Marwa Fatafta :Elezioni o no, l'Autorità Palestinese sta intensificando il suo governo autoritario online
Palestinesi: cultura-storia-.società civile-economia
ELEZIONI O NO,L’AUTORITÀ PALESTINESE STA INTENSIFICANDO IL SUO GOVERNO AUTORITARIO ONLIN
La corsa alle elezioni dell’Autorità Palestinese ha mostrato in modo allarmante ciò che l’attivismo politico palestinese sta affrontando nell’era digitale: più sorveglianza, più repressione.
Di Marwa Fatafta , 29 aprile 2021 da +972Magazine 29 aprile
Quando il presidente palestinese Mahmoud Abbas ha convocato le elezioni a gennaio, la notizia è stata accolta con profondo scetticismo. Abbas ha già dichiarato elezioni senza portarle a termine, e sotto il suo governo di 16 anni, l’Autorità Palestinese è diventata più corrotta e autoritaria , sollecitando dubbi sul fatto che le elezioni sarebbero libere, eque o democratiche. In effetti, con la minaccia incombente di perdere seggi, Abbas dovrebbe annunciare il rinvio a tempo indeterminato delle elezioni legislative, originariamente previste per il 22 maggio.
Anche se le elezioni verranno nuovamente cancellate, la limitata organizzazione politica che ha avuto luogo da quando sono state decretate sottolinea quanto lo spazio politico palestinese si sia ridotto negli ultimi due decenni. Ciò è in gran parte il risultato delle restrizioni e degli abusi dell’AP sul terreno, comprese le intimidazioni e le molestie a giornalisti e attivisti, nonché la detenzione arbitraria e la tortura sistematica dei palestinesi che sono critici nei confronti del loro governo.
Più recentemente, l’Autorità Palestinese ha represso senza sosta i dissidenti in un altro spazio ancora: Internet.
Mercoledì scorso, Facebook ha dichiarato di aver fermato un gruppo di hacker associati al Preventive Security Service dell’Autorità Palestinese, l’unità di intelligence interna istituita da Yasser Arafat nel 1994, che prendeva di mira i palestinesi nei territori occupati, inclusi attivisti, giornalisti e persone contrarie alla leadership di Fatah. Secondo l’analisi dettagliata della rete di Facebook, il PSS si è basato sull’ingegneria sociale utilizzando “account falsi e compromessi per creare personaggi fittizi che si spacciano principalmente come giovani donne, e anche come sostenitori di Hamas, Fatah, vari gruppi militari, giornalisti e attivisti per creare fiducia. con le persone che hanno preso di mira e inducendole a installare software dannoso “.
Questa operazione ci offre uno sguardo allarmante su cosa significhi la partecipazione politica palestinese nell’era digitale: maggiore sorveglianza del popolo palestinese e maggiore controllo per le fazioni già al potere.
In un altro rapporto pubblicato da Facebook a gennaio sul comportamento coordinato non autentico – che definisce come “sforzi coordinati per manipolare il dibattito pubblico per un obiettivo strategico in cui gli account falsi sono centrali per l’operazione” – il gigante dei social media ha affermato di aver rimosso oltre 206 account, 78 pagine, tre gruppi e 14 account Instagram rivolti principalmente ai palestinesi in Cisgiordania e Gaza. Il documento non specificava gli individui o i gruppi collegati all’operazione, ma il contenuto diffuso era critico nei confronti di Abbas e di sostegno al suo avversario, l’ex ministro della sicurezza in esilio Mohammad Dahlan, che ha sede negli Emirati Arabi Uniti.
Un potente strumento di censura
L’ultima volta che i palestinesi sono andati alle urne è stato nel 2006, prima dell’era dei social media e degli ecosistemi online come li conosciamo oggi. Da allora, le piattaforme digitali sono diventate sempre più popolari tra i palestinesi, fornendo loro uno spazio per esercitare il loro diritto alla libertà di espressione e opinione, per organizzarsi politicamente e per criticare non solo l’oppressione del regime israeliano ma anche quella della leadership palestinese .
