Session
Organizer 1: Valeria Betancourt, Association for Progressive Communications
Organizer 2: Maria Paz Canales, 🔒 Global Partners Digital
Speaker 1: Aymen Zaghdoudi, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 2: Jacqueline Rowe, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Adeboye Adegoke, Civil Society, African Group
Netherlands Government Representative (TBC)
Maria Paz Canales, Civil Society, Western European and Others (WEOG)
Ian Barber, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: Because the core of the session is interchange of experiences and strategic dialogue for collective action.
A. In what ways are cybercrime laws and digital platform regulations restricting free expression in the Middle East and Africa regions? B. What sorts of enabling environments allow governments in the region to develop and enforce rights-restricting cyber legislation? C. What policy levers, international mechanisms, advocacy strategies or collaborations have been effective in resisting this trend of censorship?
What will participants gain from attending this session? Participants will gain in-depth and up-to-date knowledge on recent trends in digital and cyber regulations which threaten online free expression in Africa and the Middle East. They will hear from a range of local experts who can connect domestic developments to regional trends, and highlight timely pressure points for human rights defenders, CSOs and philanthropists to consider in planning successful advocacy and funding strategies to support civic space and free expression in the Middle East and Africa region. Attendees will also be directed towards the substantive research report for further information.
Description:
In recent years, many countries in the Middle East and Africa have reformed legislation on cybercrime and electronic communications to keep pace with new challenges posed by digital technologies. In some cases, these reforms have served as positive steps towards protecting individuals from malicious cyber activities within a framework of appropriate safeguards, as established by the Budapest Convention. Yet many governments in the region have also implemented legislation which criminalises forms of online expression which should be permissible under international human rights law and standards, and used these laws to crack down on human rights defenders, political dissidents, journalists, LGBTQ+ individuals and other marginalised groups seeking to express themselves online. This not only poses grave threats to individuals’ rights in the digital age, but also diminishes the effectiveness of other open government reforms, slowing progress towards the SDGs. Recent research by Global Partners Digital and Article 19 delves into the misuse of these online content restrictions in Africa and the Middle East, highlighting how these measures have become tools for censorship and analysing recent trends in government responses to digital regulation issues in both regions. This workshop at the Internet Governance Forum would convene experts in digital regulations, media freedoms, and freedom of expression to discuss key findings, including case studies from countries of particular concern and consideration of how these restrictions impact platforms' moderation strategies in the region. The discussion will also consider the influence of international and regional cyber and digital policy processes on national legislative agendas in the region, as well as successful advocacy strategies employed by civil society organizations, philanthropists, media unions, and human rights defenders to push back against the repressive laws in focus.
Insights and feedback gathered on the research at the event will inform future advocacy work on this topic by activists and human rights defenders in the Middle East and Africa region. The session would be useful in identifying a more diverse and wider set of actors that could benefit from knowledge, practical advice and a solidarity network with freedom of expression experts and online platforms teams for the benefit of their own work on the ground. The session would also help to inform Meta’s AMET Policy Team’s agenda for the following year.
Hybrid Format: We anticipate we will have a mix of onsite and online speakers. We will ensure interaction between onsite and online attendees by requesting questions throughout the session and ensuring the online moderator has time to actively bring into the discussion inputs and questions shared in the chat function by online attendees. We will ensure the best possible experience for online and onsite participants as it will build in time for input by participants in all the modalities prompted by the onsite and online moderators’ coordination and the constant monitoring of the chat function. The moderators will coordinate and play an active role by encouraging dialogue and posing questions and comments shared in the chat function. We will make use of other tools, if available, such as polls, to engage the audience.