their suffering, indigenous women have denounced and resisted a colonialist, racist, and sexist system. Slowly but surely, art has become an important tool for both expression and catharsis, allowing them to reclaim an alternative, incisive, and heartbreaking version of their history while coming to terms with society's role in their current challenges as well. Here are some of their most stirring artistic expressions:
Nails — all 1181 of them — were hammered by Belmore onto a tree stump, each one representing a case of murdered and missing indigenous women recorded by police statistics.
“1181”, by artist Rebecca Belmore. Photo taken by the author in the Exhibit “Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental“, at Montreal's Musé d'art Contemporain in 2019
The artwork is a photo of a half-naked woman lying on her side, her back to the camera, on which she has a sewn scar running from her shoulder all the way down, and from which red beads, symbolic of blood, are spilling out.
Rebecca Belmore, Fringe, Cibachrome transparency in fluorescent lightbox. Installation view, Remai Modern 2019. – Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental is on view until May 5 at Remai Modern. – Join a free with admission drop-in tour of the exhibition this weekend at 1 PM on Saturday and Sunday. – Facing the Monumental is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and curated by Wanda Nanibush, Curator, Indigenous Art. – #belmoreremaimodern #fringe #rebeccabelmore #yxe #saskatoon
A post shared by  Remai Modern (@remaimodern) on
Belmore says of the piece, “[I]t’s the body that doesn’t disappear.” In her work, the artist often depicts the female body with healing wounds, such as those carried by many survivors, to demonstrate the resilience of indigenous women.
Artist Christi Belcourt, a Métis, who is mixed race (white and indigenous), produced an installation which places about 1,763 pairs of fine beaded vamps of moccasins on the ground, each one representing a missing or murdered woman, as well as the children who never returned home after going to residential schools, responsible for the systemic separation of indigenous children from their families and culture.
A post shared by Walking With Our Sisters TO (@wwos_to) on
This installation involved the collection of 600 red dresses, a color which symbolised protection against violence, through community donations. Black, who like Belcourt is a Métis artist, wanted the work to be an aesthetic response to violence against women. Through the absence of the female bodies who should wear the dresses, she creates a visual reminder of the great number of women who are absent.
Images of the “ReDress” project. The photo on the left was taken by Jamie Black and the one on the right, by Sarah Crawley. They are used with permission.
Monkman, a Cree and Irish artist, is known for creating strong visual criticism that embeds alternative versions of colonialism's dominant narrative, all from a personal and indigenous perspective.
Through irony, Monkman denounces violence against indigenous women, including the sexual exploitation of and prejudice against those working in the sex industry. His painting “Le petit déjeuner sur l’herbe”, for example, shows naked prostitutes sprawled in front of a hotel in Winnipeg, a province where around 70 to 80 percent of street prostitution is carried out by indigenous women.
In “The Three Graces”, Monkman's version of Rubens’ homonymous painting, the goddesses of charm, beauty, and creativity are represented as three indigenous, body-diverse-women. With this piece, Monkman honors the “missing and murdered sisters”. “In Canada,” he said, “there is a lot of violence against Indigenous women […] over 1,300 missing and murdered.”
As an outspoken critic of mainstream society's lack of understanding of indigenous people, Monkman also strives to highlight the power of indigenous women's femininity, which is highly respected in indigenous tradition.
"Every year on this day, we remember our missing and murdered sisters. Our relatives on unceded Wet’suwet’en lands hung red dresses to hold the spirits of the thousands who have been lost, but never forgotten. Their camp was illegally invaded and the dresses torn down. But we remember our sisters, children, daughters, mothers, partners, aunties, friends, and grandmothers. We remember them always. The Unist’ot’en do not consent to industrial work camps on their territories. These man camps increase violence against our sisters all across our lands. Those protecting their sisters also protect the land. They do it with love, sâkihiwêwin. They do it for all of us." – Miss Chief Eagle Testickle https://unistoten.camp/mancamps/ https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/ The Three Graces Kent Monkman 2017 Acrylic on canvas 60” x 48” #MMIW #MMIWGT2S #highwayoftears #Indigenousrights #UNDRIP #WETSUWETENSTRONG
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Indigenous art is therapy for both individual and collective suffering. According to the Health and Social Services Commission, it promotes resilience and has a positive effect on identity, self-esteem, emotional well-being, and physical and mental health. Art, as an educational tool, could also serve to hold the Canadian government accountable for its policies and promote an authentic reconciliation process.

author: Sabrina Velandia


text:
We made the largest Mexican telecommunications operator stop blocking secure internet · Global Voices
Jacobo Nájera