Ispirato dalle rivolte arabe del 2011, uno dei primi usi dei social media per l’organizzazione politica è stato fatto dal movimento di breve durata del 15 marzo , che ha chiesto proteste di massa nei territori palestinesi e nei campi profughi in Giordania, Siria e Libano, per unire i palestinesi e porre fine alla divisione politica tra Fatah e Hamas. Ne seguirono molti altri blog di attivisti e pagine Facebook.
Con l’avvento di queste critiche, però, l’Autorità Palestinese ha cercato modi per censurare e reprimere il dissenso online. Il primo atto di censura online è avvenuto nel 2008 , quando l’Autorità Palestinese ha bloccato un sito di notizie con sede a Gaza chiamato Donia al-Watan per aver pubblicato un rapporto sulla corruzione dell’Autorità Palestinese. Nel 2012, l’Autorità Palestinese ha incaricato i fornitori di servizi Internet (ISP) in Cisgiordania di bloccare otto siti web , la maggior parte dei quali erano affiliati con Dahlan, avversario di Abbas. Poi, nel 2017, due settimane prima che Abbas decretasse segretamente la sua controversa legge sulla criminalità informatica, l’AP ha chiuso altri 29 siti web. Più recentemente, nell’ottobre 2019, un tribunale di Ramallah ha ordinato il blocco di altri 59 siti web palestinesi che si opponevano all’Autorità Palestinese e ad Abbas.
La draconiana legge del 2017 contro i crimini informatici è arrivata a legittimare questi atti di censura. Le sue vaghe disposizioni consentono all’AP di sorvegliare i cittadini, bloccare i siti web entro 24 ore e costringere gli ISP a conservare i dati delle persone. La legge criminalizza anche i discorsi online che minacciano la “sicurezza nazionale”, viola la “decenza pubblica” e i “valori della famiglia”, danneggia l ‘”unità nazionale” o incita alla “guerra civile”. Questi termini ambigui e eccessivi danno al pubblico ministero palestinese un potere e una libertà incredibili di perseguire chiunque per i loro discorsi online , e i casi sono molti .
Anche se la legge è stata modificata nel 2018 a seguito delle forti pressioni della società civile palestinese e internazionale, rimane un potente strumento di censura che l’Autorità Palestinese può utilizzare a comando. Solo tra gennaio 2018 e marzo 2019, l’AP ha arrestato 752 palestinesi per i loro post sui social media e Hamas ha arrestato 66 persone per cause simili.
Più livelli di sorveglianza
Oltre al monopolio di Fatah in Cisgiordania e alla roccaforte di Hamas a Gaza, i social network stanno dando una mano alla restrizione dello spazio civico e politico a disposizione dei palestinesi.
Per prima cosa, Hamas e il Fronte popolare per la liberazione della Palestina sono entrambi elencati nelle organizzazioni terroristiche straniere del Dipartimento di Stato americano. Di conseguenza, in base alla sua politica di ” individui e organizzazioni pericolosi ” , Facebook non consente loro di avere una presenza sulla sua piattaforma e la società rimuoverà attivamente i contenuti che sostengono o elogiano fazioni o individui ad essi collegati. Pertanto, se si dovessero tenere elezioni legislative, i candidati affiliati ad Hamas o al FPLP troverebbero impossibile condurre le loro campagne sui social media.
Il divieto da parte della piattaforma di un evento lo scorso anno in cui il membro del PFLP Leila Khaled avrebbe dovuto parlare è solo un esempio recente. Per anni, Facebook ha censurato in modo sproporzionato e sistematico il discorso palestinese attraverso politiche di moderazione dei contenuti su misura, per volere del governo israeliano.
La loro “politica shaheed“, ad esempio, considera l’uso della parola shaheed (che significa “martire” in arabo) una glorificazione o un elogio al terrorismo, ignorando e diffamando l’uso politico, sociale e religioso di questa parola in Palestina e nel più ampio mondo arabo. Più di recente, Facebook ha elucubrato sull’aggiunta della parola “sionista” come gruppo protetto nell’ambito della sua politica relativa all’incitamento all’odio, che metterebbe ulteriormente a tacere i palestinesi e gli alleati quando discutono delle loro realtà vissute e ritengono il regime israeliano responsabile delle violazioni dei diritti umani.
