Check out our weekly report

1.

January - March 2023 Quarterly Report (English)

7amleh

7amleh, through the Palestinian Observatory of Digital Rights Violations (7or), observed a large number of violations in the first quarter of 2023, compared to previous years. Social media companies, Israeli authorities and, on occasion, members of society against one another, primarily committed these violations. The frequency of Israeli digital violence and incitement against the Palestinian people was perhaps the most noticeable feature of the first quarter of this year, despite the short reporting period, which also witnessed intense political and field events that reflected on the digital space and Palestinian digital rights.

2.

Having to Defend your Very Own Existence; Case for Every Palestinian (English)

Al-Mayadeen

The Israeli narrative always seems to be having the upper hand when it comes to social media platforms and mainstream media outlets. A new report by 7amleh, the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, which is a support group for Palestinian digital rights, showed that hateful anti-Palestinian rhetoric grew across different social media platforms in 2022. According to the organization, racist remarks grew by 10% in 2022 compared to the previous year.

3.

Despite the Risks, Palestinians Depend on Social Media to Document Israel's Violations (Arabic)

The New Arab

With every storming of Al-Aqsa Compound, Palestinian activists rush to convey these attacks to the world by posting them on social media, ignoring the dangers they may be exposed to afterwards. Some of these people are harassed or even arrested by the occupation soldiers because of the transmission of the truth through the platforms, which have become the first carrier of news with sound and image. As is the case on the ground, the Palestinians were not spared the virtual restrictions as well, as the sites arbitrarily impose restrictions on Palestinian content, in a policy that is biased towards the occupation and its attacks.

4.

Another Israeli Spy App has been Sold to 10 Countries, Researchers Say (English)

Washington Post

A secretive Israeli spyware company has customers in at least 10 countries, and its hacking tools have been used against minority party politicians and journalists, according to research by Microsoft and the nonprofit Citizen Lab made public Tuesday. Microsoft discovered traces of the spyware created by the surveillance vendor QuaDream to use against older versions of Apple’s iOS phone software, while Citizen Lab used the data to track down victims. In separate reports, the teams released the most thorough analysis to date on how the spyware works and which countries operated servers for receiving the information the spyware captured.