Digital hopes, real power: From connection to collective action

The piece traces how ‘digital rights’ went from a loosely defined ideal during the 2011 Arab Spring to an established field of organizations across the Middle East and North Africa, including groups like SMEX, 7amleh, and the Arab Digital Expression Foundation. Early efforts centered on using social media to spread information and shift public opinion; later phases turned toward internet infrastructure, privacy, and confronting opaque content moderation systems run by global tech platforms.

Figures quoted in the piece describe a shift from chasing ‘tech accountability’ toward pushing open-source alternatives and digital public goods, arguing that trust-and-safety partnerships with platforms produced an industry of their own without producing much actual change. Organizations like 7amleh also describe documenting government pressure on platforms' content moderation decisions well before that influence was widely discussed.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.