Safer Internet Day marked with launch of digital safety initiatives

AMMAN — A local organisation and Facebook on Tuesday announced a series of local initiatives and efforts to promote a safer Internet for all users. 

The initiative, which is also being launched across the MENA region, was initiated in partnership with Jordan Open Source Association (JOSA) to mark Safer Internet Day 2021.

Facebook has also produced a digital safety guide and a digital safety toolkit that can be utilised by users to better control unwanted, offensive or hurtful experiences on Facebook, according to a JOSA statement that was made available to The Jordan Times.

“JOSA cares deeply about digital safety,” said JOSA Executive Director Issa Mahasneh.

“In 2020 alone, we trained more than 1,300 people on how to protect their lives and work online,” from journalists, to women and students and teachers who had to cope with remote learning, Mahasneh stated.

 “With our partnership with Facebook, we aim to increase our reach and raise awareness about simple steps people can take to protect their digital lives as well as familiarise themselves with common threats and how to report them,” Mahasneh said.

The rise of the pandemic has increased the use of technology, especially among young people, so “never has a time been more vital to people how to stay safe online”, according to the statement.

With the guide and the toolkit, Facebook hopes to reduce instances of child exploitation, bullying and harassment, Non-Consensual Sharing of Intimate Images (NCSII) particularly around sextortion and revenge porn, and compromising of accounts of highrisk users, for instance, activists and human rights defenders, the statement added. 

JOSA Programme Coordinator Raya Sharbain told The Jordan Times that this is a yearly campaign that aims to raise awareness about digital safety.

“We decided to join hands with Facebook to spread the knowledge about digital safety by preparing tool guides and videos as well as a website that includes the necessary safety information and guidance for Internet users,” Sharbain added.

Speaking about the partnership, Shahed Al Hindi, Human Rights Public Policy Manager, MENA at Facebook said: “Keeping people safe on Facebook is really important to us.”

“People come to Facebook to share their stories, thoughts and feelings and people should feel safe to do so on all our apps,” Al Hindi said.

However, it is a sad reality that there will always be a small number of malicious people who are intent on harming others, online and offline, Al Hindi added.

“To be clear, we don’t allow that kind of behaviour on Facebook and we take quick action when it’s flagged to us,” Al Hindi stated.

This campaign and partnership with JOSA are not just a one-off moment, but “a continuous process to drive awareness about online safety among MENA users and educate them about the various resources we have in place that they can use to protect themselves”, Al Hindi added.

Meanwhile, to support the Arab journalism community from sexual exploitation and abuse, fraud, and corruption and abuse of power within the media industry, Facebook has also partnered with Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalists, which is based in Jordan, for their “I Will Not Stay Silent” project to train journalists to combat harassment.

The resources, available in Arabic and English, will also provide parents, caregivers and educators with the resources they need to guide and support their teens in online safety. They will be available on the Facebook Safety Centre and on the mini-site https://amanraqami.com/ which has been developed by JOSA. 

The digital safety guide and toolkit can be accessed on Facebook’s safety centre or JOSA’s platform: https://amanraqami.com/ 

JOSA is a non-profit organisation based in Amman, that works for the promotion and implementation of the opensource principles in Jordan, according to its website.