I palestinesi che vivono sotto il governo militare israeliano sono quindi soggetti a più livelli di sorveglianza . Israele, leader mondiale nella tecnologia di sicurezza informatica e sorveglianza, non risparmia gli sforzi nell’impiegare i suoi strumenti invasivi per spiare i dettagli più intimi della vita palestinese, comprese le loro relazioni, l’orientamento sessuale, la situazione finanziaria e le condizioni di salute, come ha fatto. sin dalla sua creazione. Ora, i leader palestinesi stanno tentando di controllare i loro sudditi usando tecnologie invasive simili, anche se più primitive.
Di fronte a questa censura aziendale e alla sorveglianza pervasiva di Israele, è assurdo che l’Autorità Palestinese stia orientando le sue risorse limitate per spiare e mettere a tacere la sua gente invece di proteggerla. Se Abbas e l’Autorità Palestinese fossero stati seriamente intenzionati a tenere elezioni veramente democratiche e rappresentative, comprensive di tutti i palestinesi nel mondo, avrebbero potuto sfruttare la tecnologia in modi creativi per superare la separazione geografica dei palestinesi. Tuttavia, in questo frangente, l’Autorità Palestinese sta dimostrando ancora una volta che non ha interesse a servire la sua gente, ma solo a rafforzare il suo potere
ELEZIONI O NO, L’AUTORITÀ PALESTINESE STA INTENSIFICANDO IL SUO GOVERNO AUTORITARIO ONLIN
I giovani palestinesi sono stufi dei loro leader. Le elezioni possono portare un cambiamento?
Elections or not, the PA is intensifying its authoritarian
rule online
When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for elections in
January, the news was met with profound skepticism. Abbas has previously
declared elections without going through with them, and under his 16-year rule,
the Palestinian Authority has become more corrupt and authoritarian, shedding
doubt over whether the elections would be free, fair, or democratic. Indeed,
with the looming threat of losing seats, Abbas is expected to announce the
indefinite postponement of legislative elections, originally set to take place
on May 22.
Even if elections are canceled again, the limited political organization
that has taken place since they were decreed underscores just how much
Palestinian political space has shrunk in the last two decades. This is largely
a result of the PA’s restrictions and abuses on the ground, including the
intimidation and harassment of journalists and activists, as well as the
arbitrary detention and systematic torture of
Palestinians who are critical of their government.
More recently, the PA has been relentlessly clamping down on dissenters in
yet another space: the internet.Last Wednesday, Facebook said it had stopped
a cluster of hackers associated with the PA’s Preventive Security Service,
the internal intelligence unit set up by Yasser Arafat in 1994, that was
targeting Palestinians in the occupied territories, including activists,
journalists, and people opposed to Fatah’s leadership. According to Facebook’s
detailed analysis of the network, the PSS relied on social engineering using
“fake and compromised accounts to create fictitious personas posing primarily
as young women, and also as supporters of Hamas, Fatah, various military
groups, journalists and activists to build trust with people they targeted and
trick them into installing malicious software.”
This operation gives us an alarming look into what Palestinian political
participation means in the digital age: more surveillance of the Palestinian
people, and more control for the factions already in power.
A Palestinian youth holds a phone
displaying WhatsApp in front of a computer with Facebook in Rafah in the
southern Gaza Strip on February 26, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
In another report published
by Facebook in January on inauthentic coordinated behavior — which it defines
as “coordinated efforts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal where
fake accounts are central to the operation” — the social media giant said it
had removed over 206 accounts, 78 pages, three groups, and 14 Instagram
accounts primarily targeting Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The
document didn’t specify the individuals or groups linked to the operation, but
the content disseminated was critical of Abbas and supportive of his opponent,
the exiled former security minister Mohammad Dahlan, who is based in the United
Arab Emirates.
