Digital tools and tactics played a key role in the MENA region’s 2010-2011 protests. In the decade since, the digital space has evolved dramatically, serving both as a platform to mobilize change, but also a mechanism of suppression. Through a moderated discussion on social media, surveillance, cyberwarfare, and censorship, we’ll explore how human rights advocates are leveraging technology and the online space to organize, but also how governments have evolved to weaponize the very same tools in response.
On February 25, 2021, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) hosted “Ten Years On: Contesting Cyberspace in MENA,” a timely virtual discussion with Khadeja Ramali (Independent Researcher), Noura Aljizawi (Citizen Lab), Ramy Raoof (Amnesty International Security Lab), and Wafa Ben-Hassine (Human Rights Attorney), moderated by David Kaye (former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression).
This event was hosted as part of TIMEP’s Ten Years On, a project intended to create a platform for unique discourse among those who have organized, are organizing, and will organize in the MENA region. Learn more here: https://timep.org/ten-years-on-organizing-in-the-mena-region/.
View the event here: