Access Now

Session Description: The rise of the anti-rights movement is accelerating the criminalization of LGBTQ+ people and identity in Africa. In Senegal, the government’s amendment of Article 319 of Senegal’s Penal Code has triggered alarming crackdowns on LGBTQ+ people, online and offline. In Ghana, members of parliament recently passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, which will increase censorship and surveillance of LGBTQ+ people in Ghana.

Note: On June 24, 2026, Cellebrite responded, denying the allegations made in our joint letter.

El lanzamiento de LatamGPT ha captado el interés de tomadores de decisiones y referentes políticos en toda América Latina. LatamGPT es un sistema de procesamiento de lenguaje natural (LLM, por sus siglas en inglés) hecho por y para América Latina,  tomando un rol activo en  el desafío de desarrollar tecnología de IA en esta parte del mundo.

We, the undersigned civil society organizations and experts, condemn in the strongest possible terms the cyberattack on the World Food Programme (WFP) that took place on May 14, 2026, exposing the personal data of 600,000 Palestinian households in Gaza, including their names, ID numbers, and location.

As AI-accelerated warfare is rapidly becoming a means of rubber-stamping killing at unprecedented speed and scale, Access Now, Amnesty International, and more than 200 civil society organizations and individuals are calling attention to the militarization of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and to halt the use of AI systems in the military kill chain.

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, are deeply alarmed by the rapid militarization of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. AI systems embedded into military kill chains are accelerating the speed and scale of military assaults in a manner that creates significant new risks for accountability in conflict and risks facilitating violations of international criminal, human rights, and humanitarian law.

People’s privacy must be protected in court. Yesterday, Access Now alongside ten other civil society organizations filed an amicus brief in the U.S.’ Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals calling to protect encryption from NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware and to keep the lower court’s permanent injunction forbidding NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp or its customers’ devices ever again.

Through a new joint letter, Access Now, Amnesty International, 7amleh, Fight for the Future, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are calling on Microsoft to publish the findings of its review into the Israeli military’s use of the company’s Azure cloud and AI services, and to take immediate action to prevent its technologies from contributing to violations of international law against Palestinians.

Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft Corporation Brad Smith, President, Microsoft Corporation CC: Natasha Crampton, Chief Responsible AI Officer Dear Mr. Nadella and Mr. Smith, We are writing in follow up to our open letter of September 26, 2025, regarding Microsoft’s formal review of recent allegations about Israel’s usage of Azure cloud for the mass surveillance and targeting of Palestinians. We were made aware that the law firm retained by Microsoft has already completed its review.

Every year, millions of people across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are forced offline when governments cut off the internet during national secondary and high school exams. Such shutdowns are often justified as necessary to combat cheating, but there’s no evidence that they are actually effective in doing so. What is clear, however, is that they are harmful, disproportionate, and disruptive. Imposing internet shutdowns during exam periods disrupts people’s daily lives.