A powerful censorship tool
The last time Palestinians went to the polls was in 2006, before the age of
social media and the online ecosystems as we know them today. Since then,
digital platforms have become increasingly popular among
Palestinians, providing them with a space to exercise their right to freedom of
expression and opinion, to organize politically, and to criticize not only the
oppression of the Israeli regime but also that of the Palestinian leadership.
Inspired by the 2011 Arab uprisings, one of the earliest uses of social
media for political organizing was done by the short-lived 15 March movement, which
called for mass protests across the Palestinian territories and in refugee
camps in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, in order to unite Palestinians and end the
political division between Fatah and Hamas. Many other activist blogs and
Facebook pages ensued.
With the advent of this criticism, though, the PA sought ways to censor and shut down dissent online. The
first act of online censorship occurred in 2008, when
the PA blocked a Gaza-based news site called Donia al-Watan for publishing a
report on the PA’s corruption. In 2012, the PA instructed internet service
providers (ISPs) in the West Bank to block eight websites,
most of which were affiliated with Abbas’ opponent Dahlan. Then in 2017, two
weeks before Abbas secretly decreed his
controversial cybercrime law, the PA shutdown another 29 websites. Most
recently, in October 2019, a court in Ramallah ordered the blocking of 59 more
Palestinian websites opposing the PA and Abbas.
Palestinian security forces guard a
checkpoint at the entrance to the West Bank city of Hebron, Dec. 10, 2020.
(Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
The draconian 2017 law against cybercrimes came to legitimize these acts of
censorship. Its vague provisions allow the PA to surveil citizens, block
websites within 24 hours, and force ISPs to retain people’s data. The law also
criminalizes online speech that threatens “national security,” violates “public
decency” and “family values,” harms “national unity,” or incites “civil
strife.” These ambiguous and overbroad terms give the Palestinian public
prosecutor incredible power and liberty to prosecute anyone over
their online speech, and
the cases are plenty.
Even though the law was amended in 2018 following strong pressure from
Palestinian and international civil society, it remains a powerful censorship
tool that the PA can use on command. Between January 2018 and March 2019 alone,
the PA detained 752
Palestinians for their social media posts, and Hamas detained 66 people for
similar causes.
Multiple layers of surveillance
In addition to Fatah’s monopoly in the West Bank and Hamas’ stronghold in
Gaza, social networks are lending a hand to the restriction of civic and
political space available to Palestinians.
For one, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are
both listed in the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Accordingly, under its policy of “dangerous individuals and
organizations,” Facebook does not allow them to have a presence on
its platform, and the company will actively remove content that supports or
praises factions or individuals connected to them. As such, if legislative
elections were to take place, candidates affiliated with Hamas or the PFLP
would have found it impossible to run their campaigns on social media.
The platform’s ban of an event last year in which PFLP
member Leila Khaled was set to speak is only one recent example. For years now,
Facebook has disproportionately and systematically censored Palestinian speech through
tailored content moderation policies, at the behest of the Israeli government.
Israeli activists deliver a petition
signed by 50,000 people to Facebook’s Head of Israel Policy, Jordana Cutler,
demanding the company refrain from changing its hate speech policy to include
the word “Zionist” as antisemitic, Tel Aviv, February 26, 2021. (Heidi
Motola/Activestills.org)
Their “shaheed policy,” for instance, considers the use of the word shaheed (meaning
“martyr” in Arabic) a glorification or praise for terrorism, which disregards
and vilifies the political, social, and religious use of this word in Palestine
and the wider Arab world. Most recently, Facebook has been mulling over adding the word “Zionist” as
a protected group under its hate speech policy, which would further silence Palestinians
and allies when discussing their lived realities and holding the Israeli regime
accountable for its human rights abuses.
Palestinians living under Israel’s military rule are thus subjected
to multiple layers of surveillance.
