 The Drum Beat 614 – Cyber Rights, Cyber Risks |
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| CYBER SECURITY, CENSORSHIP |
| 1. An Assessment of Media Development Challenges and Opportunities in Myanmar: Change Is in the Air |
| This report offers an assessment of media in Myanmar in the current political and social climate of change. For example, websites which were previously blocked, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Google, as well as radio stations, can now be accessed. [From International Media Support (IMS), Jan. 2012] |
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| 2. Global Information Society Watch 2011: Internet Rights and Democratisation Focus on Freedom of Expression and Association Online |
| Each of these reports considers a particular «story» or event that illustrates the role of the internet in social rights and civil resistance – including internet activism against forgetting human rights atrocities in Peru and the rights of prisoners accessing the internet in Argentina. Some reports call for a change of perspective, as in the report on cyber security. [From the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos)] |
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| 3. The No-Nonsense Guides |
| One of these guides, titled «The No-Nonsense guide to The Great Internet Grab: Who wins, who loses?», explores this question: what restrictions, if any, should be placed on the internet? Another, the «No-Nonsense Guide to the Digitisation of the World» notes that «digitisation and digital technologies are invading many aspects of contemporary life.» [From the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), Jan. 2012] |
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| 4. How to Bypass Internet Censorship |
| This manual offers an introduction to the topic of internet censorship and a presentation of techniques and tools used for circumventing this filtering. It documents simple techniques such as a cached file or web proxy and also describes more complex methods. [From FlossManuals, Jan. 2008] |
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| 5. New Media and ICT4D |
| by Madan Mohan RaoThis presentation summarises developments in information and communication technology (ICT) along with frameworks for analysis, case studies, and trends with accompanying roadmaps. There is mention of the «dark» or problematic side of technology, describing the risks of new media as: data and intellectual property risks, personal and organisational risks, and cultural and spiritual risks, followed by some promising examples of «m-government». |
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| PROTECTION: TOOLS FOR JOURNALISTS |
| 6. SaferMobile |
| This initiative is designed to help activists, human rights defenders, and journalists assess the mobile communications risks they face, and then use appropriate countermeasures in order to organise, report, and work with mobile devices more safely. [MobileActive.org |
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| 7. Global Digital Download (GDD) |
| This weekly publication and website aggregates the latest developments and resources on internet freedom for the international development and policy communities. It highlights trends in digital and social media that intersect with freedom of expression, policy, privacy, censorship, and new technologies. [Internews] |
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| 8. Using Mobiles Safely for Journalism |
| This online training module highlights the dangers and risks journalists face when using mobile devices in their work, especially in insecure regions. A series of questions is presented, such as: «Do you have story notes or leads, or unpublished multimedia images from an event that would place participants in danger if their identify and role becomes known?» [MobileActive.org] |
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| Help Sustain The CI |
| Become a Communication Initiative Associate |
| The CI Associates are organisations and individuals who recognise the added value of The Communication Initiative toward their work priorities – which may be focused on a development issue, geographic location, and/or population group – and have chosen to provide financial support to this initiative. There are a range of possible payment levels from USD 100 to USD 5,000. The package includes a number of free classifieds listings. A list of present Associates can be seen online. If you are not there now, please join them!To sign up, contact Victoria Martin vmartin@comminit.com |
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| PROTECTION: INITIATIVES FOR YOUTH |
| 9. Keep Your Chats Exactly That! |
| This South African campaign aims to empower young people with tactics for using social networks on the computer or instant messaging applications on their mobile phones to prevent them from becoming victims of harassment, bullying, or violence. It also fosters strategies for using information and communication technologies (ICTs) in affirmative ways to advocate for change on issues that concern young people. [Girls’Net] |
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| 10. Advice on Child Internet Safety 1.0: Universal Guidelines for Providers |
| This document is designed to help providers who care for children ensure that they use the internet safely. The advice is presented in 6 sections which reflect different services provided online: chatting, sharing, gaming, content providing, networking, and shopping and commerce. [From the United Kingdom (UK) Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), Feb. 2012] |
