Digital Rights Weekly Update: 6 - 12 March 2026

Policy Insight:

For years, Palestinian digital rights advocates have warned that technologies marketed as “field-tested” often derive that credibility from deployment in the occupied Palestinian territory. This week’s reporting again highlights how surveillance tools refined through monitoring Palestinians are exported globally, embedding the architecture of occupation into international policing and security systems.

At the same time, the digital sphere remains a complex space for Palestinians themselves. With movement restrictions, checkpoints, and closures shaping daily life, online platforms increasingly function as alternative civic spaces where people communicate, organize, and access information. Yet these same platforms are governed by opaque algorithms that often amplify polarization, suppress legitimate speech, or fail to curb harmful content generated by AI systems.

Together, these developments point to a broader policy challenge. Protecting Palestinian digital rights therefore requires confronting not only censorship, but the global expansion of technologies built on surveillance, data extraction, and algorithmic influence.

News Digest

The Surveillance Paradox

Reflections

The primary selling point for many Israeli security firms is the phrase "field-tested." In the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this term carries a heavy and dark connotation. For decades, the occupied territories have served as a real-world testing ground for technologies designed to monitor, categorize, and control a captive population. When a company like Corsight or BriefCam markets its products to the UK Home Office, the efficacy they boast of is often derived from data points gathered at checkpoints in Hebron or through the surveillance of residential blocks in Gaza. This "laboratory" environment allows for the rapid iteration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms under high-stress, high-consequence conditions. For the Palestinian population, this technological experimentation is a daily reality that curtails freedom of movement and enforces a digital panopticon. Every face captured by a Corsight camera at a Gaza crossing and every phone scanned by Cellebrite in a military detention center contributes to the "accuracy" of the software. When these tools are exported to the UK, they carry with them the architectural DNA of an occupation. Critics argue that by purchasing these tools, the UK government is indirectly subsidizing the military-industrial complex that sustains the occupation.

When the Algorithm Becomes a Refuge… Why Does the Digital World Seem Safer for Palestinians Than Their Reality?

Alquds

In recent years, social media platforms have ceased to be mere platforms for communication or entertainment; for many Palestinians, they have transformed into an alternative space for daily life. This transformation cannot be understood solely from the perspective of technology or digital development; rather, it must be read within a highly complex socio-economic and political context. When reality becomes filled with restrictions and violations, societies tend to seek alternative spaces that provide them with a sense of security and control, even if this security is virtual, created by the algorithms of digital platforms. Data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics indicates that the percentage of internet users in the Palestinian territories exceeds 86% of the population, while approximately 70-75% of Palestinians use social media platforms daily. These figures reflect the transformation of the digital space into an essential part of social and economic life. But behind this high percentage lies a deeper explanation: digital platforms not only provide a means of communication but also offer an environment where individuals feel a degree of control over their lives that they do not find in reality.

X and TikTok algorithms favour the far right at the expense of moderate parties

People Vs Big Tech

This new study confirms what researchers find time and again: X and TikTok privilege extremist and polarising content in general and far-right content in particular. Flooding peoples’ timelines with far-right content is a systemic attack on democracy and freedom. Moderate content is censored - against the will of the people. If even a huge number of followers doesn’t help to get your content out there, platforms are denying people their right to freedom of expression and freedom of information. This is an extremely powerful form of foreign interference in our elections. It is high time for the European Commission to finally take action to protect our freedom against the political and business interests of foreign billionaires.“ On X, 59% of official political posts shown to the right-leaning accounts came from far right accounts [1]. On one day, this bias even represented 71% of the official political posts shown to these accounts [2]. About half (54%) of the official political content shown to the left-leaning accounts came from the radical left but in addition to this 20% came from the far right. This result is well above the 6% of radical left content that was shown to the right-leaning accounts, demonstrating that far right accounts break through more easily. In addition, the content on X that was not from a politician or political party also showed a far right bias, with four of the top five most-shown accounts promoting the far right [1]. 

Digital Rights Amid a Regional War: Threats and Responses

SMEX

Data centers have become a strategic asset globally and across the Arab region. These facilities host the digital infrastructure behind major online platforms, corporate services, and, in some cases, government systems. “What we are witnessing is the inevitable consequence of allowing military and civilian digital infrastructure to become inseparable,” added Ghandour. Ghandour had previously discussed the strategic importance and the growing presence of data centers in a session hosted on February 24 by our partners at the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI). You can rewatch the session here. Beyond pure technological concerns, data centers and web service platforms like AWS and Google have also had a major military role, specifically in Israel’s genocide on Palestine. In 2025, a groundbreaking report by UN Special Rapporteur Fransesca Albanese accused major tech companies of abetting the Israeli regime’s genocide of Gaza. This report, alongside other revelations affirming the involvement of major tech companies in Israel’s genocide reveals broader concerns about the militarization of technology and its use in illegal contexts.