Digital Rights Weekly Update: 18 - 24 April

US to screen social media of visa applicants who spent time in Gaza

Al Jazeera

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the State Department to review the social media accounts of foreign applicants for United States visas who have visited the Gaza Strip in the past 18 years, according to an internal cable seen by the Reuters news agency. The cable covers all immigrant and non-immigrant US visas – including students and tourists – of people who have spent “any length of time in an official or diplomatic capacity” in Gaza on or after January 1, 2007. Employees and volunteers at nongovernmental organisations will also be subjected to US screening. If the social media review uncovers any “potential derogatory information relating to security issues” then the US visa application will be submitted for an interagency investigation into whether the applicant could pose a national security risk, according to the cable.

Microsoft collaborates with Israel, deeply embroiled in Gaza genocide

PressTV

While the AI factor has garnered widespread media attention, it's also important to note the many other ways in which Microsoft has been vital to the Israeli occupation forces, historically. Jonathan Jacobson's Highfields Capital has over 31 million shares in Microsoft. Jacobson is chairman of Israel's Institute for National Security Studies and a trustee of Birthright Israel Foundation. He is also a funder of settlements and the Friends of the IDF. Microsoft has acquired several Israeli tech companies founded by alumni of the Israeli military. Aurorato, Adallom, Hexaite and Cyber X, were all developed by Israeli military figures. Microsoft previously invested in the Israeli company, Any Vision, which is involved in facial recognition of Palestinians for the occupation.

Digital censorship amid aggression: Google disables Street View in West Bank

Urmedium

As Israel’s military campaign intensifies across the occupied West Bank, tech giant Google is under fire for disabling its “Street View” technology in the northern parts of the territory. Rights groups warn that the move further obstructs documentation of violations and shields Israeli actions from global scrutiny.

Palestine warns of far-right Israeli incitement to blow up Al-Aqsa Mosque

AA

Palestine on Saturday warned of growing incitement by Israeli far-right settler groups calling for the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. Palestine’s Foreign Ministry condemned an AI-generated video titled “Next Year in Jerusalem,” circulating on extremist Hebrew platforms. The video shows Al-Aqsa Mosque being bombed and replaced by a so-called Third Temple. In a statement, the ministry called the video “a systematic provocation aimed at escalating attacks on Islamic and Christian holy sites in occupied Jerusalem.”