Telemex Tower in Mexico City. Photo by Carlos Adampol Galindo/Flickr, under license CC BY-SA 2.0
In Mexico, for five years, the largest telecommunications operator blocked a way to access secure internet. Few people realized that this operator, Telmex, had become a barrier against the development of alternative technologies until a group of volunteer researchers investigated. In 2020, they succeeded in making Telmex release the block.
Blocking the free use of the internet does not only go against privacy laws but can also have a serious impact in a country where freedom of expression is threatened. For example, not being able to navigate secure internet is a problem for journalists and human rights defenders in Mexico who often risk their lives doing their job. According to Reporters without Borders, in 2002, Mexico was ranked 143 out of 180 countries in terms of freedom of the press.
Because of this, in 2016, I became a volunteer for the “Magma Project” and the “Privacy and Anonymity Mechanisms Project” of the National Autonomous University of Mexico to help people avoid censorship and maintain their privacy while using the internet, through participating in global cooperation initiatives like the Tor network. We were guided by principles that build infrastructures promoting the exercise of human rights, like freedom of expression and privacy. One of the things we did was share our internet connections to host nodes on the Tor network. For my part, I operated nodes in Canada.
The Tor network is useful to maintain a secure and anonymous internet. As I later wrote in Global Voices: “The Tor network is a free and open-source software that is used throughout the world for anonymous communication. (…) To this end, it relies on a network of more than 6,000 nodes or relays that provide worldwide anonymous routing, also known metaphorically as ‘onion routing’ because of the various layers that make up this network.”
At the end of 2015, the volunteer node operators realized—because their nodes stopped working—that the largest telecommunications company in Mexico had decided against operating the Tor network from Mexico. In 2016, the group of volunteers tried to find out from Telmex about their motive for this, but the company denied that there was a blockage policy.
Eventually, I joined the volunteers who were investigating the blockage. Once we understood that seven central IP addresses had been blocked from hosting the Tor network, we went to the Consultative Council of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT), an institution in charge of regulating the telecommunications sector, and filed our complaint about Telmex’s blocking practices. However, a year passed and the IFT failed to research the block. They did not explain what was happening, even though its own Advisory Council recognized the accuracy of our claim. They noted that it was a possible violation of net neutrality through the CC/IFT/311019/18 agreement.
As a last measure, the group of volunteers—who by now had become network forensic analysts—wrote two technical studies that were methodologically approved in academic publications. These were presented at conferences in 2018.
In 2020, we decided to tell the story on Global Voices Advox. Tor immediately made the story visible on their Twitter account:
En México, el más grande operador de telecomunicaciones bloquea Tor: “Telmex bloqueó el acceso a 7 de las autoridades directorio. En este contexto, se puede acceder a la red Tor como usuario pero no es posible la instalación de nodos.”https://t.co/tcPgIiS5ZX
— The Tor Project (@torproject) May 29, 2020
In Mexico, the largest telecommunications company has blocked Tor: “Telemex blocked access to seven of the direct ports. In this context, you can access the Tor network, but node installation is not possible.”https://t.co/tcPgIiS5ZX — The Tor Project (@torproject) May 29, 2020
After the Mexican media took up the issue, Telmex responded in May 2020. The company acknowledged that it had blocked seven IP addresses from the Tor network, with the justification that it was a mitigation measure against the Wannacry malware registered in 2017—despite the fact that the malware spread had lasted just four days.
With the group now converted into analysts, we were excited about having the news from Telmex that they recognized the block. We communicated with the company—with a cooperative attitude, some amount of understanding about their measures, and with the belief that a resolution could be reached—to inform them that if they wanted to mitigate Wannacry, they were on the wrong track and that their measures were having an impact on the exercise of rights. There were two fundamental reasons for this:
The day after the communication was sent to Telmex, the seven addresses were released from their discretionary block. The company did not explain their real motive for maintaining the barrier for almost five years, even after evidence that their earlier justification did not mesh with technical reality.
The IFT, for their part, did not research the motives behind Telemex’s block either, though the affected community and researchers had handed them studies and network analyses.
In the end, the Telmex network now has five nodes of the Tor network; these were installed after the block ended.
Some of the most notable factors essential to carrying out the research necessary to understand and remove the block measures of the largest telecommunications company in Mexico were the group effort, consensus on the research theories, and being able to count on spaces like Global Voices to air our case.
We believe that this type of blockage constitutes an overuse of power by an internet service provider and is contrary to the principles of free choice, non-discrimination, and traffic management that constitutes web neutrality, according to article 145 of the law of the Federal Telecommunications Law and Broadcasting, as well as the principles of quality of service in article 146 of the same law. This is without mentioning that it could represent interference in the free exercise of the fundamental rights of privacy and anonymity.
It’s difficult to know how much of an impact the emergence of computing and forensic analysis will have on the delivery of justice. It is also hard to determine its usefulness to show and report abuses in Latin America. Yet, there are strong indications that make it a dynamic area of work with its own threats, opportunities, and battles.

author: Jacobo Nájera


text:
What’s happening in Thailand? Youth activists rally to protect democracy, freedom of speech · Global Voices
EngageMedia

