De|Center

These are mass #surveillance & censorship policies pushed as “child safety.” Threatening online anonymity. Back in 2021, De|Center’s Afsaneh Rigot explained why anonymity is essential to human rights work, including her own & for criminalized queer communities www.belfercenter.org/publication/...

Mass government surveillance treating social media as “crime scenes.” ICE/DHS agents using deception & fake accounts to patrol private groups & profiles, racially targeting immigrants.These are the exact digital entrapment tactics of abusive policing worldwide — from dating apps to WhatsApp groups🔐

Indian Farmers And Trade Unions Protest U.S. Trade Deal With Nationwide Strike (Photos) Farmers and trade unions argue the trade deal will damage their livelihoods, as they will be unable to compete with cheap produce from the United States.

Senior opposition leader and Gandhi family scion, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, tweeted: “The Narendra Modi government first attacked workers' rights with the Labor Code, and then, under pressure from the United States...

Seven Billion Reasons for Facebook to Abandon its Face Recognition Meta’s analysis that it can avoid scrutiny by releasing a privacy invasive product during a time of political crisis is craven and morally bankrupt. It is also dead wrong.

Meta adding face recognition technology to its smart glasses would violate the privacy rights of millions of people and cost the company billions of dollars in legal battles. It should abandon its plans. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

To resist masked infiltration, build resilience now. Queer people & activists experience entrapment daily& show the way. In tech design build: community-focused verification systems, ephemeral & stealthy features, screenshot resistance& REAL anonymity. see our recos
www.article19.org/wp-content/u...

Mass government surveillance treating social media as “crime scenes.” ICE/DHS agents using deception & fake accounts to patrol private groups & profiles, racially targeting immigrants.These are the exact digital entrapment tactics of abusive policing worldwide — from dating apps to WhatsApp groups🔐

👋 We're back! We know it's been a while, but just because we've been quiet, doesn't mean we have not been busy! Check out some of the things we have been working on over the last few months - also on our website: www.migrationtechmonitor.com

Meet Aliya Rahman, Disabled U.S. Citizen Assaulted, Jailed & Traumatized by ICE in Minneapolis We speak with Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen who was violently dragged from her car by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis last month and detained at the Whipple Federal Building, which has beco...

"Anybody knows, who studies history, what happens when you have folks who are now treating these humans as bodies, and you have no reason to believe you’re going to make it out alive from a place where they’re already calling you a body." Thank you, Aliya Rahman, for this brave testimony & analysis💥

Users report bypassing FRT verification using VR avatars.FRT verification is not just a surveillance tool, but biased, faulty tech that further excludes Black, brown & trans people.Once again, a technology that doesn’t work, supports mass surveillance&sold as a solution that ignores the real problem

Queer resistance to digital oppression in the Middle East and North Africa  - ARTICLE 19 LGBTQI+ people in 8 countries across the Middle East and North Africa tell ARTICLE 19 how police are weaponising dating, messaging, and social media apps to persecute them – and what tech companies ca...

Our research with @article19.bsky.social showed the risks of digital evidence & policing of queer communities in MENA: from mass arrests & torture.The need is more privacy, harm reduction & real anonymity.These policies push them off platforms & increase their risks www.article19.org/queer-resist...

So, You’ve Hit an Age Gate. What Now? EFF is against age gating and age verification mandates, and we hope we’ll win in getting existing ones overturned and new ones prevented. But mandates are already in effect, and every day many people...

Make sure you also read @eff.org’s explainer on age verification mandates www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Great article! Thanks for bringing it to our attention

There’s no real evidence these policies protect children, often the opposite is true.The tradeoffs costs and harms here are extremely high. For many marginalized communities these rights to anonymity are nonnegotiable. Why we need privacy-preserving, community-informed harm reduction (which exists!)

These are mass #surveillance & censorship policies pushed as “child safety.” Threatening online anonymity. Back in 2021, De|Center’s Afsaneh Rigot explained why anonymity is essential to human rights work, including her own & for criminalized queer communities www.belfercenter.org/publication/...

FBI Couldn’t Get into WaPo Reporter’s iPhone Because It Had Lockdown Mode Enabled Lockdown Mode is a sometimes overlooked feature of Apple devices that broadly make them harder to hack. A court record indicates the feature might be effective at stopping third parties unlocking some...

The FBI has so far been unable to get into Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s iPhone because it’s using Lockdown Mode — one of my favorite iOS features. You can turn it on for iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS too! www.404media.co/fbi-couldnt-...

@zackpolanski.bsky.social is right; Palantir has powered ICE's terror against migrant communities for a decade; Palantir also sells AI tools to Israel for use in their objectives in Gaza amidst a genocide.

As per @amnesty.org states must divest from Palantir and offer no safe harbour or platform!

Black graphic with text "ICE out of Minneapolis NOW"

ICE and CBP agents are out of control and put everyone in danger.

We're calling for ICE agents to withdraw from Minneapolis, and for Congress to rein in ICE’s abuses in our communities.

VPN users under siege in Jammu and Kashmir as authorities issue a 2-month ban – here's what we know Digital rights experts say the order is illegal

VPN users in Jammu & Kashmir face a 2-month ban.