Israel, a world leader in cyber security and surveillance tech, spares no
effort in deploying its invasive tools to spy on the most intimate details of
Palestinian life, including their relationships, sexual orientation, financial
status, and health conditions, as it has been doing since
its creation. Now, Palestinian leaders are attempting to control their subjects
using similar invasive technologies, albeit more primitive ones.
In the face of this corporate censorship and Israel’s pervasive
surveillance, it’s preposterous that the PA is gearing its limited resources
toward spying on and silencing its people instead of protecting them. If Abbas
and the PA were ever serious about holding truly democratic and representative
elections, inclusive of all Palestinians around the world, they could have
harnessed technology in creative ways to overcome the geographical separation
of Palestinians. However, at this juncture, the PA is proving once again that
it has no interest in serving its people, only in entrenching its power.
Marwa Fatafta leads
Access Now’s work on digital rights in the Middle East and North Africa region
as the MENA Policy Manager. She is an advisory board member of the Palestinian
digital rights organization 7amleh, and a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka, The
Palestinian Policy Network.
Elections or not, the PA is intensifying its authoritarian
rule online
When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for elections in
January, the news was met with profound skepticism. Abbas has previously
declared elections without going through with them, and under his 16-year rule,
the Palestinian Authority has become more corrupt and authoritarian, shedding
doubt over whether the elections would be free, fair, or democratic. Indeed,
with the looming threat of losing seats, Abbas is expected to announce the
indefinite postponement of legislative elections, originally set to take place
on May 22.
Even if elections are canceled again, the limited political organization
that has taken place since they were decreed underscores just how much
Palestinian political space has shrunk in the last two decades. This is largely
a result of the PA’s restrictions and abuses on the ground, including the
intimidation and harassment of journalists and activists, as well as the
arbitrary detention and systematic torture of
Palestinians who are critical of their government.
More recently, the PA has been relentlessly clamping down on dissenters in
yet another space: the internet.Last Wednesday, Facebook said it had stopped
a cluster of hackers associated with the PA’s Preventive Security Service,
the internal intelligence unit set up by Yasser Arafat in 1994, that was
targeting Palestinians in the occupied territories, including activists,
journalists, and people opposed to Fatah’s leadership. According to Facebook’s
detailed analysis of the network, the PSS relied on social engineering using
“fake and compromised accounts to create fictitious personas posing primarily
as young women, and also as supporters of Hamas, Fatah, various military
groups, journalists and activists to build trust with people they targeted and
trick them into installing malicious software.”
This operation gives us an alarming look into what Palestinian political
participation means in the digital age: more surveillance of the Palestinian
people, and more control for the factions already in power.
A Palestinian youth holds a phone
displaying WhatsApp in front of a computer with Facebook in Rafah in the
southern Gaza Strip on February 26, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
In another report published
by Facebook in January on inauthentic coordinated behavior — which it defines
as “coordinated efforts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal where
fake accounts are central to the operation” — the social media giant said it
had removed over 206 accounts, 78 pages, three groups, and 14 Instagram
accounts primarily targeting Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The
document didn’t specify the individuals or groups linked to the operation, but
the content disseminated was critical of Abbas and supportive of his opponent,
the exiled former security minister Mohammad Dahlan, who is based in the United
Arab Emirates.
A powerful censorship tool
The last time Palestinians went to the polls was in 2006, before the age of
social media and the online ecosystems as we know them today. Since then,
digital platforms have become increasingly popular among
Palestinians, providing them with a space to exercise their right to freedom of
expression and opinion, to organize politically, and to criticize not only the
oppression of the Israeli regime but also that of the Palestinian leadership.
Inspired by the 2011 Arab uprisings, one of the earliest uses of social
media for political organizing was done by the short-lived 15 March movement, which
called for mass protests across the Palestinian territories and in refugee
camps in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, in order to unite Palestinians and end the
political division between Fatah and Hamas. Many other activist blogs and
Facebook pages ensued.