Pro-democracy protesters, led by students from the Free Youth group and the Student Union of Thailand, calling for democratic reforms on July 18, 2020, at the Democracy Monument in Bangkok. Photo and caption by Darika Bamrungchok.
This article by Darika Bamrungchok is from EngageMedia, a non-profit media, technology and culture organization. This story was edited and republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
After years of repression, censorship, and injustice under a pro-military government, thousands of protesters in Thailand are taking to the streets and to the internet to call for political changes and democratic reforms. What started as pro-democracy rallies by students in February 2020 have now evolved to countless protests led by Thai youth and students as young as 14-years-old against the pro-military government taking place almost daily in at least 55 out of 77 provinces nationwide.
This student-led pro-democracy movement is the first time in modern Thai history that the Thai monarchy had been talked about publicly in a critical way since doing so is a jailable offense. The protests, led by the Free People Movement, are demanding changes in a country with a long history of suppressing dissent. Under the overarching goal to have “a democratic form of government with the monarch under the constitution”, the movement is demanding three key changes to the current Thai government: dissolve the Parliament, re-write the military-backed constitution, and stop intimidating and arbitrarily arresting critics.
But much like recent attacks on freedom of expression online in neighbouring Philippines and Hong Kong, Thai protesters and media are increasingly being silenced by their government in both physical and digital spaces.
Just this August 26, Free People Movement leaders Tattep “Ford” Ruangprapaikitseree and Panumas “James” Singprom were arrested for their role in the July 18 anti-government rally. They have since been granted bail. A day earlier, after pressure from the Thai government, Facebook had blocked access within Thailand to the “Royalist Marketplace”, a group with over a million members where Thai citizens could discuss the monarchy. Almost immediately, however, Facebook said it was prepared to legally challenge the Thai government’s request. As of writing, a new group with the exact same name has already emerged, with over 500,000 members joining within the first day of its creation.
On top of these crackdowns, the local Thai media also cannot freely report on the state’s harassment and intimidation against protesters out of fear of being targeted by the government’s legal measures and financial backlash.
In late February 2020, the first wave of student protests across Thailand was initially triggered by the Constitutional Court’s dissolution of the pro-democracy Future Forward Party, an opposition party popular among younger voters. Soon after, the Thai government signed an emergency decree prohibiting anti-government rallies in the name of curbing the spread of COVID-19. But by June, Thais had grown even angrier at the government due to the increasing economic hardship brought on by the pandemic, the disappearance of Thai anti-government activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit in Cambodia, and the perceived failings of the justice system in the case of Vorayuth Yoovidhya [a billionaire heir accused of killing a police officer during a car crash in 2012. The case against him was dropped triggering public outcry against impunity for the rich].
This combination of grievances, along with the easing of lockdowns in the country, sparked the second wave of protests. On July 18, the Free Youth group and the Student Union of Thailand organized a peaceful rally in front of Bangkok’s Democracy Monument with over 2,000 protesters. This time, the student-led demonstrations were far more powerful and widespread, attracting a much broader cross-section of society. By August 16, more than 20,000 people repeatedly chanted, “Down with dictatorship, long live democracy”, at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument.
This new generation of Thais are also harnessing technology to organize “flash” protests, bridging the gap between online and offline activism. Partly inspired by the Hong Kong movement, the Thai movement is largely leaderless, with participants primarily using social media to protest and mobilize more people throughout the nation. Anti-government sentiments and political discontent have spread quickly on social media, with various protest hashtags emerging on Twitter. Young protesters are also using various online platforms like Tinder and TikTok to spread their protest message, often using symbols, satire, and popular culture.
But while the Thai government has maintained that people are allowed to express their dissent and desire for reform, it has increasingly harassed, detained, and initiated criminal complaints against student leaders and protesters who took part in the peaceful protests. While the government said the emergency decree’s extension to September won’t prohibit political protests, the police continue to summon protest leaders for violating the decree. This means the protesters can still be arrested for attending demonstrations, along with sedition and other repressive laws under the Thai Penal Code.
Online, the shutdown of the Royalist Marketplace group on Facebook is a clear reflection of the dangers of expressing dissent against the Thai government and monarchy on the internet. The hashtag #NoTwitterThailand topped the country’s trending page in May as Thais grow increasingly critical of the government’s online surveillance and curtailment of freedom of expression. [This is linked to the launch of Thailand's official Twitter account in May which was followed by Twitter's privacy policy changes. This led many Thai activists to suspect about an intensified government surveillance].
Local media has also opened up about systematic censorship when it came to any coverage critical of the Thai monarchy.
Between August 17 and 19, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) documented 103 cases where students have been harassed or prevented from speaking their minds, including making the three-fingered salute, wearing white ribbons, or holding pieces of blank paper.
When Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan tried to get on the stage to speak, @BadStudent chanted at him:
“Get in line. Get in line. Get in line.” #WhatsHappeningInThailand #ผูกโบว์ขาวต้านเผด็จการ #เลิกเรียนไปกระทรวง pic.twitter.com/l5KNPtOJdy
— Thisrupt (@Thisruptdotco) August 19, 2020
At least 13 activists, including human rights lawyer Anon Nampa and two rappers, were arrested with the sedition charge, and they each could face prison sentences of up to seven years if convicted.
At the time of writing, all were later released on bail. However, some activists have been tailed by security officers in plain clothes, and they believe that there is a list of 31 people that the police seek to arrest for speaking onstage. Because many of the protesters are students, there is increasing concern about the potential targeting of schoolchildren and young people amid the ongoing protests.

