Author: Flavia Fascendini

In 2017 Nodo TAU focused on the capacity building of local organisations to strengthen their digital rights, with the support of an APC subgrant. Between August and December they coordinated a series of communication workshops (Taller de Comunicación, or TACO for short) on digital skills for local organisations working on human rights, children’s issues, labour and health rights, gender, social economy and Indigenous communities, among others.

The TACO workshops involved eight meetings that were designed and planned together with six local organisations from the communications field: FARCO, the Argentine community radio federation; Sin Cerco, an independent press and photography agency; Sindicato de Prensa de Rosario, the local journalists union; ConX, a collective of journalists working on gender-sensitive communications; La Masa, a cooperative of journalists who head up a newspaper, a web agency and radio programmes; and Coopares, a cooperative working on digital tools for social and labour organisations.

During the workshops Nodo TAU focused on issues like communication, the internet and human rights; gender; abilities in writing and telling our own stories; audiovisual production; mapping local media, social networks and digital tools; independent media and the sustainability of independent communication projects. This initiative not only brought them closer to local communities, but also consolidated a network of local groups. At the end of November Nodo TAU organised together with ConX a Feminist Workshop on Digital Self-Defence, in the framework of the Take Back the Tech! campaign.

Image source: Facebook.

MIDO has started a Facebook page called “Real or Not” to tackle the pressing issues of misinformation and incitement of inter-communal conflict in Myanmar.

Real or Not is a Facebook-based initiative in which MIDO conducts three main types of activities: developing content on news/digital literacy awareness; emergency response to current mis/disinformation that is being spread and could spark conflict and hatred; and assisting with fact-checking in response to users’ questions.

This is a flagship initiative in Myanmar and has inspired similar efforts in different locations and communities across the country. Now Real or Not is working on building an ethical fact-checking community in Myanmar and also producing content to be broadcast on major TV channels in the country.

Image source: MIDO.

The last two general elections in Kenya have had heavy deployment of technology to improve transparency, efficiency and accountability in the electoral process. During the 2017 general elections, the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) observed the use of information and telecommunications technologies (ICTs) before, during and after election day. The network focused on digital rights such as privacy rights during the electronic voter registration process and access to election information by the citizens, as well as the use of online spaces during the election period.

In preparation for the observation exercise, KICTANet held online and offline discussions on technological emerging issues. These included discussions during the Kenya IGF that brought together representatives from the electoral management body, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the regulator, the private sector and civil society. Some team members also attended training meetings organised by the IEBC, where they observed mock voting and transmission of results.

As part of its cybersecurity programme, KICTANet also conducted a cybersecurity and elections workshop in partnership with Global Partners Digital (GPD). The workshop reflected on the issues that came up during the elections. Some of the topics that emerged were the use of fake news by citizens and politicians, the hacking claims made by the opposition during the tallying of votes, and the capacity of the new cybercrime legislation to resolve these issues.

KICTANet continues to engage with the newly elected leaders, the elections body and other stakeholders on the use of fake news online, on cybersecurity and on the importance of digital rights in public policy processes.

Image source: KICTANet.

Recently, all over the world, including Korea, there seems to be a craze for artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT) and big data. These new technologies use comprehensive data including personal information. Because of this, Korean companies – especially communications, healthcare and finance enterprises – are demanding deregulation of personal information protection for activating big data industry.

To meet the needs of the companies, the administration of former president Park Geun-hye announced the Guidelines for De-Identification of Personal Information in 2016. According to the guidelines, if personal information is processed as unidentifiable in a certain way defined in the guidelines, it is not considered personal information and so companies can use it freely. In addition, the guidelines designated public agencies such as the Korea Internet and Security Agency as “a specialised agency for de-identification”, which combines personal information from different corporations and provides linked data to those corporations.

Civil society organisations including Jinbonet protested that the guidelines violated the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). This is because even though de-identification in accordance with the guidelines does not guarantee sufficient anonymisation, companies can use personal information without the consent of the data subjects. The CSOs filed charges with the public prosecutor against the specialised agencies and 20 companies for providing and combining personal information without the consent of the data subjects. The organisations also demanded improvements to the PIPA and strengthening of the authority of the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), a data protection body.

Image source: Jinbonet. Civil society groups including Jinbonet held a press conference to announce charges filed against specialised agencies and 20 companies with the public prosecutor on 19 November 2017.