Digital Rights Weekly Update: 12 - 18 June 2026

Policy Insight

This week’s developments are a powerful reminder of why the struggle for Palestinian digital rights remains both urgent and necessary. Several of the issues making headlines are ones that 7amleh has been documenting, researching, and advocating around for years. From the systematic barriers preventing Palestinians from accessing global digital economy platforms, to new evidence exposing Meta’s sustained suppression of Palestinian voices, and the ongoing fallout from the World Food Programme data breach affecting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, a common thread emerges: digital exclusion, discrimination, and harm are structural challenges requiring sustained attention and accountability.

At times, this work can feel like an uphill battle. Yet the growing recognition of these issues in media discourse, policy discussions, and civil society spaces demonstrates that evidence-based advocacy matters. It reinforces the importance of continuing to document violations, challenge harmful practices, and push for a digital future in which Palestinians can participate safely, freely, and with dignity.

News Digest

Palestinians are being locked out of the Digital Economy

News Gram

This story by Jalal Abukhater originally appeared on Global Voices on June 14, 2026.  For many people around the world, the digital economy is not an abstract concept but a lived reality shaping everyday life and work. At the mention of the digital economy, most people would think of entrepreneurship, innovation, and technological advancement. But for Palestinians, the question is not whether the digital economy exists, but whether they are allowed to access it at all and participate in the global economy equitably. 7amleh recently published a new report entitled “Palestinian Accessibility to Digital Economy Platforms: Barriers, Gaps, and Adopted Policies to Overcome Them.” The report documents how Palestinians across historic Palestine face systematic barriers in accessing digital payment systems, e-commerce platforms, and remote work opportunities. The research tested around 30 major digital services by attempting account creation, verification, and use under real conditions, while also relying on semi-structured interviews and user testimonies from Palestinians navigating these systems daily.

Power & Pushback: New report details Meta’s crackdown on Palestinian digital content

Mondoweiss

A new report details Meta’s systematic suppression of Palestinian digital content. “The Platformicide of Palestine 2021–2025” was put together by 7amleh in partnership with Dr. Fabio Cristiano of Utrecht University. The report examines 3,520 cases of suppression, and in almost 70% of those cases, users were not clearly informed what policies they had violated. The document shows that there was an uptick in digital violations in the aftermath of October 7, amid the genocide in Gaza. This crackdown took place “precisely at a time when Palestinians needed platforms the most” notes Cristiano. According to the report, Meta relies on the Dangerous Organizations and Individuals (DOI) policy, which was originally developed to address terrorism, to target content that warrants removal. Before the genocide began, the company made changes to allow discussion of certain people and organizations in news reporting. However, in December 2023, they enlarged the scope of DOI enforcement.

Surveilled, targeted, and now hacked: WFP must protect Palestinians in Gaza after massive data breach

Acsess Now

We, the undersigned civil society organizations and experts, condemn in the strongest possible terms the cyberattack on the World Food Programme (WFP) that took place on May 14, 2026, exposing the personal data of 600,000 Palestinian households in Gaza, including their names, ID numbers, and location. While the full extent of the data breach remains unknown, including the actual number of impacted individuals, such exposure amid what has been repeatedly defined as a genocide carries grave risks for an already extremely vulnerable population. We urgently call on the WFP to be fully transparent about the details of this incident and to immediately take all possible measures to ensure that no further harm comes to the people linked to these datasets. The WFP notified affected people 17 days later, on May 31, 2026, via Telegram, of the cyberattack against its Self-Registration Application (SRA) for Palestine, a digital portal through which displaced Palestinians can directly sign up for food and cash assistance for themselves and their families. On June 2, 2026, the agency stated in a follow-up message that it had temporarily disabled the app for the time needed to strengthen its cybersecurity and data protection measures. This delay not only falls short of best practices for breach notifications but also puts the safety of people at risk.

Military-grade AI: the future of civilian surveillance?

Digital Rights Watch

Israel’s Lavender AI system identified 37,000 people as potential bombing targets in the first weeks of the Gaza war. With 83% of Gaza’s war dead being civilians, the system was, according to an independent UN commission, committing AI-facilitated war crimes. This lethality is underpinned by a surveillance architecture that is total: facial recognition cameras blanket Palestinian cities, all calls and texts are intercepted, social media is monitored, and data is shared with the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) by US intelligence agencies. Soldiers using Lavender AI were given 20 seconds to review each strike before approving it. One IDF soldier described the process as having “zero added-value as a human, apart from being a stamp of approval.” To accelerate the process further, the IDF pre-authorised civilian casualties based on Lavender’s target classifications, with 20 civilian casualties deemed acceptable for low-ranking targets. The IDF uses Lavender AI to track targets back to their homes, deliberately targeting people when they are with their families. One IDF soldier noted that “It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. The system is built to look for them in these situations.” This automated program was named “Where’s Daddy?.”