With the advent of this criticism, though, the PA sought ways to censor and shut down dissent online. The
first act of online censorship occurred in 2008, when
the PA blocked a Gaza-based news site called Donia al-Watan for publishing a
report on the PA’s corruption. In 2012, the PA instructed internet service
providers (ISPs) in the West Bank to block eight websites,
most of which were affiliated with Abbas’ opponent Dahlan. Then in 2017, two
weeks before Abbas secretly decreed his
controversial cybercrime law, the PA shutdown another 29 websites. Most
recently, in October 2019, a court in Ramallah ordered the blocking of 59 more
Palestinian websites opposing the PA and Abbas.
Palestinian security forces guard a
checkpoint at the entrance to the West Bank city of Hebron, Dec. 10, 2020.
(Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
The draconian 2017 law against cybercrimes came to legitimize these acts of
censorship. Its vague provisions allow the PA to surveil citizens, block
websites within 24 hours, and force ISPs to retain people’s data. The law also
criminalizes online speech that threatens “national security,” violates “public
decency” and “family values,” harms “national unity,” or incites “civil
strife.” These ambiguous and overbroad terms give the Palestinian public
prosecutor incredible power and liberty to prosecute anyone over
their online speech, and
the cases are plenty.
Even though the law was amended in 2018 following strong pressure from
Palestinian and international civil society, it remains a powerful censorship
tool that the PA can use on command. Between January 2018 and March 2019 alone,
the PA detained 752
Palestinians for their social media posts, and Hamas detained 66 people for
similar causes.
Multiple layers of surveillance
In addition to Fatah’s monopoly in the West Bank and Hamas’ stronghold in
Gaza, social networks are lending a hand to the restriction of civic and
political space available to Palestinians.
For one, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are
both listed in the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Accordingly, under its policy of “dangerous individuals and
organizations,” Facebook does not allow them to have a presence on
its platform, and the company will actively remove content that supports or
praises factions or individuals connected to them. As such, if legislative
elections were to take place, candidates affiliated with Hamas or the PFLP
would have found it impossible to run their campaigns on social media.
The platform’s ban of an event last year in which PFLP
member Leila Khaled was set to speak is only one recent example. For years now,
Facebook has disproportionately and systematically censored Palestinian speech through
tailored content moderation policies, at the behest of the Israeli government.
Israeli activists deliver a petition
signed by 50,000 people to Facebook’s Head of Israel Policy, Jordana Cutler,
demanding the company refrain from changing its hate speech policy to include
the word “Zionist” as antisemitic, Tel Aviv, February 26, 2021. (Heidi
Motola/Activestills.org)
Their “shaheed policy,” for instance, considers the use of the word shaheed (meaning
“martyr” in Arabic) a glorification or praise for terrorism, which disregards
and vilifies the political, social, and religious use of this word in Palestine
and the wider Arab world. Most recently, Facebook has been mulling over adding the word “Zionist” as
a protected group under its hate speech policy, which would further silence Palestinians
and allies when discussing their lived realities and holding the Israeli regime
accountable for its human rights abuses.
Palestinians living under Israel’s military rule are thus subjected
to multiple layers of surveillance.
Israel, a world leader in cyber security and surveillance tech, spares no
effort in deploying its invasive tools to spy on the most intimate details of
Palestinian life, including their relationships, sexual orientation, financial
status, and health conditions, as it has been doing since
its creation. Now, Palestinian leaders are attempting to control their subjects
using similar invasive technologies, albeit more primitive ones.
In the face of this corporate censorship and Israel’s pervasive
surveillance, it’s preposterous that the PA is gearing its limited resources
toward spying on and silencing its people instead of protecting them. If Abbas
and the PA were ever serious about holding truly democratic and representative
elections, inclusive of all Palestinians around the world, they could have
harnessed technology in creative ways to overcome the geographical separation
of Palestinians. However, at this juncture, the PA is proving once again that
it has no interest in serving its people, only in entrenching its power.
Marwa Fatafta leads
Access Now’s work on digital rights in the Middle East and North Africa region
as the MENA Policy Manager. She is an advisory board member of the Palestinian
digital rights organization 7amleh, and a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka, The
Palestinian Policy Network.
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