All about Digital Rights with Mona Shtaya

Rights on the Line

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Mona Shtaya is a pioneering digital rights defender with more than a decade of experience. Her advocacy and campaigning has resulted in exposing digital discrimination against oppressed people, building coalitions, and mobilising groups to hold governments and tech giants accountable.

In this episode she talks about:

- What it means to be a digital rights defender (1:00 +)
- Challenges in the digital space in the MENA region (4:00 +)
- The (mis)use of laws to criminalise HRDs online (8:00)
- Digitial rights aspects of Israel/Palestine and the most recent Gaza genocide: (11:00 +, 46:00 +)
- Shadow banning (20:20 +; 29:00 +)
- How social media companies have responded to the violation of rights online (22:00 +)
- Personal challenges she has faced online as a woman human rights defender (25:00 +)
- Technology facilitated gender based violence (27:00+)
- How algorithms and other technical aspects of censorship works (35:00 +)
- How to beat the algorithm (41:00+)
*Note: This was recorded in October 2024, prior to the ceasefire of the Gaza genocide.

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Chapters

1. All about Digital Rights with Mona Shtaya (00:00:00)

2. What it means to be a digital rights defender (00:01:13)

3. Challenges in the digital space in the MENA region (00:04:03)

4. The (mis)use of laws to criminalise HRDs online (00:08:14)

5. Digitial rights aspects of Israel/Palestine and the most recent Gaza genocide (00:11:12)

6. Shadowbanning human rights content (00:20:39)

7. How social media companies have responded to the violation of rights online (00:22:19)

8. Personal challenges she has faced online as a woman human rights defender (00:26:06)

9. Technology facilitated gender based violence (00:27:14)

10. How algorithms and other technical aspects of censorship works (00:35:31)

11. How to beat the algorithm (00:41:33)