How society can drive technology (not the other way around) in 2023
Context (Reuters), December 5, 2022
Today more than ever, there is great value in collectively putting more focus on the overall tech system, its health, and its governing mindsets. Everyone who works to advance racial justice, equitable opportunity, jobs, a sustainable planet, and a healthy democracy has a stake in this. Using a wider aperture, this article presents six ways we must work together to ensure society drives technology for the better in 2023.
What critics get wrong about regulating big tech
Reuters, May 6, 2022
The Digital Markets Act is ambitious in its aims, with objectives that take into account the interests of not a single stakeholder group, but the interests of many - at the forefront of which are users. There is already a great deal of progress on interoperability, and the DMA will provide the necessary incentives for researchers and companies to adapt, scale, and improve protocols.
Metadata From Encrypted Messages Can Keep People Safe
WIRED, November 12, 2021
Sharing “metadata of the metadata” is crucial for informing product design that will fight misinformation without allowing security backdoors. We don’t have to choose between privacy and safety. Companies see safety measures, transparency, and friction as conflicting with growth, but that is a false dilemma. If these companies had the will, they could find a way to make their platforms safer and more trustworthy—and it starts with sharing critical information with external stakeholders.
4 views on how to ensure social justice in a digital world (World Day of Social Justice 2021)
World Economic Forum Agenda, February 19, 2021
A rules-based system is only as strong as the people who inform and uphold it. Moving forward, tech companies must do better by their users by ensuring their representation in critical processes, and elected officials and regulators must do better by their constituents so that our internet is more just.
It’s Time to End Facebook’s Power-Hungry Pursuit of Data
Centre for International Governance Innovation, February 5, 2021
Even under the threat of significant legal action, is Facebook thumbing its nose at US regulators and the rule of law? Is Facebook continuing to blatantly engage in the anti-competitive activities it has already been called out for? Are we willing, as a society, to accept the fact that millions of users worldwide will never get the chance to decide how their data is shared and used?
A Mediterranean Brave New World: The Tools that Lead to Social Movement, and Protecting the Online Civic Spaces They Inhabit (PDF)
European Institute for the Mediterranean (IEMed), 2019 Yearbook
The use of digital tools has played an integral role in social movements in the Mediterranean region, from the pro-democracy uprisings of the Arab Spring to the anti-austerity actions of the Gilets Jaunes. Even in cases where the movements have not achieved the goals their members were aiming for, the ongoing use of technology to create online civic spaces has culminated in a tectonic shift. Today, more than ever, policymakers need to defend online civic spaces against their closure. It is crucial to protect internet freedoms for free expression, association, assembly and privacy online, and essential to ensure that people have the same freedoms online as those they are guaranteed offline.
New Technologies for a New Tunisia
Atlantic Council, January 28, 2019
A few projects led by individual ministries are not sustainable or large enough in scope for the long term. It is not enough to have fragmented programs operate in silos within various ministries—it is important to push for the implementation of new technologies to reform the administration itself. Instead, the Tunisian Government could commission a vision-focused, persistent, and structured approach that is implemented with roll-out technology prioritizing inclusion, fairness, and progress.
What does loss of US net neutrality mean for the arab world?
The New Arab, December 19, 2017
The FCC's decision exacerbates access gaps. In the absence of net neutrality rules, telcos are incentivized to provide expensive and low value access; a pay-to-play walled garden that only grants access to clients who can afford to do so.
Tunisia must not use terror-attack response to slide back to dictatorship
Globe and Mail, March 22, 2015
To secure a country is to invest in its future. Tunisia can serve as a model not only for democracy in the region, but for fighting militant activity on a most fundamental level. Ramping up security and military operations will only serve as a temporary fix for deeper issues of underdevelopment and economic underperformance. Investing and reforming the education sector is a good place to start. In other words, the Bardo tragedy can act as a catalyst for the Tunisian government to be more transparent about its security lapses.