author: EngageMedia


text:
At least 15 students were ‘impregnated by instructors’ in Mozambican police academy, internal report says · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

Photo showing the completion of the police training course in Mozambique | screen shot, 19 August,  STV – Youtube, taken by the author.
A document from the Mozambican Police (PRM) that has leaked in local media in early August revealed that 15 students had become pregnant at a police training school in Matalane, a district of Maputo province.
The document states that the pregnancies resulted from the students’ sexual relations with their instructors, without specifying whether these relations were consensual.
Moreover, it states that pregnant students will not be able to complete the course at present, and will have their trips back to their home provinces paid for by the police. Finally, it says that the instructors involved will be “suspended.”
When asked about the case by the newspaper O País on August 8, Police Commander General Bernardino Rafael said that those involved would face disciplinary proceedings.
It did not take long before the case was widely condemned on social media. Several users publicly expressed their disapproval of the school's measures, as well as demanding justice for the women.
Activist Fátima Mimbire wrote on Facebook:
Tratem o assunto Matalane com a devida seriedade. Estou de coração partido com esta notícia de 15 instruendas grávidas no Centro de Treinos de Matalane. Isso é grave. É grave porque, como o próprio documento refere, envolve os instrutores.
Ora, uma pessoa que detém autoridade sobre outra a engravida e o fim é um “processinho”? Isso me lembra o professor que exige sexo às alunas em troca de notas ou para não serem humilhada na sala de aulas por serem, na visão do professor, “burras”, no lugar de ser processado é transferido para ir dar aulas em outro lugar. E lá, continua as suas façanhas.
Treat the Matalane issue with the appropriate seriousness. I am heartbroken by this news of 15 pregnant students at the Matalane Training Centre. This is serious. It is serious because, as the document itself states, it involves the instructors.
Now, one person who holds authority over another gets them pregnant, and the outcome is a “little process”? This reminds me of the teacher who demanded sex from students in exchange for grades or not to be humiliated in class because, in the teacher's view, they were “dumb”, instead of being prosecuted he was transferred to teach somewhere else. And there, he continues his exploits.
Txeka, a women's activist collective, also condemned the affair on Twitter:
“Caso de Matalane”
A edificação de uma sociedade de justiça social, na defesa de igualdade de direitos os cidadãos, passa por uma politica de educação e formação equilibrada, valorizando a formação dos cidadãos, com preparação científica e educação moral, cívica e patriótica. pic.twitter.com/fiMoyq3DOW
— Txeka (@TxekaMoz) August 10, 2020
“The Matalane case”
Building a society of social justice, in defence of equal rights for citizens, requires a balanced education and development policy, valuing the development of citizens, with scientific knowledge and moral, civic and patriotic education.
Caso Matalane
A culpabilização da violência contra a mulher é uma prática comum nas sociedades machistas/patriarcais, conhecidas pela desvalorização da mulher e submissão às vontades do homem, causando julgamentos acerca da conduta da vítima, atenuando a conduta do agressor. pic.twitter.com/OGbrfeOUVa
— Txeka (@TxekaMoz) August 11, 2020
The Matalane case
Blaming violence on women is a common practice in chauvinist/patriarchal societies, known for devaluing women and submission to the wishes of men, resulting in judgements about the victim's conduct and minimizing the aggressor's conduct.
University Professor Carlos Serra said:
Matalane? Apenas a ponta do Iceberg, somos formatados para reproduzir Matalane. Imagino o dia em que elas começarem a narrar as suas histórias, começando pela mais tenra infância.
Matalane? Just the tip of the Iceberg, we are programmed to reproduce Matalane. I imagine the day they start telling their stories, starting from the tenderest childhood.
It was similar for the journalist and activist Selma Inocência:
Poucos professores são levados à justiça, julgados e condenados. São responsáveis pela infância perdida de milhares de meninas. A escola não é segura.
Estatísticas revelam que centenas de meninas são engravidadas na escola, parte delas por tutores, professores, directores.” pic.twitter.com/Q8F0LPbbpw
— Txeka (@TxekaMoz) August 13, 2020
Few teachers are brought to court, tried and sentenced. They are responsible for the lost childhood of thousands of girls. School is not safe.
Statistics reveal that hundreds of girls get pregnant at school, some by tutors, teachers, headmasters”.
A petition is also running demanding punishment for the police officers involved. So far, over 3,800 people have signed it.
On August 19, President Filipe Nyusi finally spoke about the case, saying it will be investigated by the police:
Para o Governo, este caso é sério e está a ser investigado ao detalhe ao nível ministerial e do Comando-Geral da Polícia da República de Moçambique. O Estado não deve nem vai tolerar situações como esta. A lei deverá ser cumprida e ela é igual para todos nós. Ninguém está acima da lei.
Decorrem inquéritos para aferir os contornos de cada um dos casos, procurando salvaguardar o estado psíquico e emocional das gestantes, porque elas merecem respeito humano.
For the government, this case is serious and is being investigated in detail at ministerial level and by the General Police Command of the Republic of Mozambique. The state should not and will not tolerate situations like this. The law must be upheld and it is the same for all of us. Nobody is above the law.
Investigations are underway to assess the details of each case, seeking to safeguard the psychological and emotional state of the pregnant women, because they deserve humane respect
This adds to the cases of violence faced by Mozambican women, most of which go unreported by media.
Among the cases that have recently captured media attention is that of Alberto Niquice, deputy for the party Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo), who's facing criminal charges for raping a 13-year-old child in 2018.
Early this year, 30 Mozambican civil society organizations demanded the suspension of Niquice's inauguration, who was re-elected in 2019. However, the deputy took office and is working as normal in the Assembly of the Republic.
Another case covered in the press was the case of domestic violence suffered by Josina Machel, daughter of Mozambique's first president, Samora Machel.
In October 2015, Josina was assaulted by her partner of three years, Rofino Licuco, leaving her blind in one eye. Licuco was sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in prison, as well as to pay 300 million meticais (about US$4.2 million) in compensation to Josina.
However, Rofino appealed the sentence and, in June this year, the High Court of Appeals overturned it on the grounds that there was “insufficient evidence” in the case.

