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Addressing Racism Online: A Smart Mix of Measures for Rights-Respecting Content Moderation

7amleh

From user-facing platforms to humanitarian tools and services, the tech sector, and in particular social media, has an ever-increasing impact on individuals and groups in the most vulnerable situations, including people of African descent and communities of colour. The failure to address the dissemination of hatred that incites discrimination on social media seriously undermines the promise of business and human rights - that is to provide a framework to prevent and remedy abuses by businesses, including tech companies, of internationally recognized human rights. Where online content moderation systems fail to effectively detect such content, it can risk increasing incitement to violence, and can hinder the enjoyment of a variety of human rights online and offline, including the right to life, the right to physical integrity, the right to health, freedom from non-discrimination.

A Reflection on Digital Activism in an Era of Publicly Broadcast Global Suffering

The Medium

Social media — be it posts, comments, or likes — puts story-telling power in the hands of those with immediate lived experiences, allowing the dominant narrative to be revised. With just a phone in hand and stable internet connection, Palestinians like Bisan Owda and Plestia Alaqad have been able to document both the mundane and horrors of living through a genocide that has killed over 41,000 men, women, and children. Social media has broadened and personalized the definition of journalism, and in the process, elevated the intimacy and urgency of the truths told.

Twitch Sparks Calls for Boycott After Labelling 'Zionist' as Eacial Slur

The New Arab

Pro-Palestine users have rallied against Twitch's updated hate speech policy, which bans the term "Zionist" as a racial slur, sparking calls to boycott the popular live-streaming platform over what many see as a breach of free speech. In an announcement posted to its official blog last Friday, Twitch said it "prohibits the use of terms that may not be harmful or abusive in isolation but can be used as a slur or to denigrate others in certain contexts". According to the policy, it is acceptable to use the term "Zionist" when discussing the ideology or political movement that led to the founding of Israel, but it should not be used to insult or degrade Jews or Israelis.

Israel-based NSO admits hacking 1,400 WhatsApp users with Pegasus spyware, unsealed court docs reveal

Wionews 

Unredacted court documents released on Thursday (Nov 14) show that NSO Group, the company behind the Pegasus spyware, admitted to developing exploits to hack into the phones of around 1,400 WhatsApp users in 2019. This operation, according to WhatsApp, violated both federal and state laws.The information came to light as part of a lawsuit WhatsApp filed against NSO Group in 2019. The lawsuit reveals how NSO, an Israeli cyber-surveillance company, operates its Pegasus spyware on behalf of government clients. Last week, a federal judge in California ordered the release of previously redacted details from the case.