I'm grateful to my colleague Sarah Hamid for writing a post and editing others, to @aaronmackey.bsky.social and @davidgreene.bsky.social for helping with edits, and to @reemalma.bsky.social @monajem.bsky.social and Jalal Abukhater for their insights.

Apple’s detailed map is not only limited in South of Lebanon, it is limited in all the country. Their justification to Wired MENA is missing especially that the last question wasn’t answered. Anyone works with Apple here can help plz?

there is no chance this massive assault on a civilian population meets the standards of the law of armed conflict, no matter how israel justifies its effort to target hizbollah. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Proud of SMEX team work on this!

Media sources claiming that 100 fighters from Hizb were tracked by tracing their IP addresses after they used Zoom platform on a call in #Beirut couple of days ago. Now, aside from the fact that Zoom is an American platform and they will most likely not use it.

On March 20th we will have @juanof9.bsky.social @nighatdad.bsky.social @monajem.bsky.social @socialtic.bsky.social @esraa.bsky.social and others to talk about some trends to re-imagine a better future in the horizon in the global majority. Join us! 👇 digitalresilience.network/20-mar-repor...

With the uprising against the use of big tech softwares in our region, there has been some push for softwares from Gulf states, using “Arabic culture” as away to lure people from our region to adopt it. 1/2

Biometric data, discrimination against Kurdish people, current refugees issue, and many full on surveillance could happen because of this. Some protection of personal data needs to be in place. www.dailysabah.com/politics/new...

60 Minutes interviewed couple of retired Mossad agents who knew about the Pagers and Walkie talkie. Nothing new other than confirming what we already knew. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLUU...

Biden can help Syrians right now by removing their country from the OFAC list, this will boost the digital rights space by allowing the use of US tech companies product legally, reduce the potential threats online, and allow Starlink to operate in the country with an ambiguous telecom infrastructure

What you said happened ya Bassel, after 13 years (-8 days). God bless your soul as one of the heroes to he remembered during this time.

I can’t believe seeing these thousands of prisoners walking out free now from Sidnaya notorious jail in Syria. We celebrate this freedom tonight!

A good piece by Reuters about the Pagers and Hizballah. I am not sure how they didn't suspect a battery that last only 25-30% of its original capacity. Israel plan is smart and devilish but what made it work is the mediocracy of Hizballah. www.reuters.com/graphics/ISR...

It's essential to build our strength in the halls of power to work to stop harmful, short-sighted & destabilizing policies impacting the MENA region Invest in our power to press for policies that center durable sustainable solutions which reflect our region's aspirations & potential. #GivingTuesday

What is waiting for us in the tech space. Adding to this the layer of authoritarian regimes around global South, they are building partnerships with these tech companies & the US gov www.techpolicy.press/on-the-comin...

Bluesky users: Follow the robot @ap.brid.gy to let friends in the Fediverse (Masodon et al.) follow you. Or allow the reception of messages from "everyone" in your account's settings.

With no warning, an Israeli strike hits a buildijg in Beirut killing 4 people with 23 injuries so far as per Minisrry of health in #Lebanon.

Colombia used the Israeli spyware "Pegasus," developed by NSO, with $11M U.S. funding in 2021-2022 to target drug lords. Reports question if it also spied on political opponents under ex-president Duque—the deal, marked by cash transfers. www.dropsitenews.com/p/colombia-p...

With a ceasefire coming into action in the coming days or weeks we hope, accompanied by an Israeli soldiers withdrawal from Lebanon, we need to advocate for “digital withdrawal”. There are many requests but the first one is to stop GPS jamming (screenshot of Beirut weather but it shows Amman).

Today, Alaa Abdelfattah should have been celebrating his 42nd birthday with his friends and family. Instead, Alaa remains unjustly imprisoned in Wadi al-Natroun Prison.

Today is the Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah’s birthday. It also marks the fiftieth day of his mother Dr. Laila Soueif’s hunger strike asking for Alaa’s release. #freealaa

Since the war started, the minister of Telecom in Lebanon has been telling us there will be plan A and B, and a year later, we're discovering there is no plan at all. He should have spend more time on fixing the problems rather than scaremongering live on television. www.newarab.com/news/will-le...

