Toolkits & Networks

Toolkit for inclusive and value-based cybersecurity policymaking (Global Partners Digital)

This Toolkit is designed to support the development and implementation of inclusive and value-based cybersecurity policymaking processes.

It includes:

  • A comprehensive guide for policymakers on involving relevant stakeholders in the process of developing, implementing and reviewing an National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCSS)

  • A repository of good practices in developing inclusive NCSSs—offering short case studies and examples of where policymakers have successfully involved stakeholders in a process. If you have an example of good practice you’d like to be included, submit it here.

  • An interactive map, tracking the adoption of core cybersecurity capacity building instruments in the 54 countries of the Commonwealth

It is operated by Access Now. Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline works with individuals and organizations around the world to keep them safe online. If you’re at risk, we can help you improve your digital security practices to keep out of harm’s way. If you’re already under attack, we provide rapid-response emergency assistance.

Totem is an online platform that helps journalists and activists use digital security and privacy tools and tactics more effectively in their work. It offers free online courses in English, French, and Farsi that cover a wide array of digital security-related topics.

The Totem team works with a global network of human rights activists, journalists and digital security trainers on an on-going basis to curate courses and curricula. The courses, including the interactive materials, are created and maintained with support from practitioners who have developed some of the most effective training resources for activists.

Advocacy in Restricted Spaces: A Toolkit for Civil Society Organizations (Lifeline)

Available in Arabic, English, Español, Français, Vietnamese, Farsi and Русский

The toolkit is a practical resource that emphasizes that advocacy is possible even in restrictive contexts. The toolkit places the planning process within the context of risk assessment and mitigation, which is essential in these environments.

The COVID-19 crisis has increased authoritarian restrictions on civil society globally. Though this toolkit was produced prior to the pandemic, the case studies included speak to a moment when advocacy needs to navigate around such restrictions.

No Hate Speech Movement (Council of Europe)

The No Hate Speech Movement is a youth campaign led by the Council of Europe Youth Department seeking to mobilise young people to combat hate speech and promote human rights online. Launched in 2013, it was rolled out at the national and local levels through national campaigns in 45 countries. The movement will remain active beyond 2017 through the work of various national campaigns, online activists and partners.

Hate Speech Explained: A Toolkit (ARTICLE 19)

In this toolkit, ARTICLE 19 provides a guide to identifying ’hate speech‘ and how effectively counter it, while protecting the rights to freedom of expression and equality. It responds to a growing demand for clear guidance on identifying “hate speech,” and for responding to the challenges ‘hate speech’ poses within a human rights framework.As such, it addresses three key questions:

  1. How do we identify ’hate speech’ that can be restricted, and distinguish it from protected speech?

  2. What positive measures can States and others take to counter ‘hate speech’?

  3. Which types of ‘hate speech’ should be prohibited by States, and under which circumstances?

Hatebase uses a broad multilingual vocabulary based on nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual discrimination, disability and class to monitor incidents of hate speech across 200+ countries. Our natural language engine, Hatebrain, performs linguistic analysis on public conversations to derive a probability of hateful context. All data is made available through the Hatebase web interface and API.

Their regionalized vocabulary and sightings data is useful for monitoring trends in hate speech usage and correlating with other datasets to perform conflict risk analyses.

Data-driven Approach to Countering Hate Speech (DACHS) (European Journalism Centre)

DACHS focuses on the automation of Hate Speech recognition in order to facilitate its analysis in supporting countermeasures at scale. To do that, we map and model hate speech against journalists, as unofficial moderators or direct targets, across social platforms in order to develop deep learning-based hate speech detection models and an open-source hate speech database.

DACHS uses the latest technologies and analytical techniques to discover Hate Speech directed at journalists and news outlets, and develops strategies for journalists to counter online hatred. What we learn from this case can then more easily be applied to other vulnerable groups.

Access Now: Digital Security Helplined

An important resource is the Digital Security Helplined, which is operated by Access Now. The Helpline works with individuals and organisations around the world to keep them safe online. If you’re at risk, we can help you improve your digital security practices to keep out of harm’s way. If you’re already under attack, we provide rapid-response emergency assistance.

Additional resources include:

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