Gender Justice in Post-Ben Ali Tunisia: Women and Political Participation
Right to Nonviolence, Middle East Constitutional Forum, October 2, 2012
While the status of women in Tunisia has long been touted as a point of pride for the country, the success story is not nearly as rosy as some would like it to be. The actual degree of opportunity provided for women and their subsequent level of political agency is low, from the municipal level all the way up to the ministerial.
Opinion: Tunisia's response to police rape puts human rights to shame
CNN, October 4, 2012
A young woman claims she was in a car with her fiancé when three police officers came by. She says two of them raped her while the third kept guard and later attempted to extort money from her fiancé.
This single [rape] incident brings to the forefront how such transgressions are allowed to take place, and reveals serious flaws in the Tunisian criminal justice system and in Tunisian law as a whole.
4 rules to stop governments misusing COVID-19 tech after the crisis
World Economic Forum Agenda, May 15, 2020 | Co-authored with Philip Dawson
The question before us is not just the public health benefit of increased surveillance and loss of privacy during times of pandemic emergency. What we must consider also is how we can limit the use, and misuse, of associated data and tools once this crisis recedes.
Tunisia's protests are a wake-up call for leaders
Middle East Institute, January 23, 2018
Tunisians today need visionary politicians that think beyond the next elections. They need policymakers who don’t just look to extinguish sporadic fires, but who look to address the roots of the many economic hurdles they face. The political elite should listen closely, because Tunisians today are not just protesting tax increases. They are expressing their unfulfilled expectations.
Tunisian Civil Society’s Unmistakable Role in Keeping the Peace
Atlantic Council, January 19, 2018
Civil society groups reconnected the relationship between citizens, the state, and society in a transitional period, supporting political settlements and reducing the potential for renewed conflict. As such, the role of civil society cannot be understated. Stifling its expression by arresting and detaining demonstrators only works to hinder the country’s democratic transition.
Tunisia's proposed ID law threatens hard-won privacy rights
The New Arab, December 7, 2016
For all of its successes - initiating a peaceful democratic transition, engaging in its collective past to create roadmaps for the future, and hosting the most active and dynamic civil society in the Arab world - Tunisia is introducing a law that can set back one very important right: the right to privacy and dignified livelihood.
The Crime of Speech: How Arab Governments Use the Law to Silence Expression Online
Electronic Frontier Foundation, April 28, 2016
Freedom of expression is a universal right, but the specific threats to it vary widely from country to country and region to region. As activists fighting for free speech worldwide, it is essential that we better understand the specific legal and procedural mechanisms that governments use to silence it. When you begin to untangle the array of laws that are used to prosecute speech in a given country, you get a much clearer picture of the state of digital rights in that country.
Arab Maghreb Union: Overcoming Competition in Favor of Cooperation
Jadaliyya, September 14, 2015
The Arab Maghreb Union’s success is incumbent upon the Maghreb countries to achieve shared goals. Now more than ever, the Arab Maghreb Union must be resurrected. The establishment of the Union had a terrible run so far, and a number of problems stymie the process on both regional and domestic levels. In this two-part article, the reasons for this failure will be thoroughly explored and three recommendations for their resolution will be proposed.
How the Tunisian Electoral Authority Robbed Me of the Right to Vote
Global Voices, November 22, 2014
Though I can't know for certain whether my application was rejected as a result of my political views, I do know this: the electoral commission has made it very difficult for Tunisians abroad to exercise their right to vote, and several instances were reported during October's legislative elections where certain individuals were unable to locate their names at the offices where they were registered. They were therefore rendered unable to vote.
There were also reports of bureau members convincing friends (usually sharing the same political convictions) to go to vote and fill up the voting booths.
No Excuse for Honor Killings – Reflections on a Music Video from “DAM”
Muftah, November 22, 2012
No matter what issues some may have with it, it brings to light topics that our society generally shies away from discussing. True, it is poorly produced and ignores a few things. But the video is also no academic treatise. It is a 4-min film that aims to bring attention to an important issue.