Egypt is considering its first-ever law to govern asylum and refugees. Yet the draft set to be voted on by parliament creates a problematic legal vacuum, fails to extend basic rights for those pending status, and could result in non-refoulement on vague, discretionary national security pretenses.

ما يجعل هذه القضية أكثر حساسية هو أن “إن إس أو” لم تكن مجرد مزود للتكنولوجيا. كشفت الوثائق أنها أدارت العمليات بشكل مباشر، حيث كان العملاء يُدخلون أرقام الهواتف المستهدفة فقط، بينما كانت “إن إس أو” تتولى بقية العملية، بما في ذلك تثبيت البرنامج واستخراج البيانات. eltaher.xyz?p=3665

THREAD: The UN Special Committee investigating Israel’s practices published its report yesterday concluding that Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide. Most notably, it captures some of Israel’s digital warfare and the conduct of social media companies.

This is how close Israel bombed today to #Beirut airport. All these are civilian areas

This doesn’t really mean anything. Peace comes with justice to Palestine, and without it, Lebanon and other countries will not be at peace with Israel.

Trusted fundraiser for Lebanon: www.gofundme.com/f/fundraisin...

These numbers from the Ministry of Health covers also yesterday attacks by Israel that results with 53 dead and 99 injuries.

I told a designer friend how ads and promoted content is being abused during the war, and how tech companies are turning the blind eye to what Israel is doing. She drew this to express the situation. We are under attack with bombs & ads.

🟠أثر التحول الرقمي على الحقوق الاقتصادية والاجتماعية تناقش هذه الورقة أثر التحول الرقمي على الحقوق الاقتصادية والاجتماعية. في سبيل ذلك، تركز الورقة على ثلاثة حقوق رئيسية، وهي الحق في التعليم، والحق في العمل، والحق في الصحة.

“We don't want people's voices being censored by states, but we also don't want people's voices being drowned out by these bots and by humans doing propaganda as well as states doing propaganda,” EFF’s @jillian.bsky.social told @ajenglish.bsky.social.

Why metadata matters, and can be a goldmine of dangerous information simplex.chat/blog/2024041...

Arab-Americans aren't the only ones with serious concerns on Biden's handling of the war on Gaza. On #StPaddysDay, read more about the Irish-American swing vote and how what's happening in Palestine has become critical for them: www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

Israel is jamming GPS in Lebanon smex.org/how-israels-...

Our team discovered the stamp of “Charming Kitten,” a cyber espionage unit run by the Iranian (IRGC).  This group has previously targeted journalists, academics, and organizations in the WANA region. The story of what happened with some tips for protection. smex.org/it-takes-one...

Israeli high-tech is not only here to stay, but will grow better out of this,” said Michael Eisenberg, an Israeli American venture capitalist and Dream co-founder, in the promo video. theintercept.com/2024/01/18/i...

Pal Tel will have their fuel out in Gaza this Thursday. This means there will be no telecom and Internet. Plz sign & share this petition asking Egypt to activate their antennas to reach part of Gaza. www.change.org/p/egypt-exte...

ُHamas to Aljazeera: All Civilians prisoners we have are not for negotiation, and we will release them when things improve on the ground. This is some good news!

They control what we publish They control what we see online They control who we interact with They control ads online They control what we watch We live in full Tech authoritarianism era Apple had concerns about the subject matter Stewart planned for three shows during the upcoming season.

Instagram got caught adding terrorist on some Palestinian profiles. They apologize after they got caught. Biases against Palestinian narrative continues..

The time now is for a #ceasefire. The next step is to think on the long term what will be the solution to solve this struggle. Maybe a two state solution real negotiation is a discussion that should happen.

“This Administration’s response – and much of Congress’ as well – is an impulsive reaction built on confirmation bias, political convenience, intellectual bankruptcy, and bureaucratic inertia,” www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/p...

History of Israel bombing hospitals.

2 Million people has no water in Gaza, UNRWA says.

Will there be an end for such a misery?