A Decade After the Arab Spring, Platforms Have Turned Their Backs on Critical Voices in the Middle East and North Africa – EFF

Many in the U.S. have spent 2020 debating the problems of content moderation on social media platforms, misinformation and disinformation, and the perceived censorship of political views. But globally, this issue has been in the spotlight for a decade.

This year is the tenth anniversary ofwhat became known as the"Arab Spring", inwhich activists and citizens across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) used social media to document the conditions in which they lived, to push for political change and social justice, and to draw the world's attention to their movement. For many, it was the first time they had seen howthe Internetcould have a role to play in pushing forhuman rights across the world. Emerging social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all basked in the reflected glory of press coverage that centered their part in the protests: often to the exclusion of those who were actually on the streets. The years afterthe uprisings failed to live up to the optimism of the time. Offline, the authoritarian backlash against the democratic protests has meant that many of those who fought for justice a decade ago, are still fighting now. And rather than help that fight, the platform policies and content moderation procedures of the tech giants now too often led to the silencing and erasure of critical voices from across the region. Arbitrary and non-transparent account suspension and removal of political and dissenting speech has become so frequent and systematic in the area that it cannot be dismissed as isolated incidents or the result of transitory errors in automated decision-making.

Along with dozens of other organizations, today EFF has signed an open letter to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube demanding the companies stop silencing critical voices in the MENA region. The letter asks for several concrete measures toensure that users across the region are treated fairly and are able to express themselves freely:

Content moderation policies are not only critical to ensuring robust political debate. They are key to expanding and protecting human rights. Ten years out from those powerful protests, it's clear that authoritarian and repressive regimes will do everything in their power to stop free and open expression. Platforms have an obligation to note and act on the effects content moderation has on oppressed communities, in MENA and elsewhere.

In 2012, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder of Facebook, wrote

By giving people the power to share, we are starting to see people make their voices heard on a different scale from what has historically been possible. These voices will increase in number and volume. They cannot be ignored. Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by all their people rather than through intermediaries controlled by a select few.

Instead, governments around the world have chosen authoritarianism, and platforms have contributed totherepression. It's time for that to end.

Read the full letter demanding that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube stop silencing critical voices from the Middle East and North Africa, reproduced below.

17 December 2020

Ten years ago today, 26-year old Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest over injustice and state marginalization, igniting mass uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and other countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

As we mark the 10th anniversary of the Arab Spring, we, the undersigned activists, journalists, and human rights organizations, have come together to voice our frustration and dismay at how platform policies and content moderation procedures all too often lead to the silencing and erasure of critical voices from marginalized and oppressed communities across the Middle East and North Africa.

The Arab Spring is historic for many reasons, and one of its outstanding legacies is how activists and citizens have used social media to push for political change and social justice, cementing the internet as an essential enabler of human rights in the digital age.

Social media companies boast of the role they play in connecting people. As Mark Zuckerberg famously wrote in his 2012 Founders Letter:

By giving people the power to share, we are starting to see people make their voices heard on a different scale from what has historically been possible. These voices will increase in number and volume. They cannot be ignored. Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by all their people rather than through intermediaries controlled by a select few.

Zuckerbergs prediction was wrong. Instead, more governments around the world have chosen authoritarianism, and platforms have contributed to their repression by making deals with oppressive heads of state; opening doors to dictators; and censoring key activists, journalists, and other changemakers throughout the Middle East and North Africa, sometimes at the behest of other governments:

Examples such as these are far too numerous, and they contribute to the widely shared perception among activists and users in MENA and the Global South that these platforms do not care about them, and often fail to protect human rights defenders when concerns are raised.

Arbitrary and non-transparent account suspension and removal of political and dissenting speech has become so frequent and systematic that they cannot be dismissed as isolated incidents or the result of transitory errors in automated decision-making.

While Facebook and Twitter can be swift in responding to public outcry from activists or private advocacy by human rights organizations (particularly in the United States and Europe), in most cases responses to advocates in the MENA region leave much to be desired. End-users are frequently not informed of which rule they violated, and are not provided a means to appeal to a human moderator.

Remedy and redress should not be a privilege reserved for those who have access to power or can make their voices heard. The status quo cannot continue.

The MENA region has one of the worlds worst records on freedom of expression, and social media remains critical for helping people connect, organize, and document human rights violations and abuses.

We urge you to not be complicit in censorship and erasure of oppressed communities narratives and histories, and we ask you to implement the following measures to ensure that users across the region are treated fairly and are able to express themselves freely:

Signed,

Access NowArabic Network for Human Rights Information ANHRIArticle 19Association for Progressive Communications APCAssociation Tunisienne de Prvention PositiveAvaaz Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)The Computational Propaganda ProjectDaaarb News websiteEgyptian Initiative for Personal RightsElectronic Frontier FoundationEuro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor Global VoicesGulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)Hossam el-Hamalawy, journalist and member of the Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists OrganizationHumena for Human Rights and Civic Engagement IFEXIlam- Media Center For Arab Palestinians In IsraelImpACT International for Human Rights PoliciesInitiative Mawjoudin pour lgalitIraqi Network for Social Media - INSMnetworkI WATCH Organisation (Transparency International Tunisia)Khaled Elbalshy - Daaarb website - Editor in ChiefMahmoud Ghazayel, IndependentMarlena Wisniak, European Center for Not-for-Profit LawMasaar Technology and Law CommunityMichael Karanicolas, Wikimedia/Yale Law School Initiative on Intermediaries and InformationMohamed Suliman, Internet activistMy.Kali magazine Middle East and North AfricaPalestine Digital Rights Coalition (PDRC) The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy Pen IraqQuds News NetworkRanking Digital Rights Rima Sghaier, Independent Sada Social CenterSkyline International for Human RightsSMEXSyrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP)TaraazTemi Lasade-Anderson, Digital ActionWITNESSVigilance Association for Democracy and the Civic State Tunisia7amleh The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media

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A Decade After the Arab Spring, Platforms Have Turned Their Backs on Critical Voices in the Middle East and North Africa - EFF