Digital security of human rights defenders in Africa, MENA, South Asia, and Southeast Asia
Cyber laws are being used to quash freedom of expression and pursue critical voices on social media and websites in Africa, South and South East Asia, and MENA countries, according to a new report.
Blueprint for Free Speech is pleased to announce the release the ‘Ground Safe’ report. The research study was developed by the partnership team of Blueprint, ASL19 (MENA), Engage Media (Asia), the Indonesian Association for Media Development and project lead OPTF (Australia).
Based on extensive interviews and multi-country surveys of human rights defenders, journalists and technologists across the four regions, the ‘Ground Safe’ study highlights the biggest security threats faced by this community in key parts of each region. The report examines Ethiopia, Tanzania, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Key recommendations stemming from the report are to:
increase awareness of digital threats and vulnerabilities
Build secure tech tools and apps that work effectively
Improve digital security training and practice
Enhance organisation-level digital security practices
The project began in June 2020 and took nine months to complete due to the detailed study design and extensive research into human rights defender communities.
Human rights defenders (HRDs) are being targeted by growing numbers of digital attacks. The study found that while there was high concern about digital threats, there was still low adoption of digital security.
The study provided other key findings:
Security tools are difficult to use, and often don’t work effectively
Digital security training programs often failed to engage properly and to build capacity
There was low awareness of digital security threats and consequences.
Mobile phone operators were often subservient to government (creating risk for monitoring)
Most HRDs use Android mobiles due to price
Most HRDs don’t know how to use PGP or find it difficult, and instant messaging has reduced the use of email
Organisation-level policies related to digital security are weak or non-existent.
HRDs face risks that threaten to undermine their efforts as they work in countries with significant limitations on political rights and civil liberties as well as a lack of independent institutions. Flawed democracies and authoritarian style leadership contribute to this.
A case study of Indonesia reveals the digital security needs and practices via a survey of 90 journalists, activists, and digital rights advocates living and working in the country. It shows that 51% of those surveyed rarely use tools or strategies that improve digital security and just 7% always use such tools. Furthermore, 45% of those interviewed are not confident using secure tools. Full findings are listed on this fact sheet:
