Digital Rights

This paper explores the meanings of women’s empowerment and gender equality
in the information society, looking at the opportunity for progressive change and
critically unpacking the Information and Communication Technology for Development
(ICTD) discourse on gender and development. It also seeks to articulate
a rights-based framework to policy and action that takes on the specific
question of what models of access and connectivity will work for the marginalised
peoples and countries, in a manner that promotes gender justice. The paper was
written for the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development
(UN-GAID) Annual Meeting and Global Forum 2008.

On the occasion of the Privacy Symposium 2022 in Venice, an Italian Institute for Privacy and Data Valorisation’s new open access paper has just been published: “The future of personal data in the Metaverse“. It relates to the complex aspects of the protection of rights, freedoms and personal data in the Metaverse.

This thought-provoking legal study deals with intriguing questions of high interest for the future of digital regulation, such as: What is the nature of human characteristics’ data? How should we consider inferred data?  How to legitimise personal data processing in the Metaverse?  The study also analyses possible “augmented impacts” on individuals, aiming to frame, from a brand new juridical perspective, secondary uses and data sharing in the Metaverse. Finally, a reflection on the potential bright side, focusing on “augmented rights” which could be enabled by virtual and augmented reality, unlocking the value of the Metaverse.

Co-authors of this paper are Luca Bolognini, President of the Italian Institute for Privacy and Data Valorisation (Istituto Italiano per la Privacy e la Valorizzazione dei Dati – IIP – Rome – Italy) and Marco Emanuele Carpenelli, Fellow of the IIP.

If India has supported economic, social and cultural rights far more vocally at global fora than civil and political rights, this is a result of both domestic security compulsions and historical foreign policy positions. Internet rights advocates’ strategies will need to take into account India’s preoccupation with sovereignty and an improved international stature to gain the country’s full support.

El llamado derecho al olvido como una manifestación del derecho a la protección de datos personales es una realidad insoslayable en el ámbito de la Unión Europea. Sin embargo, esta perspectiva ha generado posturas encontradas, tanto por la complejidad de su implementación como por los potenciales conflictos que podría implicar para el ejercicio de otros derechos humanos. Esto resulta de especial relevancia para aquellos países en los que el derecho de la Unión Europea ha sido un importante referente en el diseño normativo e institucional del derecho a la protección de datos personales. En ese contexto, este artículo pretende dilucidar si dadas las condiciones actuales del sistema jurídico mexicano, en el que se carece de resoluciones firmes que esclarezcan la solución, es posible adoptar el camino previamente trazado por el fallo inédito del Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea. Para esos efectos, este artículo se centra en el debate generado en torno al papel de los intermediarios de Internet y en el reconocimiento del derecho a la protección de datos personales como un derecho humano.

This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Internet inclusion unfold in the marginalized communities of Rio de Janeiro. In April 2014, Brazil enacted the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), an “Internet Bill of Rights” that promotes collaborative, democratic digital governance and regards Internet access as a requisite for civil rights. Rio’s favelas are territories where many of the intended beneficiaries of the Internet access policies live. Yet, drug gangs often control favela neighborhoods and censor the digital access of favela residents, which is just one example of how Internet access in disadvantaged communities is tied to a number of broader socio-political realities and risks. Because these risks index larger disjunctions in contemporary Brazilian democracy, I propose that violence and informal governance in urban favelas creates a corresponding disjunction in the MCI’s pledge of Internet access as a civil right.

Children's rights in the digital age This project was undertaken to provide children’s views on digital rights, at the upcoming Day of General Discussion of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. In 2014, 148 children from 16 countries and speaking eight different languages, participated in workshops, to share their views on their rights in the digital age. Overall, the research finds that policy makers and practitioners must engage children in an ongoing conversation about how to use digital media to support children’s rights. Children want to be involved in these conversations. They want to take responsibility for making the internet a better place, and they have valuable expertise to share. The “digital champion” profiles featured in the supplement to this report evidence some of the achievements that are possible when the potential of digital media is harnessed in the service of children’s rights. These feature pieces showcase young individuals and youth-focused organisations who are maximising the possibilities that digital media offer for children in different parts of the world to live better lives. As a collection, these stories reveal a message that runs through both the developing and the developed world—digital media and ICTs are fostering children’s rights by allowing them to be both agents of change, and creators and receivers of innovative approaches to community, health, wellbeing, education, safety, inclusion and civic participation. The project was a joint effort between the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney, the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and UNICEF, in partnership with the Digitally Connected Network.

The case of Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp (1999) provides a useful prism through which we may analyse the application of copyright law in relation to concepts such as originality and the Public Domain. An extensive discussion of the minutiae of the case is beyond the scope of this study, particularly in view of the fact that many commentators such as Garnett (2000), Deazley (2001), and Matz (2000) have thoroughly dissected it in the past. This paper focuses instead on the long-term impact this ruling has had on industry practices, policy, the Public Domain and copyright law.

En este informe analizamos la brecha oculta en las estadísticas de acceso a internet en México bajo una perspectiva de género. Acceso no es "conexión en los hogares" o "datos en el celular". Acceso es cuando la red sirve como una herramienta para aprender y conocer; cuando como mujeres podemos pagarla sin abandonar otras prioridades; si tiene contenidos que nos interesen y sean relevantes para nosotras; si podemos producir y co-crear estos mismos; si un espacio seguro para compartir y disentir, en comunidad, en nuestro propio idioma.

Older adults around the world experience physical, psychological, social and economic issues that hinder their learning processes, performance in simple daily activities and other factors that facilitate a healthy lifestyle. Human factors associated with ageing such as poor motor skills, weakening of hearing/eyesight, slower reflexes, low stamina and deteriorating attention span/memory obstruct them from using digital tools like younger adults. Although the degree of impact may differ from person to person, these factors could be considered a gradual and dynamic process. In today’s age, it is crucial to be aware of one’s surroundings, to be updated with the latest news, to be improving one’s knowledge and to remain socially connected.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic made us realize that access to a steady internet is a necessity and not a luxury. In recent years, several communities have observed that older adults find using the internet and technologies challenging. In 2019, statistics by Pew Research Center presented that only 53% of people aged above 65+ years owned smartphones. The objective of this project is to promote digital literacy and to empower and build confidence among older adults. This research will provide insights and factual data and introduce strategies to improve human-centred design services specific to the older population intended to help them in the process of embracing modern technology. Surveying the current research on the issues regarding the challenges older adult’s face while using technology, the research outcome involves an accessible online publication specifically tailored for the target user demographic, to teach them how to use technology.

Teorijski prilozi proučavanju sajber kulture već uveliko
osvetljavaju njene različite aspekte, i pomažu u
razumevanju razloga našeg 'virtuelnog' postojanja, koje ne
samo da uspostavlja novi socijalni prostor, već menja i naš
status u 'realnom svetu'. Ovaj rad nikako ne teži da
definiše celokupnu problematiku muzike na Internetu, niti
da u potpunosti odgovori na dileme u vezi s tim, već
predstavlja prilog proučavanju muzičkoj praksi u sajber
društvu, te ga treba posmatrati kao pregled dominantnih
pojava ili ogled o muzici na Mreži.

A rapid shifting perceived from traditional content to digital media due to increasing advantages in every step of the information life cycle: create, collect, organize, store, access, deliver & use. Along with the advantages, digital content transactions are more likely prone to effects through IPR issues. Copyright and intellectual property rights (IPR) have been established and extended over hundreds of years, but implementing the same in the digital environment faces huge challenges. This article started by introducing digital rights & digital rights management (DRM), its architectural framework & techniques, and associated IPR issues. The perception of the LIS community about the role & responsibility of users & library professionals to solve these problems are the main focus of the latter part. A short survey is conducted using Google form questionnaire (N=238) and targeted all four categories, namely, LIS students (100 or 40%), LIS research scholars (25 or 10%), LIS faculties (18 or 85) & Library professionals (95 or 32%); to get the perception of the LIS community. The targeted experimental documents are categories of digital contents by their origin (i.e. Born, Turn & Gain digital documents). The geographical scope of the study extends beyond India to include some international viewpoints as well. In responses, no of the female respondent (131 or 55%) is slightly higher than male respondents (107 or 45%), while the majority of responses came from the Punjab state (42 or 19.72%). The survey findings suggested that Online materials (113 or 50.90%) Turn digital documents (168 or 75.68%) are more likely prone to IPR issues. Among users’ responsibilities, “Use of proper acknowledgement, referencing & citation” is the most preferred one (221 or 99.55%) and “Arrange orientation & outreach programme regarding IPR issues” is indicated as the major responsibility (212 or 95.50%) of the library professionals.

Against the backdrop of the current hyperconnected and highly virialised post-COVID-19 societies, we, 'pandemic citizens', wherever we are located now, have already become tiny chips inside an algorithmic giant system that nobody understands. Furthermore, over the last decade, the increasing propagation of sensors and data collections machines and data collections machines in the so-called Smart Cities by both the public and the private sector has created democratic challenges around AI, surveillance capitalism, and protecting citizens' digital rights to privacy and ownership. Consequently, the demise of democracy is clearly already one of the biggest policy challenges of our time, and the undermining of citizens' digital rights is part of this issue, particularly when many 'pandemic citizens' will likely be unemployed during the COVID-19 crisis. This book suggests reverting the intertwined mainstream paradigm of the technocratic policy scheme popularised as Smart City. The Smart City paradigm has increasingly been influenced (and even shifted) by the debate regarding urban liberties, digital rights, and cybercontrol by leading us to the consideration that actually the Smart City incarnates a society of techno-political control, which in itself has flourished abundant critique from cybernetic urbanism. To provide a constructive standpoint and acknowledging that since 2018 GDPR may have well contributed to open up a pertinent debate, this book asks whether it is possible to alter existing data governance extractivist models to incentivize further democratic citizenship through data ownership and technological sovereignty. As such, the book highlights citizen's perspective and social accountability in both transitional and experimental frameworks by pointing out the importance of creating platform-based alternative urbanism such as data and platform cooperatives. To examine citizenship is always important but perhaps never more urgent than right now in the fragile post-COVID-19 hyperconnected societies. Amidst the AI-driven algorithmic disruption and surveillance capitalism, this book sheds light on the way citizens take control of the Smart City, and not vice-versa, by revolving around the new book entitled Smart City Citizenship recently published by Elsevier. By following the methodological and conceptual proposal of the book, the keynote conference will introduce nine key ideas including how to (1) deconstruct, (2) unplug, (3) decipher, (4) democratise, (5) replicate, (6) devolve, (7) commonise, (8) protect, and (9) reset Smart City Citizenship.

To cite this article:
Calzada, I. (2021), Book review: Smart City Citizenship. Journal of Contemporary Urban Affairs 5(1): 145-150. DOI: 10.25034/ijcua.2021.v5n1-7.

The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the use of digital technologies in the name of public health and safety and vividly illustrated how societies, even democratic ones, can tolerate the expansion of executive power and accept restrictions on liberties. In China,

O artigo apresenta um panorama da discussão brasileira sobre proteção de dados pessoais e destaca os impasses para a construção de um modelo de corregulação, no qual Estado e setor privado se engajam na proteção da privacidade. Apresenta também uma crítica à visão de que a solução para o atraso regulatório brasileiro para proteção de dados pessoais está no Marco Civil da Internet. A partir do debate internacional sobre direito e tecnologia, o artigo apresenta a ideia de um sistema regulatório híbrido e identifica o papel de diferentes atores para esse modelo regulatório no Brasil.

This study assesses the state of privacy and personal data protection in Malawi. It tracks key trends in the country over the past five years, analysing major risk factors, and mapping notable  developments  on  data  protection  and  privacy legislation  and  violations,  and  users’  understanding    of protecting their privacy.  The study identifies measures that can  positively  influence  the  right  to  privacy  legislation  in Malawi and should inform key actors, including government, the  media,  academia,  civil  society  on  the  current  legal, institutional and practice landscape as well as opportunities for advancing the right to privacy and data protection.

Uganda does not have a comprehensive elections campaign financing regulatory framework. As a result of the absence of this framework, commercialization of elections campaigns has affected the quality of leadership at the national assembly. This article makes an in-depth analysis of the salient causes of commercialization of parliamentary election campaigns in Uganda. Commercialization of elections campaigns has also affected the accountability relationship between the electors and the elected, consequently violating the electors’ right to human dignity. It has also derailed the development of sustainable parliamentary governance in Uganda. The article also indicates that vote buying and selling are a reality. It further confirms that there is a lack of political will to enforce the elections campaign financing law, as it is on the statute books. The legal provisions on non-use of government resources during the campaign period are wantonly violated, especially by the ruling party candidates. To curb the aforementioned vices, the article indicates that there is a need for a comprehensive law on elections campaign financing in Uganda. The political will to enforce the new comprehensive law, if enacted, will ameliorate the consequences of commercialization of election campaigns.

A busca e apreensão no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro se restringe a um Código de Processo Penal voltado meramente às coisas materiais, evidenciando a inexistência de uma regulação normativa específica que acompanhe a atual dinâmica das relações sociais que implica o alto nível de uso tecnológico em todas as esferas. A ausência da adequação dessa disciplina jurídica diante da evolução tecnológica somada à lacuna jurídica sobre a custódia da prova contribui para a criação de categorias divorciadas de sua natureza jurídica. Nesse sentido, o presente artigo visa a analisar a licitude da busca e a apreensão de dados extraídos de telefones celulares. Para tanto, utilizou-se a pesquisa bibliográfica e a análise jurisprudencial de casos da Suprema Corte dos Estados Unidos, do STF, STJ, do Tribunal de Justiça da União Europeia e as inovações trazidas pelo Tribunal Constitucional Federal alemão. Uma especial atenção é dada aos casos Riley vs. California e Carpenter vs. United States. Entre outras questões, destacam-se as dificuldades em relação à obtenção dos dados eletrônicos que se encontram no telefone celular e a necessidade de maior definição quanto aos limites da busca e do material que poderá ser apreendido

Uno de los principales desafíos del sistema penal paraguayo en el Siglo XXI es afrontar las conductas delictivas en la era digital. En un primera etapa se han realizado reformas al código penal para incluir sanciones especiales a los delitos vinculados a la tecnología. Por otra parte, en el 2017 se ratifica en Paraguay, el Convenio de Ciberdelincuencia de Budapest: un marco normativo que busca la armonización de la persecución de los delitos cibernéticos de forma transfronteriza.

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo exponer las preocupaciones, los vacíos y los desafíos del marco normativo que presenta el Convenio de Ciberdelincuencia de Budapest, las normas internas vigentes y las autoridades locales para una eficaz persecución de los delitos informáticos en el marco del respeto de los tratados internacionales de los derechos humanos y los más altos estándares de protección de datos personales. Para esto, la investigación aborda un diagnóstico local a partir de un análisis jurídico y entrevistas semi-estructuradas a las autoridades de persecución penal en Paraguay.
Palabras clave: cibercrimen, delitos informáticos, datos de tráfico, Convención de Budapest, derechos humanos.

This paper analyses the considerable, but hitherto undocumented, impact of issues relating to gender and sexuality on the development of digital rights in India through an analysis of a number of key court cases. The cases touch on sexual expression and censorship, anonymity and the #MeToo movement, and the non-consensual sharing of sexual images, among other things. One of the key findings of the paper is that when Indian courts resort to 'protecting' women, as they too often do, not only women's rights and sexuality rights but the digital rights of all of us contract. But when courts use a women's rights framework, new avenues for exercising our rights open up.