author: Dércio Tsandzana


text:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brazilian gravediggers face increased prejudice · Global Voices
Agência Mural

Vila Formosa Cemetery is the largest in São Paulo | Image:: Léu Britto/Agência Mural
This story was written by Lucas Veloso. It is published here under a content partnership between Global Voices and Agência Mural.
Open graves, coffins and relatives’ tears are part of the work routine of James Alan Gomes, a resident of Cidade Tiradentes in eastern São Paulo, Brazil. He is one of the more than 400 gravediggers that work in the city's public cemeteries.
James has been working as a gravedigger in São Paulo for over five years, a profession which is often met with prejudice. “There are people today who appreciate it, seeing that our work has increased, but there are others who avoid getting close to us because they think we're infected,” he says, commenting on the increase in burials due to COVID-19.
In Brazil's largest city, the new coronavirus pandemic had killed 9,883 people by August 2, and another 5,783 deaths are still being investigated to determine if they were caused by the disease. This would would increase the number to over 15,666. Brazil is currently the country with the second highest number of deaths from the disease with 94,702 deaths, behind only the US.
These numbers directly impact the lives of those who work with death every day, like gravediggers. In Vila Nova Cachoeirinha in northern São Paulo, Geraldo* says he has always suffered prejudice because he works in cemeteries, but with the pandemic, it got worse. “I always got comments and such, and now it's even more [frequent]”, he said.
As well as prejudice, the amount of work has also been an extra challenge. “The schedule is difficult due to the increase in burials, it gets a bit more tiring for us,” Gomes remarked. “We've always had a hectic schedule, but with COVID-19 it's intensified.
Work in Vila Formosa has become more intense since the beginning of the pandemic | Image: Léu Britto/Agência Mural
Gomes works in the largest cemetery in Latin America, Vila Formosa. Due to the increased numbers, 8,000 new graves have been installed on the site between April 19 and June (the city council built 5,000 more graves in other public cemeteries).
According to São Paulo's city council, in the Vila Nova Cachoeirinha cemetery alone about 2,000 ditches were dug and in São Luís, in the south, about 3,000. Another change was the capacity for burials, increased to 400 per day. The historical average is 240 burials per day in summer and 300 in winter.
Gomes also feels the pain of families who have lost loved ones. Many lament the lack of care for relatives with the disease. “I hear here from many [families] that they died because they didn't take this pandemic seriously,” he said.
The saddest day, he recalls, was when he saw a father who had buried his nine-month-old daughter and, two weeks later, returned to bury his wife — both because of COVID-19.
On top of everything else, the risks of his work cause even more fear. “No matter how much we use PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), with one oversight we can get infected,” he said.
The aunt of Ronaldo Cavalcante, 43, a self-employed resident of Jardim Real in Grajaú in southern São Paulo, was one of Brazil’s thousands of victims of the new coronavirus. At 81, she died after 11 days of the first symptoms of the disease.
The diagnosis was slow to come back, according to her nephew. “She was already old and had health problems. She was sick and went to the hospital. They didn't notice anything different when she was there and she came home. Then she got worse and went to another hospital where they found she was infected,” he recalled.
The mourning was made even more distressing by the protective measures for burials. “The person was unable to receive visitors […] all that is very difficult for the family,” says Ronaldo.
Carrying a coffin is one of the most delicate parts of the process, according to the undertakers | Image: Léu Britto/Agência Mural
In the city of São Paulo, the funeral services now have a series of measures adopted to prevent infection. Access to the funeral rooms is limited to a maximum number of 10 people. The time is limited to one hour, to avoid crowding.
Since March 30, victims of COVID-19 or suspected cases have been wrapped in a waterproof plastic bag, still placed when still in the hospital, in order to provide greater security for undertakers, drivers and other workers who may have contact with the bodies.
Saddened by the death of his aunt, Cavalcante says he sees people's disbelief with the disease’s severity. “This is really serious. Now, for example, we'll have to test the rest of the family to see if nobody else was infected.”
The epidemic compelled the city authorities to increase the number of emergency workers. In the first week of April, 220 outsourced employees began working in the cemeteries.
According to Sindesp (Union of São Paulo City Employees) the city had fewer undertakers than needed. There were about 200, when in reality, at least 350 would be needed. With the pandemic, this number was exceeded by hiring third party workers.
Tribute to a family member in Jardim São Luís (Léu Britto/Agência Mural)
In São Paulo, to work as an undertaker it is necessary to pass a public sector examination, to compete with other candidates, and to have at least a complete primary education. The initial salary varies from BRL 775 to BRL 1,100, and can reach BRL 1,500 for an eight-hour day (top salary is around 281 US dollars). The gravediggers interviewed by Mural Agency, recount that there are days when they work more hours because of the numbers.
With the pandemic, Manoel Noberto Pereira, the union's director, said the main demand of the workers is to survive the virus.
Safety equipment such as aprons, gloves and masks are essential. “Our main concern is with safety equipment in order to be able to provide this service to the public,” he commented.
For him, the situation in other South American countries made São Paulo treat the case urgently. In Ecuador, during the month of April, scenes of COVID-19 victims being lain in the streets were shared around the world. Guayaquil, the hardest hit city, received cardboard coffins to try to respond to the increased pressure caused by the pandemic.
Pereira says that the union mobilization was important to get the equipment delivered by the authorities and for them to face the work, despite the stigma. “The prejudice towards us is old, but it is further strengthened with obscurantism and lack of information among the public about our work”, he says.
*The name was changed at the interviewee's request.

author: Agência Mural


text:
Indian scientists pen letter against government slashing of environmental protections · Global Voices
Vishal Yashoda Manve