Raman Jit Singh Chima, our Senior International Counsel & Asia Pacific Policy Director, warns: "Law enforcement is trying to push everyday people from not using VPNs, and that's alarming."

Read ⬇️

www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-priv...

We’re proud to have contributed to this work. HRW has worked tirelessly to verify digital evidence of mass killings in Iran.

“Thousands of protesters and bystanders are believed to have been killed, while severe communication restrictions conceal the true scale of atrocities.”

Report: ICE Using Palantir Tool That Feeds On Medicaid Data ICE is using a Palantir tool that uses Medicaid and other government data to stalk people for arrest. This is exactly the kind of data privacy abuse that EFF has been warning about.

ICE is using a Palantir tool that uses Medicaid and other government data to stalk people for arrest, 404 Media reports. This is exactly the kind of data privacy abuse that EFF has been warning about.

Congress Wants To Hand Your Parenting to Big Tech Lawmakers in Washington are once again focusing on kids, screens, and mental health. But according to Congress, Big Tech is somehow both the problem and the solution. The Senate Commerce Committee hel...

Congress says it wants to empower parents online. But the Kids Off Social Media Act would do the opposite—by forcing Big Tech to decide how families use the internet.

Age Verification and Age Gating: Resource Hub Age verification (or age-gating) laws generally require online services to check, estimate, or verify all users’ ages—often through invasive tools like ID checks, biometric scans, or other dubious

There’s never been a better time to learn what’s at stake and how to protect yourself from invasive age verification mandates. Head over to EFF.org/Age to explore our explainers, user-friendly guides, technical breakdowns, and advocacy tools. The fight to protect the internet begins with you.

In 2026, we aim to feature profiles of the people interviewed for our reports alongside the academic rigor of the research. From those incarcerated in the US and El Salvador, to queer and migrant rights advocates in Tunisia, and survivors of genocides in Sudan and Palestine.

🚨 Do not hand your unlocked phone to law enforcement 🚨

Normalising the surrender of unlocked devices — esp at borders — is a dangerous precedent Apple is fore-fronting. Pushing an unlocked phone as standard-issue ID &commercialising #surveillance under the guise of “convenience”
#privacy #digitalID

In 2026, we aim to feature profiles of the people interviewed for our reports alongside the academic rigor of the research. From those incarcerated in the US and El Salvador, to queer and migrant rights advocates in Tunisia, and survivors of genocides in Sudan and Palestine.

The year ahead: How decentered stories can counter tyranny Normalization and numbness are inevitable when those in power nudge the needle of morality each week, writes Roja, our communications director. But we have lived through this before, and the decentere...

If corrupt authorities derive power through generalizing masses of people into faceless mobs, then the antidote is to continue to give them voices, faces, lived experiences. #decenter #designfromthemargins 🔐

YouTube video by FRONTLINE PBS | Official Surviving CECOT (full documentary) | Deported to a Maximum-Security Prison | FRONTLINE + ProPublica

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

Trial of NGO workers accused of assisting 'illegal' migration opens in Tunisia Aid workers accused of assisting irregular migration to Tunisia went on trial on Monday, as Amnesty International criticised what it called "the relentless criminalisation of civil society" in the cou...

Hey @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu @eudiplomacy.bsky.social - Do you notice #Tunisia 's fall in authoritarianism, with 0 reaction from your side? Is a more repressive country in #EU's interest?

Speechless Europe has for sure no leverage.

www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20...

www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12...

From the privacy community on Reddit: We’re EFF and we’re fighting to defend your privacy from the global onslaught of invasive age verification mandates. Ask us anything! Explore this post and more from the privacy community

AMA Alert! We launched EFF.org/Age, our Age Verification Resource hub, and want to talk to you about it. We’ll be on Reddit's r/privacy today, on 12/16, and on 12/17 to help you resist this censorship and surveillance nightmare. www.reddit.com/r/privacy/c...

Image of a group of security officials looking at multiple screens showing civilian footage. Text: “Security officials treat people of my gender as if it’s a weak spot to shut us down”. How gender is weaponised against Women Human Rights Defenders in Kashmir

Image of a group of security officials looking at multiple screens showing civilian footage. Text: For women human rights defenders in Kashmir, technologies of war—particularly digital surveillance—have been re-engineered to operate as intimate tools of intimidation. Not only are their public actions monitored, but their private lives are dissected under the state’s algorithmic gaze.

Partial image of a group of security officials looking at multiple screens showing civilian footage. Text: Security officials use journalists’ digital presence to dissect private lives, from everyday movements to information on their families, during summons. This often means endangering sources or personal privacy.

Partial image of a group of security officials looking at multiple screens showing civilian footage. Text: Women journalists are especially forced to keep their profile low because the intimidation uses their gender identity to silence them. This post has been adapted from a collection on militarisation and technology by Safety For Voices.

Digital surveillance in Kashmir acts as a character certificate — based on social media activities, journalism or human rights work, making its way into the files of the CID.

For women, the consequences (& harassment) are gendered. Read on GenderITorg: genderit.org/feminist-tal...

@apc.org #16Days