ISBN 978-3-0365-4173-0 (Hbk); ISBN 978-3-0365-4174-7 (PDF)
https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-0365-4174-7

© by the authors
Social Innovation in Sustainable Urban Development
Harald A. Mieg
(Ed.)
Pages: 242
Published: May 2022
(This book is a reprint of the Special Issue Social Innovation in Sustainable Urban Development that was published in Sustainability)

https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/book/5565

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/Social_Innovation_Sustainable_Urban_Development

The Right to Have Digital Rights in Smart Cities
by Igor Calzada
Sustainability 2021, 13(20), 11438; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011438 - 16 Oct 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2001
Abstract New data-driven technologies in global cities have yielded potential but also have intensified techno-political concerns. Consequently, in recent years, several declarations/manifestos have emerged across the world claiming to protect citizens’ digital rights. In 2018, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and NYC city councils formed the Cities’ Coalition for Digital Rights (CCDR), an international alliance of global People-Centered Smart Cities—currently encompassing 49 cities worldwide—to promote citizens’ digital rights on a global scale. People-centered smart cities programme is the strategic flagship programme by UN-Habitat that explicitly advocates the CCDR as an institutionally innovative and strategic city-network to attain policy experimentation and sustainable urban development. Against this backdrop and being inspired by the popular quote by Hannah Arendt on “the right to have rights”, this article aims to explore what “digital rights” may currently mean within a sample consisting of 13 CCDR global people-centered smart cities: Barcelona, Amsterdam, NYC, Long Beach, Toronto, Porto, London, Vienna, Milan, Los Angeles, Portland, San Antonio, and Glasgow. Particularly, this article examines the (i) understanding and the (ii) prioritisation of digital rights in 13 cities through a semi-structured questionnaire by gathering 13 CCDR city representatives/strategists’ responses. These preliminary findings reveal not only distinct strategies but also common policy patterns. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Innovation in Sustainable Urban Development)

This book introduces us to legal and technical aspects of the Internet. It covers various topics that at first glance seem to be for a specialized audience, such as lawyers and engineers, but the reality is that since the Internet is the most influential technology in our lives, it opens up a field of study and general interest for analysis. And above all it raises the question: is the Internet a weapon or a tool? This research aims to exhort all readers to know the depth of the legal and conceptual nature of the advantages and disadvantages that the use of technology can attract.

In this paper, I examine the possible human rights violations emerging from Amazon’s flagship IoT device, the Amazon Echo. I analyze how this highly successful consumer product could potentially have negative impacts on data privacy and digital security and, in particular, how it might violate children’s rights to online privacy. Further, I document Amazon’s lack of commitment to adopting business and human rights principles and the company’s lack of attention to one effective Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (MSI) relating to this sector: the Global Network Initiative (GNI). I also examine Amazon’s human rights policies regarding the protection of users’ data. By comparing Amazon to other Internet companies that have released IoT products, I provide evidence that Amazon’s privacy policies have been inadequately implemented. I conclude by documenting Amazon’s attempts to address these shortcomings and offering some suggestions of these efforts might be improved in the future.

plataforma Democrática (www.plataformademocratica.org) é uma iniciativa da Fundação FHC e do Centro Edelstein de pesquisas Sociais dedicada ao fortalecimento das instituições democráticas e da cultura na América Latina, através do debate pluralista de ideias sobre as transformações na sociedade e na política da região e do mundo. Privacidade e Internet: desafios para a democracia brasileira Texto no 1, março de 2017 Dennys Antonialli e Francisco Brito Cruz Edição da Fundação FHC/Centro Edelstein, 2017 Capa: Lisia Lemes © plataforma Democrática © Dennys Antonialli e Francisco Brito Cruz Este trabalho pode ser reproduzido gratuitamente, sem fins comerciais, em sua totalidade ou em parte, sob a condição de que sejam devidamente indicados a publicação de origem e seus autores.