Garbage on Body of Water. Photo by Yogendra Singh from Pexels. Used under Pexels license.
Over 500 Indian scientists, researchers, and academics from more than 130 institutions wrote an open letter urging India's environment ministry to withdraw a new set of regulations to overhaul the current norms guiding the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
The letter says the new EIA norms, officially called Draft EIA Notification 2020, encourages projects with no prior clearance to commence operations and eventually get regularised by paying a fine and exempts a few industries from conducting public hearings, among other issues.
EIA reports are an obligatory clearance step for infrastructure projects in many countries, including India, where it is regulated by the Environmental (Protection) Act of 1986.
India's existing EIA norms were last updated in 2006 and, in March this year, the ministry released a new set of changes for public feedback with a deadline in August.
The ministry reported receiving 1.7 million emails and letters with suggestions, comments, and objections to the Draft.
Some of the complaints relate to the fact that the Draft was published in only English and Hindi, while India has 21 other official languages.
The State Deputy Secretary of DMK IT Wing, a regional political party in Tamil Nadu, tweeted:
If there is nothing to hide, why the hesitation to release the EIA draft in the official languages of this country?! #ScrapEIA2020 pic.twitter.com/uRDK9Vs5bs
— இசை (@isai_) September 4, 2020
Internet users have also criticized the bill online. On Twitter, Sweta Mahajan said :
EIA 2020 draft is deemed to be a threat to the environment with changes like the post facto clearance, shortening of public consultation time, power to the govt to declare some projects as strategic, reduction in the frequency of report submitted by the proponents of the project.
— Sweta Mahajan (@SwetaMahajan1) June 29, 2020
The Kerala chapter of the global climate strike movement Fridays For Future tweeted:
#IfWeDoNotRise pic.twitter.com/eIpNO41Jtr
— Fridaysforfuture. Kerala (@fffkerala) September 4, 2020
Twitter user Kavi Ganesan Veeraswamy, from political outfit DMK, said:
After all that #corona has taught us, still the govt has prioritised opportunism over the citizens, without paying heed to the immense setbacks EIA drafts could possibly cause to the environment and our future generation.#ScrapEIA2020
— Kavi Ganesan Veeraswamy (@kavidmk) September 4, 2020
Eight-year-old climate & environmental activist Licypriya Kangujam tweeted:
Another protest today for Friday Climate Strike to #ScrapEIA2020.
Delhi has the worst air pollution of any capital. EIA 2020 exempts 25 “red” & “orange” toxic industries from Public Consultation & Expert Appraisal approval. This is unacceptable @moefcc. Withdraw Draft EIA 2020. pic.twitter.com/cC6kSWReus
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) September 4, 2020
Indian magazine Down to Earth reported:
India has not only pledged ambitious goals in the environment and climate change on several international forums but has also taken a lead role in renewable energy in the form of the International Solar Alliance. Diluted domestic regulations seem inconsistent with these ambitions and the overall aspiration to be a global leader in the fight against pressing contemporary challenges.
And Anurag Srinivas wrote in LiveMint:
India may be climbing the global rankings on the ease of doing business, but its environmental protection record remains dismal. In 2020, India ranked 168 out of 180 countries, according to Yale University’s Environmental Performance Index. [..] As India strives for further economic growth, it has to ensure this does not come at the cost of its environment, and a robust EIA legislation is critical for a sustainable future.
India has witnessed large environmental disasters in 2020. On May 7, a gas leak at Visakhapatnam’s LG Polymers chemical plant killed 11 people. On June 9, another leak set an oil well in Assam on fire, causing damage to the environmentally sensitive zones Dibru Saikhowa National Park and Maguri Motapung wetland.
The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing for controversial development projects, including state-owned Oil India's expansions of drilling areas in Assam and the Hubballi-Ankola railway line.
In July, the government blocked the environmental activists’ websites in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act after they campaigned against the Draft — among them FridaysForFuture India, Let India Breathe, and There is No Earth B.
The sites were unblocked following major online protests, including tweets by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg. While authorities say they have dropped all charges, a story by The Huffington Post revealed that the New Delhi police is still investigating FridaysForFuture India and Let India Breathe.
There is no Earth B had shared a statement about the police investigation:
While we still haven't been informed of the reasons behind our website getting blocked despite having no objectionable content whatsoever, we have found that we are not alone in facing this issue…Fridays For Future India and Let India Breathe have been subjected to a similar unjustified curtailment of the democratic as well as a fundamental right to freedom of expression…..Of key importance is the fact that all three of us have been running campaigns through our respective websites against the dilution of the EIA Notification by way of the new draft EIA Notification, 2020.

author: Vishal Yashoda Manve


text:
Moderating harmful content online in Sudan: Policies and measures · Global Voices
Mohamed Suliman