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| 11. Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships |
| by Kaveri Subrahmanyam and Patricia GreenfieldThis article examines United States (US) adolescents’ relationships with friends, romantic partners, strangers, and their families in the context of their online communication activities. «Given the connectedness between the physical and virtual worlds, the challenge is to keep adolescents safe (both physically and psychologically) while at the same time allowing for the explorations and interactions that are crucial for healthy psychosocial development.» [From The Future of Children, Spring 2008] |
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| 12. Click Clever Click Safe Campaign |
| Designed to help children in the United Kingdom enjoy the internet safely, this online campaign centres around the «Click Clever Click Safe Code», which has been designed to act as an everyday reminder of simple good behaviours, to help parents and their children avoid common risks online. This campaign is based on the belief that parent-child communication is crucial to protecting children when they go online and use other new technologies. [Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS)] |
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| GENDER AND INTERNET INTERSECTIONS |
| 13. Critically Absent: Women in Internet Governance: A Policy Advocacy Toolkit |
| by Anja Kovacs, Avri Doria, Bruno Zilli, Margarita Salas, and the Women’s Legal BureauFrom one chapter of this resource: «The ICT arena has become a site of continuing gender inequality. Different forms of violence are committed against women with the use and within the realm of ICTs. Conversely, it has been shown that ICTs can be a platform for women’s empowerment….First, there is a need for recognition and serious attention to the incidence of technology-related VAW [violence against women]….Second, women must challenge power relations between men and women by using ICTs for activism to combat violence against women…» [From the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), April 2012] |
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| 14. EROTICS: Sex, Rights and the Internet – An Exploratory Research Study |
| by Jac sm Kee (ed.)Part of this report explores culture and social norms: «…many women and girls still need to negotiate existing cultural and social barriers…to…engage with online spaces. The research in India demonstrates how the young women interviewed had to develop strategies to avoid surveillance of their activities by their social network and to manage the real risks and dangers that they can face online, including that of harassment, manipulation of photographs, and violations of their right to privacy…» [From APC, August 2011] |
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| CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Q-zine |
| The fifth issue of the Queer African Youth Networking Center (QAYN)’s Q-zine is showcasing lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) and queer innovators and creators in Africa and the Diaspora who are «moving, shaking, setting trends and making a difference in their lives and in their communities.» Q-Zine plans to profile young leaders in multiple formats – essay, profile, interview, video, poetry, photography, painting, drawing, or any combination. Click here for more information and to submit your entry online. |
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| ENHANCING E-VISIBILITY OF MARGINALISED GROUPS |
| 15. Queer African Youth Networking Center (QAYN) – Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria |
| One of QAYN’s activities is to train queer youth to use the internet as a safe advocacy tool, providing online forums, group discussions, a listserv, and other tools. For example, the Safe Access to Information (SAI) programme is an online support initiative that is designed to enable youth to safely access information and discuss culturally sensitive issues. Specific projects under SAI include young queer women movement building, online groups, and an online forum. |
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| 16. Internet Centers/Usage by Burmese Ethnic Migrants in Mae Sod: Traversing the Borders of Internet Divide and Recasting Ethnic Identities |
| by Nikos DacanayThis paper shares data from migrant women of the Burma Women’s Union (BWU) living in refugee camps. The subjects in two case studies use the internet for maintaining contact with distant family members and friends who migrated elsewhere, accessing the news from Burma and cultural material in their languages, meeting new friends, and disseminating gay and lesbian rights and information. [Sept. 2010] |
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| 17. The LGBTI Movement and Social Media in Africa |
| by Sokari EkineThis article looks at LGBTI rights in Africa and the role new social media is playing in increasing the visibility of activists from across the continent. According to the article, Facebook has become the primary space for campaigns, news, and debate. One of the major challenges facing African LGBTI activists is how to manage online campaigns and information as well as focus on work at national, governmental, and grassroots levels. [Apr. 2010] |
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| This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Kier Olsen DeVries. |
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Blog de Octavio Islas 