Senior researcher @noura.bsky.social will share her insights at OSCE's meeting on legal and institutional strategies to address gender-based violence and violence against women in the public sphere.
More info: odihr.osce.org/event/662392
BOOK LAUNCH: Join the Citizen Lab’s @penney.bsky.social @rondeibert.bsky.social, and Kate Robertson as they discuss Penney’s new book, "Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age."
🕠 March 12, 5:30 pm
✅ RSVP: machformext.osgoode.yorku.ca/machform/vie...
Join senior researcher Irene Poetranto on March 13 for “Moving Beyond the Given: The Politics of Categories and Subjectivity in Indonesia” at @asianstudies.org Annual Conference in Vancouver. #AAS2026
Get details: www.asianstudies.org/conference/r...
MARCH 10: Get practical safety tips from the Citizen Lab's Rebekah Brown at @accessnow.org's Digital Security Helpline webinar on preventing spear-phishing attacks against civil society.
Register: www.accessnow.org/event/digita...
On March 10, Citizen Lab's Kate Robertson will share her expertise and insights at @osgoode.bsky.social course on AI and criminal justice in Canada. Register: osgoodepd.ca/professional...
The Austrian Ministry of the Interior bought social media surveillance software 'Tangles' from Cobwebs/Penlink and refuses to tell parliament whether they also bought the intrusive Tangles add-on 'Webloc', which relies on the mass collection of personal data from digital advertising and mobile apps.
1/ NEW: There’s currently a heavy push over X in support of (1) the ongoing attacks on Iran (2) Reza Pahlavi. It’s hard to quickly quantify this wave, but anecdotal evidence shows that the main support hashtags - as well as by the *real* people promoting them - are also pushed inorganically.
The use of Cellebrite’s forensic tech without consent likely violates human rights law and the Kenyan constitution. This incident is one of many misuses of Cellebrite tech by gov’t clients and fits into a broader ecosystem of surveillance abuses by the Kenyan authorities.
Mwangi’s devices were seized by Kenyan authorities during his highly controversial arrest in July 2025. We analyzed his phone shortly after it was returned, finding signs that Cellebrite had been used to gain access to the device.
NEW – “Not Safe for Politics: Cellebrite Used on Kenyan Activist and Politician Boniface Mwangi”
New research shows that Kenyan authorities used Cellebrite’s forensic extraction tools to access activist Boniface Mwangi’s phone.
Read: citizenlab.ca/research/cel...
On Feb 19 join the Citizen Lab's Kate Robertson to discuss the role of technology and the current state of play in border externalization.
Register here: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
An image in muted colours showing vague aesthetic animated illustrations of a light-brown-skinned man with curly hair, Black woman with a short afro, and red-headed white woman sitting in various poses on, respectively, a reclined chair, a bench, and a stool, in front of and facing an abstract geometrical image, as if considering it and mid-discussion about it.
The People's Consultation on AI launched today! Whether you have in-depth expertise in AI issues, or don't consider yourself an "expert" but have firsthand experience with AI or its impacts and want to have your say, this is for you. Participate by March 15, 2026: www.peoplesaiconsultation.ca
If you also believe that ISED using AI tools to "process" submitted comments just added more layers of sham & illegitimacy to an already poorly conceived consultation process... might I suggest contributing to the People's Consultation on AI #PCAI instead? Thread with more details here:
Senior research associate @emiledirks.bsky.social spoke with @icij.org about a new report he co-authored on #transnationalrepression in the EU.
Read it here: www.icij.org/investigatio...
Senior fellow Cynthia Khoo spoke with CBC about the People’s Consultation on AI, launched by a civil society working group last week in response to the federal government’s “national sprint” on AI.
#cdnpoli
Read here: cbc.ca/news/canada/...
In 2018, the Citizen Lab discovered the Saudi-linked #spyware operator that targeted dissidents living abroad.
Read more in this report: citizenlab.ca/research/the...
“For years, victims of targeted espionage and transnational repression have lacked an avenue for justice. Thankfully, the UK’s courts have just provided such an avenue,” shared Citizen Lab director @rondeibert.bsky.social in an interview with the @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Citizen Lab senior researcher Bill Marczak served as a key witness in a UK ruling that ordered Saudi Arabia to pay £3M to Ghanem al-Masarir, a London-based dissident who was targeted with #Pegasus spyware.
Read the ruling: caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/kb/2026...
Senior research associate @emiledirks.bsky.social will be presenting a report on transnational repression at the EU Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs on Jan 28.
Tune in here: www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/e...
PM Carney 🇨🇦gave a courageous speech with a lot of real-talk about the "rupture" in the international order.
But he left something out: the values that define us as a country & distinguish us from the fascist train wreck in the US 🇺🇸
My oped w Jason Stanley
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
The Canadian 🇨🇦 govt, and its Minister of AI and Innovation, is rushing headlong into full blown AI.
All gas, no brakes, no real consultation
So we're launching the People’s Consultation on AI
You can find out more here 👇:
www.peoplesaiconsultation.ca/news-updates/
Our findings are released alongside a companion piece by @occrp.org which includes interviews with some of the victims.
Read here: www.occrp.org/en/news/jord...
The abuse of forensic extraction products is part of a growing range of repressive measures against free expression in Jordan, especially after the introduction of the 2023 Cybercrime Law.
Court records shared with the Citizen Lab further indicate abuse of Cellebrite products in criminal prosecution cases against activists and members of Jordanian civil society.
We analyzed the phones of four activists and civil society members in #Jordan that were taken during detentions, arrests, and interrogations.
We uncovered novel iOS and Android Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) that we attribute with high confidence to Cellebrite’s forensic extraction products.
NEW REPORT ➡️ “From Protest to Peril: Cellebrite Used Against Jordanian Civil Society”
Our investigation reveals that, since 2020, Jordanian authorities have deployed Cellebrite’s forensic extraction products against civil society targets in Jordan.
Full report here: citizenlab.ca/research/fro...
On its one-year anniversary, @rondeibert.bsky.social Chasing Shadows is now out in paperback with a new afterword + endorsement by @margaretatwood.bsky.social
Order a copy here: chasingshadowsbook.ca
Senior researcher @noura.bsky.social speaks with CBC Ideas about her experience returning to Syria after the fall of the al-Assad regime to grieve for the first time in 13 years.
Listen here: www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
Thanks to @technologyreview.com and Finian Hazen (who was a student in my special seminar @buffett.northwestern.edu) for this profile of our work @citizenlab.ca
It was an honor (and exciting) to testify on transnational repression and how to address it in the Human Rights Committee of the German Bundestag. Let’s hope the interest in the issue translates into concrete steps for better protecting those at risk. www.bundestag.de/dokumente/te...