El presente informe corresponde a la tercera entrega del reporte anual ¿Quién defiende tus datos?, una evaluación que da cuenta de la forma en que las compañías chilenas que proveen servicios de internet resguardan los datos de sus clientes, especialmente frente a posibles abusos de la autoridad estatal. El énfasis está puesto en evaluar hasta qué punto las empresas defienden la privacidad de sus usuarios, sea ante las solicitudes de la autoridad frente al tratamiento indebido que terceros pretendan hacer de los datos personales de sus usuarios. Para ello, y como forma de continuar el seguimiento de la evaluación realizada el año 2018, nos proponemos responder las siguientes preguntas: ¿Cuáles son las empresas que tienen las políticas más transparentes al respecto? ¿Existen procedimientos claros en estos casos? ¿Notifican a sus usuarios de los requerimientos de información realizados por la autoridad?

The right to freedom of expression on the internet is under constant siege in Africa due to the actions of States and social media platforms. Many African States have been implementing various authoritarian techniques to trammel freedom of expression in the digital age, including internet shutdowns, repressive national security laws, internet censorship and digital surveillance. Social media companies, on the other hand, exert unbridled power over usergenerated contents on their platforms. Their discretionary power to moderate content continues to threaten the right to freedom of expression in Africa. For example, the tug of war between the Nigerian government and Twitter following Twitter's removal of President Buhari's speech epitomises how social media platforms are policing free speech in Africa. I argue that African States must end the practice of digital authoritarianism and robustly respect and protect freedom of expression on the internet based on a human rights-based approach in limiting speech. Beyond superficial human rights vocabulary, platforms must also take human rights seriously and ensure that content moderation practices are guided by human rights-based approach.

The Arab Uprisings have widely been dubbed as the “social media revolutions”, given

the central role of new media platforms in mobilising its citizens for political change. However, many Arab countries remain firmly stuck in their transitional phase, five years later, with little exploration of why authoritarian culture in the region persists. Many accounts of democratisation thus far have treated the process as one centred on the establishment of democratic structures and representative governments alone. Fundamentally, these approaches overlook the societal and cultural shift that is required in securing a sustainable democracy. The media, in addition to its political dimension, is widely acknowledged as a cultural and social institution. Given the scholarly underdevelopment of the relationship between media and democracy, this essay aims to explore the field further and provide an analysis of how the media has, and can be, used to initiate democratic transformation in the MENA world.

This article seeks to illuminate the right to privacy in the digital age under African human rights law. Recent debates have asked whether, and to what extent, African human rights law, and in particular African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Charter) protect the right to privacy on the internet. On the one hand, there is a view that the African Charter does not expressly protects the right to privacy, which gives rise to the debate around a lex imperfecta, which in turn, portrays an absence of normative protection on the right to privacy.  On the other hand, there is an argument that it is possible to read a right to privacy into the African Charter notwithstanding this lack of an express provision and this offers pragmatic alternatives on the existence of the right to privacy under African human rights law.  This article disentangles two untrodden paths towards realising the right to privacy on the internet in Africa: applying international law through the Charter’s flexibility clause and through developments under African human rights law as a result of subsequent agreements and practice. The first way allows the African Commission (Court) on Human and Peoples’ Rights to draw inspiration from international law pertaining to the right to privacy under article 60 of the African Charter.  The second way is via subsequent agreements, treaties and protocols that have developed African human rights law since the Charter came into force. As a result of either or both of these pathways, this article argues that the right to privacy in the digital age is protected as part of the corpus of the African human rights law.

for the association for ProGressiVe coMMUnications 1 "Let the mob do the job": how proponents of hatred are threatening freedom of expression and religion online in asia Published in 2017 by aPc copy editing: Laura Pérez carrara Graphic design: cathy chen creative commons attribution-sharealike 3.0 [email protected] isBn 978-92-95102-90-3 aPc-201710-ciPP-r-en-PDf-280 all views expressed in this report are aPc's and that of the author of this report. Persons interviewed and organisations consulted may not share the same views. 2 7 s e c t i o n 1: i n t r o D U c t i o n c o n t e X t o f t h e r e P o r t 8 • Victim Blaming -Bangladesh, by front Line Defenders (2016). 19 12

