What Palestinians in Gaza are going through brings back all the trauma of my childhood in Bosnia | Opinion In the early 1990s as Serb armed forces besieged towns, the local people and displaced people like me and my family experienced severe and persistent food shortages, writes Emina Ćerimović.

If you read one thing today, let it be this by @eminacerimovic.bsky.social

Survivors of genocide and starvation should not have to retell their stories and relive their trauma. But when they do, we should listen. And act.

archive.ph/NCbTj

How My Reporting on the Columbia Protests Led to My Deportation As an Australian who wrote about the demonstrations while on campus, I gave my phone a superficial clean before flying to the U.S. I underestimated what I was up against.

The deportation of dissent. Important read of one journalist’s account
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Why are governments talking about killer robots? 🔊 ⤵️

Governments should seize the opportunity to adopt a new international treaty to address killer robots' threats to human rights.

#StopKillerRobots

US: Major Companies Violate Gig Workers’ Rights Major digital labor platforms, also known as gig companies, operating in the United States misclassify gig workers as independent contractors, denying them labor rights.

New @hrw.org report: a deep dive on the gig economy in the US, by @lenasimet.bsky.social, @amostoh.bsky.social + me. It looks at 7 major platform companies, the extractive business model, and a growing workforce reliant on precarious work that denies them hard-won rights. www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

We hosted an event on “digital authoritarianism and democratic freedom” last night at Columbia. Meanwhile there were NYPD helicopters overhead, strange surveillance vehicles like this outside, and eventually a battalion of NYPD special ops called in to end a student occupation of the library.

Will do! <3 Nicole

@hrw.org @article19.bsky.social and IFOD wrote to Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and X urging them to uphold the right to freedom of expression of your users in Türkiye and resist Turkish state censorship 👇

www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

Turkish authorities have escalated their crackdown on free expression & social media companies are complying with arbitrary requests. On May 8 X blocked access to the account of jailed Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu

Social media companies should resist Turkish state censorship
www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

Poster for launch event for the 2025 RDR Index: Big Tech Edition May 1

Excited to join this fantastic line up of speakers for the launch of the 2025 Ranking Digital Rights index. No better time to reflect on lessons learned from a decade of pushing for accountability for tech companies. Not in DC? tune in online today at 10am ET 👇

forms.office.com/pages/respon...

One argument that I make repeatedly in my work is that many of the things that technologists call “inefficiencies” are moments where people are able to take back power from the state. You don’t want the state to have a monopoly on data because the state is not always a positive or even neutral actor

Those of us who live or have lived in authoritarian regimes will tell you that data collection is an obsession of authoritarianism. Not that data collection is inherently bad - but that authoritarian regimes rely on procedurality to mask the cruel reality of what they do - self absolution.

A sobering and dark, but essential read. This was a herculean effort by @hrw.org colleagues 👇
100 Human Rights Harms in 100 Days: The Trump Administration’s Assault on Rights in the US and Abroad www.hrw.org/feature/2025...

DOGE's Growing Reach into Personal Data: What it Means for Human Rights Congress should update the Privacy Act to prevent DOGE from violating U.S. international rights obligations by creating a massive database.

My latest for @justsecurity.org on what Trump's call to eliminate “information silos” within government means for human rights. This dangerous and dystopian move underscores the desperate need for comprehensive privacy and data protection laws in the US @hrw.org
www.justsecurity.org/110133/what-...

Terrifying read. Sensitive personal data left exposed. Labor rights undermined. Intimidation of a whistleblower. Basic cybersecurity principles violated.

Pressuring Migrants to ‘Self-Deport,’ White House Moves to Cancel Social Security Numbers By placing migrants in Social Security’s “death master file,” the Trump administration is seeking to cut off their access to credit cards, bank accounts and other financial services.

Now a social security database being weaponized to cut people off from essential financial services so that they “self deport”. Putting aside the inhumanity of the approach, the list included a 13 yo & 7 other minors and may rely on faulty data
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/u...

