7amleh and digital rights in Palestine
In this episode you can hear Nadim Nashif and Mona Shtaya who both work for 7amleh, The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media and Digital Rights in the Palestinian context. We talk about several aspects of their work. For example how social media is censoring Palestinians and others with a pro-Palestinian message. Many Palestinians have their social media profiles shut down without a valid reason and it is often hard to counter that. Another issue that 7amleh works on is digital security and the use of Israeli spyware on Palestinians and beyond. Recently there was a scandal when it was discovered that Pegasus malware, produced by the Israeli NSO group, was found on devices of human rights defenders, journalists and state representatives. Other topics we discuss are PayPal, that doesn't have integration for Palestinians to use with their local bank accounts, and Google Maps that does not show Palestinian cities and towns in the Westbank on their maps, while it does show clear details of illegal Israeli settlements. Furthermore, we discussed a recent campaign to counter Hate Speech online. The campaign targets Palestinians to raise awareness about abusive language on social media and how to recognize it.This is their website: https://7amleh.org/(Click the English language button on top left)If you want to connect to Stories from Palestine podcast on social media or sign up for the newsletter, if you want to follow the YouTube channel or do a very appreciated donation to keep the podcast going, then use this linktree: https://linktr.ee/Storiesfrompalestine