COVID-19 has hit citizens dramatically during 2020, not only creating a general risk-driven environment encompassing a wide array of economic vulnerabilities but also exposing them to pervasive digital risks, such as biosurveillance, misinformation, and e-democracy algorithmic threats. Over the course of the pandemic, a debate has emerged about the appropriate techno-political response when governments use disease surveillance technologies to tackle the spread of COVID-19, pointing out the dichotomy between state-Leviathan cybercontrol and civil liberties. In order to shed light on this debate, this article introduces the term ‘pandemic citizenship’ to better understand extreme circumstances in which citizens have been surviving. Particularly, this article attempts to provide an overview by focusing on stateless nations and the need to conduct further research and gather policy evidence to articulate counter political strategies as ‘algorithmic nations’. The COVID-19 pandemic has inevitably raised the need to resiliently and techno-politically respond to threats that hyper-connected and highly virialised societies produce. Amidst the increasingly AI-driven governance systems in several nation-states in Europe, this article spotted the need to devolve data power to citizens through data ecosystems in European stateless algorithmic nations. This article argues that in the absence of a coordinated and inter-dependent strategy to claim digital rights and technological sovereignty by a set of stateless algorithmic nations in Europe, on the one hand, Big Tech data-opolies, and on the other hand, the GDPR led by the European Commission, might bound and expand respectively, stateless nations’ capacity to mitigate the negative side effects of the algorithmic disruption. Individually, we already observed subtle reactions in several nations, including Catalonia and Scotland, that are unlikely to be consistent unless a joint strategy takes place at the European level by stakeholders operating in these nations’ techno-political spheres.

In this chapter we draw from recent ethnographic and archival research in Indonesia to explore how digital activists in that country translate or 'modulate' (Kelty 2008) key digital issues – which are sometimes highly technical and abstract – to reach diverse publics, often with remarkable success. We argue that Indonesia's digital activists have developed an effective pedagogical folksonomy in which three particular digital personas stand out, namely victims (korban), volunteers (relawan) and voices (suara) of the digital age. Each of these complexly mediated personas is endowed with unique attributes and located within a specific corner of Indonesia's digital activism space, and each is integral to efforts to educate diverse publics about the digital issues at stake. These three 'digital keywords' (Peters 2016) may seem both familiar and mundane, but we suggest that the work of personification that they enable has significant consequences for the framing of ongoing civil society struggles in post-Suharto Indonesia. We conclude that whether a certain individual or group is labelled a digital 'victim', 'voice' or 'volunteer' makes a difference to the evolution and eventual outcome of a given techno-political contention.

O prefácio foi, originalmente, escrito em espanhol. A tradução foi realizada por J. Reia e a revisão da tradução por L. Fergus Cruz. 1 O termos refere-se à crença de que a maioria, senão todos, os problemas complexos podem ser resolvidos através do mero uso de TICs.

With the support of the Web Foundation, Derechos Digitales researched the state of the digital gender gap in Mexico. While the official statistics show that 51.5% of women in Mexico are connected, the definitions under which this data is built hide the reality facing a majority of women — particularly those with less income and those living in rural areas.

The agency responsible for measuring internet access in Mexico defines “access” as a “household connection”. But for us, that is just one layer of access. True access to the internet exists when it serves as a tool to learn and acquire knowledge; when, as women, we can pay for connectivity without abandoning other priorities; if it has interesting and relevant content; if we can produce and co-create what we read and see; if the internet is a safe space to share and disagree, in our community and in our language. Failure to incorporate these factors into our national measure of internet access means we do not have a true understanding of internet access and use for women in Mexico https://webfoundation.org/2018/05/the-hidden-gender-gap-internet-access-statistics-in-mexico/

