Citizen Lab’s Cyber Stewards Network Partners from Asia and Latin America have released reports, and been interviewed in the media on key censorship and cybersecurity issues. Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) recently released a report titled “Surveillance and Intelligence in the Latin American Cybersecurity Agenda Comparative Report: Chile-Argentina.” The report is part of a broader project exploring cybersecurity programs in Latin America, analyzing the human rights implications from a civil society perspective.
Read more information on ADC’s report.
Donny BU, Executive Director of ICT Watch, was interviewed in a Jakarta Post article investigating Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) law. Donny comments on the ‘right to be forgotten’ provisions, and the possibility that they could be used to suppress information of public interest, particularly about the conduct of politicians.
Read more information on the Jakarta Post article.
Pirongrong Ramasoota of Chulalongkorn University spoke to the Bangkok Post about the rise of hate speech online in the wake of the Thai junta’s censorship of the media and other forms of expression. She suggested that social media, Facebook in particular, have been the source of increasingly vitriolic exchanges because it is one of the few remaining safe spaces for individuals to voice their political opinions.
Read more information on the Bangkok Post article.
Cyber Stewards Network Partner 7iber met with Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert, as well as Senior Research Fellows John-Scott Railton and Bill Marczak to discuss the Lab’s work in exposing spyware systems in various countries, and in particular, the Middle East. In the interview, the group discussed the Citizen Lab’s recent report on the discovery of Stealth Falcon spyware, used to target human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor, among other cybersecurity developments in the region.
Read more information on the 7iber interview.
The Tibet Action Institute has released a report titled “Erasing Tibet: Censorship on Chinese Video Sharing Site Youku,” which documents censorship on Youku, as well as the broader trend of China-based social media platforms being required to follow regulations on content filtering. Careful testing revealed that video content related to Tibetan culture and the Dalai Lama were blocked, including content that made use of the Tibetan language.
Read more information on the Tibet Action Institute article.