A woman working in an office at the Sudan University of Science and Technology. Photo Credit: User Muhammadsalah80 on Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The advent of the internet marked a radical shift in how people publish and share ideas — breaking boundaries and removing intermediaries. But this change came with the new burden of regulating and setting policies for content moderation.
In Sudan, a country where just 31 percent of the population has access to the internet, online platforms are struggling to enforce guidelines and regulations to monitor content deemed harmful such as hate speech and disinformation.
Meanwhile, technology companies based in the United States, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, often do not adhere to already published measures. In many cases, these US-based platforms fail to address harmful content at all.
In May, Lugain Mohamed, a Sudanese women's rights activist, reported an active Instagram account that featured images of Sudanese women without their permission. This violated Instagram’s community guidelines, which do not allow users to share photos they did not take or do not have the right to share.
The Facebook-owned platform has yet to take action and the account is still active because Instagram found that it does not violate its policies, she confirmed to Global Voices in an email interview. She added that due to this experience she started to self-censor more the content that she shares on social media:
Having been threatened by the admin of the page to share the rest of my pictures if I continued asking people to report the page made me a bit hesitant about continuing to campaign against such pages, as it threatened my personal safety.
This practice of sharing women's pictures without their consent is not new in Sudan.
In 2016, over 15 female activists were doxxed on a Facebook page called, “Sudanese Women against the Hijab.” Doxxing is the practice of publishing someone's personal information without their permission with the intention to threaten or intimidate. The activists’ social media pictures were posted without their consent alongside fabricated quotes about being against the headscarf and religion. The page was later removed by Facebook after many reported it as a violation of its community standards.
During Sudan's revolution that began in December 2019, Twitter seemed to be an ideal space for impersonation: Bad actors hijacked the accounts of politicians, ministers, journalists, and activists. Journalist Wasil Ali launched a campaign asking the public to report these accounts.
As a result, some were blocked while others are still active. In an email interview with Global Voices, Ali wrote:
…[F]ake accounts are, for the most part, used to harvest followers but unfortunately, a good number of them are used to sow division by spreading misinformation that has the potential to trigger unrest or even violence. Also in the simplest of terms, it would sow discord among Sudanese whether political or even tribal.
In June 2019, the government-backed militia group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) cracked down on protesters opposing military rule in Khartoum, in what was later referred to as the “Khartoum massacre.” Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International published reports detailing evidence that pointed to a series of human rights violations by the RSF militia.
Yet, days after the crackdown, an Egyptian company called New Waves launched an influential campaign on social media — including platforms Facebook and Instagram — aimed at presenting and marketing a good image for the RSF militia and its leaders.
To this day, Facebook has failed to address multiple requests to remove RSF militia content, arguing that its leader, Mohamed Dagalo, who also serves as a deputy head of the Sovereignty Council, is a current state actor, albeit the company already removed the account of a Maynamar official who is also wanted for committing war crimes.
In some cases, directly contacting platforms helps to eliminate harmful content such as a fake Instagram account that went viral last year during the revolution. The account purported to provide meals to Sudanese people and also spread misinformation. Instagram later removed the account, directly after The Atlantic, a US-based news outlet, contacted them.
In July 2018, YouTube shut down Zoal Cafe Channel, without issuing any statement, after users reported an earlier episode that was a rebuttal to a Kuwaiti TV show mocking Sudanese people. The rebuttal itself was considered by some as racist. The channel was shut down only for three months before it was reinstated.
