Global Freedom of Expression

“The Smartphones are listening”: Regulating exports and abuses of cybertools

Key Details

  • Region
    Middle East and North Africa
  • Themes
    Digital Rights, National Security, Political Expression

Summary

Reflecting on events from the first half of 2021, IFEX’s Middle East and North Africa Editor explains how increasingly sophisticated digital surveillance tools are being sold to and deployed by authoritarian states in the region to target human rights defenders, and how civil society is defending the right to privacy and digital free expression.

Read the full report in English, Arabic, French, or Spanish. 

Authors

Naseem Tarawnah

is the Regional Editor for the Middle East and North Africa at IFEX.