Closer than ever
APC understands that we are all dealing with unprecedented circumstances as we face the challenges, fear and uncertainty brought on by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. We know it impacts our work, our personal lives and the lives of those we care about. Each country is tackling the situation differently, so the contexts we find ourselves in are as diverse as the ways we find to navigate shifting conditions.
In these exceptional times, we wish to send our solidarity and appreciation for connecting with us. While we are distancing ourselves physically, we continue to stay closer than ever to each other and share tools and resources as well as support. We also want to examine how we can continue to promote human rights online in the context of a global pandemic. We are all facing this problem together but we know it affects different countries and communities in different ways. Therefore, we would like to channel the strength of our network to share some important resources that we hope will be empowering, enlightening and reassuring.
Below you will find articles and insights shared by our community, which has been working on human rights and technology issues for over 30 years. We will be updating these lists on a regular basis, so please feel free to connect with us if you have some resources to share.
This research from the DEF tries to understand the chronology of events that started rumours, fake news and misinformation about COVID-19 that spread across India.
Body & Data asked their followers on social media to answer some questions about misinformation circulating in Nepal during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Uganda, social media is one of the avenues for disseminating information on COVID-19 to citizens. However, the effectiveness has been undermined by the social media tax, which requires telecom subscribers to pay a daily subscription in order to access popular social media platforms.
Media Matters for Democracy is deeply concerned about reports of journalists in Pakistan forced to cover the COVID-19 public health crisis without adequate protective measures and safety precautions.
See how videojournalists in the Philippines are responding to the pandemic in this video from EngageMedia.
A crisis like the present shows the importance of thinking issues like privacy through beforehand rather than trying to fix them after the event.
This position paper was prepared as part of 7amleh's advocacy work, focused on defending Palestinian digital rights. It is a part of a series of position papers examining the effects of the policies and practices of governments and companies on Palestinian digital rights.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are resorting other measures that may have the incidental effect of concentrating power to a few, providing an opportunity for authoritarian leaders to consolidate the government’s might in order to stifle some essential freedoms.
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified our need for a safe and secure internet. This article explores what happened at the original epicentre of the pandemic and what measures of internet censorship were deemed necessary by the Chinese government to bring it under control.
The Bilal Bagh protests in India snowballed from an all-women sit-in to a highly disciplined, non-violent revolution, even as it headed on a collision course with the Indian state and, as the government claimed, the COVID-19 virus.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2020
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