Digital Rights Weekly Update: 19 - 25 June 2026

Policy Insight:

As technological systems increasingly shape warfare, surveillance, humanitarian governance, public discourse, and everyday life, the struggle for digital rights is also a struggle over knowledge. This week, 7amleh’s launch of Digital Domination: AI, Surveillance, and Digital Power in Palestine and Beyond marks an important contribution to Palestinian knowledge production on some of the defining technologies of our time. Palestine should not remain merely a testing ground for emerging technologies and systems of digital control; it must also be a site from which critical analysis, evidence, and alternative visions emerge.

The other developments highlighted this week, from concerns over platform governance and content moderation to growing evidence of AI-enabled military violence and digital interference, underscore why independent research remains essential. Producing knowledge is not separate from advocacy or accountability efforts. It strengthens them. Understanding how digital power operates is a necessary step toward challenging technological domination and advancing rights, justice, and democratic oversight in Palestine and beyond.

News Digest

7amleh and Birzeit University Launch New Book on AI, Surveillance, and Digital Power

7amleh

June 23, 2026,  7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, in collaboration with Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies at Birzeit University, launched today the book “Digital Domination: AI, Surveillance, and Digital Power in Palestine and Beyond”, bringing together five original research papers produced through the first cohort of the Maryam Abu Daqqa Fellowship, a research initiative established by 7amleh to advance critical knowledge production on artificial intelligence, surveillance, digital power, and Palestinian digital rights. The book critically examines the entanglement of artificial intelligence, surveillance technologies, digital infrastructures, and corporate power in shaping contemporary systems of violence, domination, and control in Palestine and beyond. Through the five research papers, the book demonstrates how innovative technologies increasingly underpin military operations, systems of surveillance, humanitarian governance, information manipulation, and the global political economy of ‘security’ technologies.

Meta pauses an AI training program that tracks employees' keystrokes after an internal leak

Business Insider

Meta is pausing an internal AI training program after sensitive data was accessible across the entire company, according to screenshots obtained by Business Insider. A screenshot showed that the leak exposed employees' private conversations, performance data, and transcriptions. The incident was classified as a SEV 2 on a scale of 0 to 5, with 0 being the most severe. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the incident and said the company is investigating. "We have carefully designed this program with privacy safeguards, and while we have no indication at this time that any data was improperly accessed by Meta employees, we're pausing it while we investigate," the spokesperson said. In April, Meta announced the AI training program, called the Model Capability Initiative (MCI), which was intended to improve the company's AI models by using its staff's keystrokes and mouse movements as training data. The program, which is mandatory for most staff, sparked a backlash from employees who felt uncomfortable with their data being recorded, Business Insider previously reported. This leak is causing frustration within Meta, according to screenshots seen by Business Insider, with employees critical that data wasn't locked down from the start.

Google is blocking The Wall - an app that warns you about Israeli apps

Tech For Palestine

The Wall, a popular browser plugin from T4P’s incubator which alerts you when using a website tied to Israel, recently built a new app for Android. This Android app scans your phone to warn you about apps tied to Israel. Despite approving the first version, Google has blocked further publication of the app, using a rationale that defies their own policy. This is not unexpected from Google, given their own ties to Israel and direct participation in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. To tell you which apps you want to remove from your phone, The Wall first needs to know which apps are installed on your device. This means The Wall needs to be able to scan your phone for other apps. In technical terms, this functionality is known as QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES. And before a developer can use this, Google must give its approval. This is different for features such as opening your email client or phone app. Think of an app where you click on a phone number to call customer service. You can therefore release an app that includes the feature to open your phone app without Google’s permission.

Israel using sophisticated drones and AI to target and kill Palestinian children

National Herald

Justice Srinivasan Muralidhar, a retired high court chief justice from India and the current chair of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, briefed the media in Geneva on 23 June along with two of his fellow commissioners. The commission also released a 100-page report detailing the evidence of Israeli security forces deliberately killing Palestinian children in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem. “Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law,” he said.  The commission's report documents chilling details. One segment speaks of drone technology being used by Israel to target the children. “You see everything on a screen. You drop the bomb. It feels like a game. You can sit in some basement of a house, safe, with your helmet off, scratching your balls, half-dressed, and kill Palestinians,” said an Israeli soldier on Channel 14, which broadcast interviews with Israeli army personnel. The segment showcased several variants of drones or 'quadcopters', demonstrating their high-resolution surveillance and night vision capabilities including electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) sensor cameras, combining visible light and thermal imaging capabilities to provide continuous, 24/7 situational awareness in various conditions.