Greater Internet Freedom

Posted on
Balkan region
August 2020 – August 2023

BIRN Hub

The project aims to contribute to the overall exposure and mainstreaming of issues of Internet freedom and digital rights through partnering with local organizations from the Balkans and Moldova in monitoring and analyzing trends pertaining to freedom of expression, privacy and freedoms online. It involves organizing regional events/workshops for key stakeholders and supporting region-wide capacity to address and respond to technical and policy-level attacks on Internet freedom.

Summary:

The Greater Internet Freedom (GIF) program is a three-year, global program that works to preserve an open, interoperable, reliable and secure Internet – and by extension, protect individuals, civil society organizations, media outlets and vulnerable groups who rely on it to realize fundamental freedoms. Through its dual objective of enhancing digital security for civil society and media and increasing citizen engagement in Internet government, GIF supports a diverse range of elements that impact Internet freedom.

The core of GIF’s approach centres on putting regional and local organizations at the forefront of this work. By enabling local and regional partners to lead this work, GIF helps local actors to build stronger trusted networks with peer organizations in their regions and around the world – and gain technical expertise from expert international organizations and share lessons learned.

Donor:

USAid

Main objectives:

 Increased Citizen Engagement in Internet Governance.

 Main Activities:

  1. Working with local advocacy partners, to promote and advance policies to protect an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure Internet
  2. Identify and build relationship with key stakeholders to safeguard internet freedom, IF, at regional and national levels
  3. Expand and mainstream IF issues regionally, by training and mentoring human rights CSOs to integrate internet freedom advocacy into their advocacy programs.
  4. Coordinating with local advocacy partners to analyze and respond to policies that risk closing civic space
  5. Raise awareness among regulators, policy makers, service providers / private sector, and government actors on challenges and opportunities to uphold internet freedoms
  6. Pursue locally and regionally relevant innovative approaches to spreading digital rights awareness, including working with universities to expand curricula; documentation of violations by both private and public sectors, etc.
  7. Sharing best practice responses to the above approaches
  8. Play a leading role in regional and international Internet governance forums

Target Groups:

  • General public
  • CSOs
  • Journalists
  • Human rights defenders

Main implementer:

BIRN Hub

Partners:

Internews

Project associates:

Da se zna! (Serbia), Kvart (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (North Macedonia), Open Data Kosovo (Kosovo)