La crisis sanitaria provocada por el Covid-19 ha cambiado las perspectivas de desarrollo del teletrabajo dentro de la Administración Pública. El teletrabajo ha pasado de ser una figura cuya evolución estaba estancada, a presentarse como el modelo de organización del trabajo de la sociedad del futuro. En este sentido, la declaración del estado de alarma el 17 de marzo de 2020 se ha convertido en el punto de inflexión de su evolución: durante su vigencia, los empleados públicos han prestado sus servicios a través de esta modalidad, en todos los supuestos que la naturaleza de la actividad lo permitía; y una vez finalizado este, se ha continuado con esta práctica como consecuencia de que la situación epidemiológica no garantiza una protección adecuada del personal. El aumento (obligado) del uso de esta figura ha provocado su regulación para evitar la inseguridad jurídica de los empleados públicos. Sin embargo, este texto normativo es impreciso en algunos de los términos que utiliza, y demasiado flexible sobre las obligaciones que asumen las Administraciones Públicas. / Health crisis caused by Covid-19 has changed the prospects for the telework’s development in Public Administration. Telework has gone from being a figure whose evolution was stagnant, to presenting as the work organisation model of the future. In this sense, the declaration of the state of alarm on 17th March 2020 has become the turning point in its evolution: during its validity, public employees have provided their services through this modality, in all cases where the nature of the activity allowed it; and once it has ended, this practice has continued as a consequence of the fact that the epidemiological situation does not guarantee the adequate protection of the public employees. The (compulsory) increase in the use of this figure has led to its regulation to avoid legal uncertainty for public employees. However, this normative text is imprecise in some of the terms, and too flexible on the obligations assumed by Public Administration.

This research is an attempt to look at how lesbian and bisexual women in India use the virtual spaces on the Internet, including dating sites and Facebook pages/groups, to meet others from the queer community. It then further looks at the transcendence of this into the ‘real’ or offline world. The research also examines the community which is formed through this and the kind of support it provides.

In relation, it also traces the history of the Indian lesbian and bisexual woman in the recent times. To provide a contrast, the thesis looks at how gay men have used the Internet to meet others. This juxtaposition brings out the heteronormativity which influence the ways in which online spaces are queer women are constructed versus those for queer men.

Everyday people's opinions and actions matter to governments and corporations because we are both citizens and consumers. Despite the EU's muted response to the USA's and UK's surveillance scandal, we can deliver a strong response (as citizens and consumers) by carefully selecting which services, goods, and companies we employ. When citizens and consumers voice their opinions clearly and act upon them, governments and corporations respond accordingly - the EU's experience with ACTA last year proves that, without a doubt.

The  general  assumption  in  the  West  is  that  there  still  is  an  inherent  difference  between persons and things. This divide informs how “the human” and human subjectivity are constructed  as  distinct  from  all  others.  Recently,  the  distinction  has  been  challenged  in posthumanist  theory,  where  it  has  been  argued  that  the  divide  between  human  and nonhuman agents — or rather, bodies —is always an effect of a differential set of powers. For this  reason,  the  boundaries  between  human  and  nonhuman  are  always  in  flux.  As posthumanist theorists have argued, this change in boundaries may be specifically visualized in relation to digital technology. Today, such technologies obfuscate the boundaries between persons  and  things,  and  the  extensive utilization of  smartphones,  social  media, and  online search engines are just three common examples.

In parallel to the continuous expansion of digital technologies, critical understandings of how “data” and human personhood are produced are increasingly raised in legal theory. Recent developments establishing  increased  privacy  online  through  EU  law,  including  the  new General Data Protection Regulation and the famous Right to Be Forgotten case could possibly be  understood  to  have  struck  a  balance  between  interests  of  the  human in  the  form  of privacy —and the digital— in the form of information diffusion. In this Article, a posthumanist theoretical  perspective is  utilized  to  show how  the  new data  protection legislation,  with  a focus  on  the  Right  to  Be  Forgotten,  produces  such  protection  yet  continuously  withdraws data  as  a  separate  body  from  human  bodies.  For  this  reason,  it  is  argued  that  the construction of new human rights,such as those considering data protection, would benefit from understanding how the separation is, in itself, an effect of advanced capitalism.

PEER-REVIEWED: A journalism studies case study from Turkmenistan, arguably the region’s most notorious country given its status as, according to many experts, the world’s second-most totalitarian regime (after North Korea). The case study specifically deals with the ‘Turkmenet’, the Turkmen-language online community largely derived from Turkmenistanis.