Facebook also took steps to implement its Inauthentic Behavior Policy in relation to Sudan. The company defines “inauthentic behavior” as “engag[ing] in behaviors designed to enable other violations under our Community Standards,” through tactics such as the use of fake accounts and bots.
In October 2019, a network of fake accounts linked with Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a Russian financier, who was later put on a sanctions list by the US state department for his role in providing “support for preserving authoritarian regimes, such as that of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, and exploitation of natural resources,” were removed by Facebook. According to their statement, “17 Facebook accounts, 18 Pages, 3 Groups and six Instagram accounts that originated in Russia and focused primarily on Sudan’’ were removed.
However, activists say that platforms are not doing enough.
Lugain Mohamed said that she managed to get her own picture taken down, but not others because Instagram's policy requires “the owner of the picture to report it themselves.” She says:
This is problematic in many ways, as these accounts are growing in number and followers day by day and they’re making a profit out of taking women’s pictures by advertising for different companies.
As for Twitter's response to Ali's campaign to request impersonation accounts, Ali wrote:
Twitter is extremely slow on cracking down on these accounts & sometimes unwilling to take them down (like with an account impersonating me & tweeting fake news). Twitter simply refers you to their policy on these accounts.
Twitter still doesn’t provide the phone verification feature for its users in Sudan, adding a barrier to verify accounts which gives space for more fake accounts to exist. In June, an online campaign was launched requesting Twitter to offer this feature. In March 2018, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, tweeted about this issue, but Twitter has not changed its position.
In addition to platforms’ inaction, Sudan also lacks strong legal measures that protect users online.
A number of existing legal provisions in Sudan offer protection for some types of harmful content. For example, the 2007 IT Crimes Law forbids defamation and sanctity of personal life, which can be used to hold to account those sharing photos of others without their consent.
The 2018 IT crimes law, which its final draft was not shared publicly, criminalises the use of “the internet or any communications or information means, to incite hatred against foreigners, causing discrimination and hostility.” The parliament of the deposed regime amended the draft law in 2018, before it was amended again in 2020 by the transitional council in charge of governance, but the Ministry of Justice has not yet shared the final full version.
Additionally, Article 87 of the Postal and Telecommunication Act punishes those who send threatening content.
Regulating this content proves challenging and sometimes becomes a threat to freedom of expression, particularly in a country with a long history of human rights abuses.
Sudan has several vague laws that criminalize speech guaranteed by international human rights standards. According to the 2019 Freedom on the Net Report, the government “openly acknowledges blocking and filtering websites that it considers “immoral” and “blasphemous,” such as pornography sites”.
In January 2019, the state prosecutor issued arrest warrants against 38 journalists and activists, accusing them of spreading fake news, a term that was vaguely described in the  IT crimes law.
Adequately addressing online harmful content in Sudan requires collective action.
Tech companies and online platforms need to adhere to content regulation policies and make them transparent and visible to users. They must listen to local activists and take into account their concerns when implementing policies.
Sudan's current administration must amend existing laws to protect users from doxxing and hateful speech, without further endangering users’ fundamental rights and freedoms.
This article is part of a series called “The identity matrix: Platform regulation of online threats to expression in Africa.” These posts interrogate identity-driven online hate speech or discrimination based on language or geographic origin, misinformation and harassment (particularly against female activists and journalists) prevalent in digital spaces of seven African countries: Algeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, Tunisia and Uganda. The project is funded by the Africa Digital Rights Fund of The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA).

author: Mohamed Suliman