Information Silos exist for very good reasons.

Do you want your medical data, tax data, social media days, etc combined in one place and made available to anyone in the federal government?

In yet another crackdown on LGBT rights, Hungary’s parliament has passed a law that will outlaw LGBT Pride and similar events.

The law, which penalizes organizers and attendees, also authorizes the use of facial recognition technology to identify attendees.

#Egypt: UN Experts call for release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, as his mother's life is in danger after 148 days of hunger strike

@eudiplomacy.bsky.social: stop ignoring flagrant crackdown on free speech, make human rights core in future relationship

www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel... @euinegypt.bsky.social

A new McCarthy era is upon us. Stupid, depressing, and dangerous as ever. I wonder whose name will carry the dunce cap in the history books. Too many are complicit. I’ll need to find upset and action, but for now I’m feeling grief at the dehumanization inherent to all this.

Judge: US gov’t violated privacy law by disclosing personal data to DOGE Disclosure of personal information to DOGE “is irreparable harm,” judge rules.

“This continuing, unauthorized disclosure of the plaintiffs' sensitive personal information to DOGE affiliates is irreparable harm that money damages cannot rectify," the judge wrote.

UK Encryption Order Threatens Global Privacy Rights The United Kingdom government’s order to Apple to allow access to encrypted cloud data harms the privacy rights of users in the UK and worldwide.

The UK should drop its order to Apple demanding access to encrypted user data. Strong encryption should be the norm, and this order threatens the rights of users worldwide

www.hrw.org/news/2025/02...

Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook Chaos in Washington, DC, is forcing some to move to new platforms.

US federal employees learning what activists, journalists , and people living under repressive governments have known for years www.theverge.com/news/610951/...

Google Announces Willingness to Develop AI for Weapons Google, a company that once went by the motto “don’t be evil,” appears to be changing tack. The tech giant on Tuesday announced significant changes to its artificial intelligence (AI) policy that had ...

Google has revised its AI Principles, scrapping a previous veto on developing AI weapons. A global industry leader suddenly abandoning its self-proclaimed prohibited uses of AI underscores why voluntary principles are not a substitute for regulation and enforceable law. www.hrw.org/news/2025/02...

Google announced significant changes to its artificial intelligence policy this week.

This pivot from refusing to build AI for weapons to stating an intent to create AI that supports national security ventures is stark, and it sparks serious human rights concerns.

Read more: bit.ly/4gwYBeL

This is just the latest example of civil society being intimidated at a UN conference. With the IGF’s mandate up for renewal later this year it is all the more critical for the UN to ensure that civil society can participate safely in future annual forums

They also threatened to de-badge HRW's Saudi Arabia researcher on the basis of this video which cites the case of retired teacher Muhammad al-Ghamdi, who was originally sentenced to death based on his peaceful social media posts

x.com/hrw/status/1...

The IGF replaced most of Lina Alhathloul's speech with the image on the left. The image on the right is what was removed as a code of conduct violation.

UN Censors Criticism of Saudi Arabia at Internet Conference United Nations officials removed criticisms of the Saudi government from the official record of a UN-organized internet governance conference in Riyadh in December 2024, and retaliated against civil s...

Last year my @hrw.org colleague @joeyshea.bsky.social & I attended the #UN Internet Governance Forum in Riyadh. We organized a session w/the Saudi human rights org ALQST. @linaalhathloul.bsky.social spoke remotely.

The UN censored the session & retaliated against us 👇

www.hrw.org/news/2025/02...

Last day to apply to join @hrw.org as a senior tech researcher. Location is flexible. Expertise in internet infrastructure, platform accountability, commercial data exploitation, or labor rights is desirable. More details in job spec linked below 👇🏻

Last day of the #IGF in Riyadh. First time @hrw.org has official access to Saudi Arabia in nearly a decade.

The UN should ensure that IGFs are held in environments in which civil society can participate safely without fear of retribution.

www.hrw.org/news/2024/12...