The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security.
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2026-07-06T00:44:42Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab New legal commentary by The Citizen Lab’s Cynthia Khoo and Kate Robertson warns of the constitutional dangers posed by a potential Canada-U.S. CLOUD Act agreement. If signed, this would extend the reach of U.S. law enforcement into Canada’s digital terrain to an unprecedented extent. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab ⚠️ New legal analysis by The Citizen Lab’s Cynthia Khoo and Kate Robertson warns of the constitutional dangers posed by the Canada-U.S. #CLOUDAct. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab ✒️Even after Assad’s fall, #disinformation in #Syria is thriving. In an opinion piece The Citizen Lab’s @nprofile…aeax discusses how new trends and tactics have emerged, and how foreign powers and non-state actors exploit social media to manipulate narratives and spread fear. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab In a Q&A for the Digital Front Lines report by Foreign Policy Analytics (@nprofile…4j3t) human rights activist Carine Kanimba and The Citizen Lab director @nprofile…gh3g discuss the human toll of spyware and call for collaboration between civil society, tech firms, and governments to combat its abuse. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab Our first network security analysis of the popular social media app, #RedNote, has revealed some major red flags 🚩🚩🚩. The app is used by over 300 million users worldwide - but its network encryption falls short. Read the report: https://citizenlab.ca/2025/02/network-security-issues-in-rednote/ npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab Imagine having your home address splattered all over the internet. Meryem, an activist living in the US, knows exactly what that’s like. She faces relentless online harassment from Chinese state-backed trolls as she fights for #Uyghur rights. Her fight is made even harder because she is a woman. Learn about the price she’s paid: https://citizenlab.ca/case-studies/meryem-a-human-rights-activist-from-xinjiang-china/ #digitaltransnationalrepression npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab Dounia is an exiled journalist living in France. After exposing Morocco's use of #spyware against politicians, she became the target of physical and sexual harassment, spread across both traditional media and social platforms. Even while in #China, #Morocco continued to harass her, forcing her to flee to #France, where the online attacks continued. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab After Fatima fled to the UK, the Syrian state-sponsored attacks continued. Both the regime and anti-regime groups continue to target her, both online and offline, making her journalism a high-risk endeavour. With her family used as leverage, she has been pressured to self-censor. Learn how these attacks impact her life and work: https://citizenlab.ca/case-studies/fatima-a-journalist-from-syria/ #digitaltransnationalrepression npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab In this episode of Zoom In Zoom Out on TaiwanPlus, The Citizen Lab’s senior researcher Rebekah Brown talks about the commercial spyware industry, its misuse by governments, and the urgent need for regulation. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab Thailand’s role in the UNHRC is being called into question following its controversial deportation of six Cambodian dissidents. In an interview with The Diplomat, Marcus Michaelsen, senior researcher at the Citizen Lab, cautions that Thailand is now a dangerous territory for political exiles fleeing repression. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab 🎧In this episode of @CyberSecCenter’s Distilling Cyber Policy podcast, the Citizen Lab’s senior researchers @PDXbek and @nprofile…329j discuss the Citizen Lab’s “Rivers of Phish” report, which exposed a sophisticated phishing campaign targeting Russia’s perceived adversaries. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab In an open letter to Hon Mélanie Joly, Hon Dominic LeBlanc & Hon Arif Virani, NGOs and individual experts, including Citizen Lab’s @nprofile…gh3g @nprofile…aeax @nprofile…lnm3, and @nprofile…hjgp urge Canada to reject adoption of the UN’s draft Convention against Cybercrime. Read the letter on @nprofile…cr49 https://openmedia.org/press/item/canada-must-not-adopt-un-cybersecurity-convention npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab Our study, No Escape: The Weaponization of Gender for the Purposes of Digital Transnational Repression, found that activists in exile are digitally targeted using tools and techniques including social media surveillance, hacking of devices and social accounts, online harassment, disinformation, and more tactics aimed at discrediting them. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab NEW REPORT: We investigate the rising trend of gender-based digital transnational repression by drawing on the lived experiences of 85 women human rights defenders living in exile across the globe. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab In our 2022 report “Psychological and Emotional War - Digital Transnational Repression in Canada” we concluded that DTR has a serious impact on activists and dissidents living in exile, including their ability to undertake transnational advocacy work related to human rights. Read it here: https://citizenlab.ca/2022/03/psychological-emotional-war-digital-transnational-repression-canada/ npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab Victims of spyware face numerous hurdles in seeking justice against mercenary spyware makers such as NSO Group. Speaking with @nprofile…wu0r, The Citizen Lab’s @nprofile…329j says, “A lot of victims have struggled to get their cases to move forward, and keep moving. Some of that traces back to forms of immunity that spyware companies and their government customers seek to shield themselves with.” npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab On November 29, the Citizen Lab’s npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab “It is happening on the American Amazon site and it is infringing on people’s human rights,” says Jeffrey Knockel speaking with Waterloo Region Record about a new report from the Citizen Lab revealing how @nprofile…mpy8’s US site is restricting shipments of over 17k+ products to multiple countries. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab On November 4, @nprofile…hjgp was asked to appear before the Senate Standing Committee on National Security, Defence, and Veterans Affairs to provide her expert testimony on the ongoing consideration of Bill C-26. On passing the bill in its current state, Kate says, “these powers give the government the power to compromise the next generation of solutions.” npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab The Citizen Lab’s @nprofile…hjgp testified before the Senate Standing Committee on National Security, Defence, and Veterans Affairs on Bill C-26. Robertson calls for stronger judicial oversight, protection for encryption, and transparency obligations in Bill C-26 to protect the rights and freedoms of people in Canada, and the security of Canada’s telecom networks. npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab This report's key findings are translated into Arabic here: https://citizenlab.ca/2024/11/analysis-censorship-amazon-com-ar/ npub1fpyywdlcg39w5prp8lylw76jf8sqtclrnpr525d6wjgms8w4eajqvs2jcw The Citizen Lab 📢 NEW REPORT: Our latest report reveals that the US storefront of @nprofile…mpy8 uses a system to restrict shipments of certain products. We found 17k+ products that were restricted from being shipped to specific world regions, with the most common type of product being books 📚
