Digِital Rights Weekly Update: 15 - 21 May 2026

Policy Insight:

This week’s developments offer an important reminder that sustained accountability efforts can create real pressure and real shifts. From growing scrutiny over Microsoft’s ties to the Israeli military, to unionization efforts inside Google DeepMind driven by workers refusing the weaponization of AI, momentum is building around the demand that technology companies respect human rights and international law. These developments reinforce a simple reality: accountability does not emerge spontaneously; it is the result of continued documentation, advocacy, worker organizing, investigative journalism, and public pressure.

At the same time, Palestine’s ongoing digital transformation continues to advance, particularly in telecommunications and digital economy infrastructure. This progress is necessary and promising, but it must remain grounded in ethical, rights-based safeguards that protect privacy, equity, accessibility, and digital safety. As digital systems become increasingly embedded in daily Palestinian life, ensuring accountability from Big Tech and technology providers remains more urgent than ever.

News Digest

Palestinians Risked Their Lives to Document Gaza, Then Came The Algorithm

Wired

Before 7 October 2023, Nour Alsaqa used Instagram to share art, life milestones and glimpses of her life in Gaza. On 6 October, she posted a sunset. On 8 October, she posted a video of buildings levelled to the ground. That post began a stream of documentation that would eventually reach over 147,000 people who follow her. Despite surviving years of Israeli bombardment, siege and imposed famine, it was her social media feed that began to make her feel ill. “You scroll through images of bombings and destruction... and then a latte and a party and nature,” she says. “It was extremely triggering. At many points, I just felt resentment towards everyone online. Every normal thing you see [online] is extremely absent here.” At the beginning of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, in 2023, she would accompany her sister Sara, a surgeon at the now-destroyed al-Shifa Hospital, filming interviews with patients. Like many Palestinians, she believed visibility would lead to intervention. 

Palestine's ICT sector sees digital shift, says PCBS

Wafa Agency

RAMALLAH, May 17, 2026 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, alongside the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, issued a joint statement marking the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, highlighting major changes in Palestine’s communications sector over the past three years. The statement noted a significant shift toward fiber-optic internet services, with subscriptions to FTTH fiber-optic internet reaching about 327,000 users in 2025, an increase of roughly 27% compared to 2024. This growth has been accompanied by a gradual decline in reliance on older DSL connections, reflecting a broader transition toward more efficient and reliable digital infrastructure. According to the statement, this trend underscores ongoing efforts to modernize telecommunications networks to support the expansion of the digital economy and e-government services across the State of Palestine. 

Microsoft: it’s time to come clean about your ties to the Israeli military

Access Now

Through a new joint letter, Access Now, Amnesty International, 7amleh, Fight for the Future, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are calling on Microsoft to publish the findings of its review into the Israeli military’s use of the company’s Azure cloud and AI services, and to take immediate action to prevent its technologies from contributing to violations of international law against Palestinians. The organizations demand that Microsoft provide full transparency and accountability, especially in light of recent media reports that the company has transferred the management of its Israeli branch to Microsoft France amid scrutiny over its non-transparent dealings with the Israeli Ministry of Defence. Multiple media investigations by The Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call, and The Associated Press revealed that Microsoft cloud and AI services were reportedly used by Israeli military and intelligence units to store and process vast amounts of surveillance data, including intercepted Palestinian communications. 

Google DeepMind in talks with UK unions amid staff concern over US and Israel’s AI use

The Guardian

Google DeepMind has agreed to enter formal talks with UK tech workers that could lead to trade union representation amid growing staff concerns about the use of its AI by the US and Israeli governments’ defence and intelligence. In a groundbreaking move, the artificial intelligence arm of the multi-trillion dollar Google empire, led by the Nobel prize winner Demis Hassabis, has agreed to meet the Communications Workers Union and Unite at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) after workers based at its London headquarters this month voted to make a bid to unionise. Google DeepMind declined to voluntarily recognise the unions for collective bargaining purposes, but said in a staff email on Wednesday that talks at Acas “may lead to a formal ballot in a few months’ time, giving all eligible employees the opportunity to vote on whether they want to be represented by the unions”.