RightsCon Tunis 2019

"Fear, friction and flooding" are the three methods coined for new censorship models in oppressive regimes (Roberts, 2018), which captures the essence of new online tactics to stifle freedoms online. This session will look at how conditions have worsened in Bahrain, Egypt, Iran and Turkey in the past year. This session by Motoon will convene technical experts, leading Internet researchers, and digital rights activists working on documenting and resisting censorship in Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia and Bahrain. This session will aim to understand how the situation has evolved in each country. In some instances governments are learning from each other; in other instances governments are working with the private sector to control and surveil their citizens online. While these countries are not the only ones in the region to experience such turbulence in online rights, they are a diverse examples of the languages, geopolitical contexts, and economic situations that are both resounding within the wider region. We will discuss the facts amongst experts, while creating an opportunity to learn from this coalition of regional peers to come up with ways rights advocates in the MENA region can fight against these tightenings using resources of research, documentation, technology and law.