Cameran Ashraf, Ph.D.

Privacy in public: a new whitepaper on privacy in Wikipedia research Wikipedia is a global knowledge resource visited more than 15 billion times every month by humans and machines. However, the usage of Wikipedia does not stop here. Wikipedia is a vital resource for…

Very pleased to have helped develop this new paper:

Privacy in public: a new whitepaper on privacy in #Wikipedia research diff.wikimedia.org/2025/11/02/p...

#HumanRights #Privacy

Wikimedia says AI bots and summaries are hurting Wikipedia's traffic The Wikimedia foundation says an AI-fueled drop in traffic could threaten the internets largest repository of trusted information.

Visit Wikipedia - read, contribute to articles, and donate - free knowledge and the ability to have non-paywalled information available online is at stake!

www.engadget.com/ai/wikimedia...

New report out: Think Again: Freedom of Thought in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Very pleased to have played a small part in this publication! #HumanRights

"Keeping Secrets While Exposing the Truth? Balancing Data Protection in Digital Human Rights Archiving" Human rights investigators are increasingly using open-source, user-generated content scraped from online platforms as crucial digital evidence for human rights advocacy, accountability and analysis (witness accounts, footage of protests and state violence, etc.). This workshop will explore the intersection between the good-faith documentation of sensitive data on human rights violations and data protection and privacy standards. We aim to collaboratively answer the following questions: 1) What data protection standards should apply to gathering and processing such content and how? 2) How can data protection and privacy regulation negatively impact or impede digital evidence gathering and processing? 3) How can sensitive content be archived in challenging political contexts with restricted right to privacy and sophisticated surveillance? The workshop will provide the audience with a short brief on the topic, followed by an interactive exercise simulating both sides of the argument and a guided discussion to share and summarize findings. Organised by Center for European Policy Studies with Cameran Ashraf

"Keeping Secrets While Exposing the Truth? Balancing Data Protection in Digital Human Rights Archiving"

Organised by Center for European Policy Studies with @camerana.bsky.social

More information: cpdp.be/31038

#CPDP.ai #CPDP2025 #TheWorldisWatching #CPDP #Workshop

U.S. attorney for D.C. accuses Wikipedia of ‘propaganda,’ threatens nonprofit status Ed Martin sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation accusing it of spreading propaganda

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

The State Department is changing its mind about what it calls human rights The agency's annual human rights reports are being purged of references to prison conditions, political corruption and other abuses.

The State Department is changing its mind about what it calls human rights

www.npr.org/2025/04/18/n...

What Happens When Democracy Falters? Lessons from The Global Majority | TechPolicy.Press A confluence of troubling trends is reshaping the landscape of global human rights and democratic governance in the Global Majority, writes Ramsha Jahangir.

Hong Kong has been doing a deepdive into authoritarianism for 5 years now. What's happening in the US feels similar. A lot I want to share, but here's a start:

By @ramshajahangir.bsky.social with @nighatdad.bsky.social @camerana.bsky.social @mishi.bsky.social

www.techpolicy.press/what-happens...

A Powerful Conservative Think Tank Is Targeting One of the Last Good Things on the Internet The Heritage Foundation plans to “identify and target” Wikipedia editors it accuses of antisemitism.

A Powerful Conservative Think Tank Is Targeting One of the Last Good Things on the Internet (hint: it's Wikipedia)

slate.com/technology/2...

The Day After Assad The Syrian dictator’s stunning fall will scramble the balance of power in the Middle East.

The effects of the Bashar al-Assad regime’s demise will extend far beyond Syria’s borders, write @natashahall.bsky.social and @joosthiltermann.bsky.social. “The end of Assad seems certain to transform the Middle East’s balance of power.”

Luxury cars and high-end labels: shocked Syrians roam Assad family residences Footage shows people looting expensive items after ‘butcher of Damascus’ fled to Moscow with family

Makes you wonder what Khamenei and Iran's elite have in their palaces

www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

Three Iranian women fighting for artistic freedom Shirin Neshat, Nazy Nazhand and Sheree Hovsepian’s friendship is seeded in their heritage — and has bloomed through their work

What incredible women!

www.ft.com/content/fdbc...

There are moral and ideological cases for leaving X, of course, but you don't even need them: the old platform is just *gone* and has been for a long time nymag.com/intelligence...

Trump Must Rebalance America’s AI Strategy The Biden administration’s approach was risky and needs to be corrected.

#ArtificialIntelligence #AI

foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/04/t...

Certain names make ChatGPT grind to a halt, and we know why Filter resulting from subject of settled defamation lawsuit could cause trouble down the road.

"... an attacker might interrupt a #ChatGPT session using a... prompt injection of [a filtered name].... The filter also means... it's likely that ChatGPT won't be able to answer questions about this article when browsing the web, such as through ChatGPT with #Search" arstechnica.com/information-...

No Escape: The Weaponization of Gender for the Purposes of Digital Transnational Repression - The Citizen Lab Building upon our prior research and the contributions of other scholars to this field, the aim of this novel study is to understand the security risks and harms caused by digital transnational repres...

NEW REPORT: We investigate the rising trend of gender-based digital transnational repression by drawing on the lived experiences of 85 women human rights defenders living in exile across the globe.
Read the full report: citizenlab.ca/2024/12/the-...

Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi is now in Ankara to talk Syria with his Turkish counterpart. Via Iranian state media.

Lots of rumors of coup in Damascus, #Assad fleeing to Moscow - alongside semi-verified rapid opposition advances - next 24-48 hours will be key as the situation is changing rapidly in #Syria

Opinion | I’m done with Democratic purity tests Seth Moulton challenges Democrats to ignore elites and speak freely.

Great take -
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Dozens of Central Asian targets hit in recent Russia-linked cyber-espionage campaign A group labeled TAG-110 by researchers at the Insikt Group used custom malware to spy on organizations primarily in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan since July.

Dozens of Central Asian targets hit in recent Russia-linked cyber-espionage campaign therecord.media/central-asia...

Central Asia is a strategic #cyber "weak underbelly" for Russia - this campaign targeting #humanrights orgs corresponds with offline infiltration and surveillance of the same orgs