November 16 2023 GM

Glitter Meetups What are Glitter Meetups Notes from Past Glitter Meetups Virtual Events Calendar Join the TCU Mattermost

Glitter Meetup is the weekly town hall of the Internet Freedom community at the IF Square on the TCU Mattermost, at 9am EDT / 1pm UTC. Do you need an invite? Learn how to get one here.

• Date: Thursday, November 16
• Time: 9am EST / 2pm UTC
• Who: Mardiya
• Where: On TCU Mattermost "IF Square" Channel.
  • Don't have an account to the TCU Mattermost? you can request one following the directions here.

What Is Happening in Digital Rights Around the World?

Come to share emerging and existing digital rights conversations happening around the world and in your region at this Glitter Meetup! There is something new, specific or special that you would like to bring to the technology and human rights table? Join us and let's talk about it!

Notes

Courses from Shutdown Academy: Que están en español, son en línea y se pueden hacer de modo autónomo sin costo alguno. Si quieren saber más, escríbannos a [email protected]:

• En español: https://advocacyassembly.org/es/courses
• En inglés: https://advocacyassembly.org/en/courses
• En árabe: https://advocacyassembly.org/ar

Y si aún hay preguntas o quieren saber más, vengan al VPN village, que allá voy a estar hablando más del asunto: https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/1vpn2023

They cover many areas related to shutdowns: from preparation, to observation, to advocacy. There's a course to learn how to monitor shutdowns with OONI and with IODA.

You can take away a lot of "aha moments" with these courses:

• Not two shutdowns are the same
• Shutdowns and their effects CAN be prevented with preparation - and that is possible when you study previous shutdowns in your locality and your region.
• Shutdowns tend to come with certain events: elections, protests (this is pretty obvious, but still was important)
• There are tools to monitor, learn and study shutdowns, which helps prepare and also collect evidence - It's complicated to know when a shutdown has been done by a government (and they take advantage of that)

And as with many other human rights violation: taking notes is key, for later. To be able to demonstrate there was a shutdown, that it happened in a particular circumstance, and that helps when presenting a case to bigger instances and with that increase awareness. One thing I repeat a lot since I started working in digital rights is that governments and other adversaries exchange notes, and we should do the same.

The ECOWAS court ruling, for example, was a bit step: https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/internet-shutdowns-in-togo-illegal/

And there's a case in Colombia that seems to be following the path: https://www.mediadefence.org/news/why-did-internet-go-down-in-cali-colombia-during-the-2021-protests-a-high-court-ordered-the-government-to-find-out/

Cloudflare has a provision for digital rights defenders to access it to track shutdowns, etc: https://www.cloudflare.com/galileo/

There was a super interesting webinar with experts last week, exploring how the issues take place in Latin America: https://www.mediadefence.org/news/webinar-el-impacto-de-cortes-y-bloqueos-de-internet-america-latina-libertad-de-expresion-copy/

It's important understanding of the context to be able to learn more deeply how it all works. A shutdown during elections is different from one during a protest. Or it could be banning certain sites (i.e. censorship).

Another learning pill: Shutdowns can never be a measured response, according to international bodies. And when I think of the case of Venezuela: they don't need to pull big shutdowns. Communications have been intervened or interrupted slowly and surely in the last years: it's the speed of the internet, the blocking of sires, the closing of radio stations. It's a whole web that let's them say "us!? Never! We have never pulled a shutdown".

There are regional and international bodies, like the case of ECOWAS court and in. the Americas the IACHR. But there are other bodies, like it happened in Colombia. The rulling we were talking about before was the Colombian Constitutional Court. And I think in general, as with other HR violations, making them known is important. At some point evidence of violations will block the game of an administration, make it illegitimate or liable to legal action in the future.

About strategic and community litigation:

• https://advocacyassembly.org/en/courses/74/chapter/1/lesson/1
• https://youtu.be/txygRz87UBg?si=ZqhslRLq9IRc7XZ7
• https://systemicjustice.ngo/community-toolkit/