Cataloguing Digital Rights
About the CSO
Social Media Exchange (SMEX) is a Lebanon-based media advocacy and development organisation addressing urgent needs in the Arab information society through: digital and social media training, learning events, advocacy campaigns, research, and monitoring.
A look at the data
The SMEX representatives brought a catalogue of various laws in Arab countries relating to digital rights, including constitutions, penal codes, media laws, anti-terror laws, and anti-cybercrime laws. In addition, they brought a collection of cases of netizens who have been detained or prosecuted under these laws. The aggregation of this data is important because it can highlight patterns of behaviour across the region that might not otherwise be visible.
ResultsThe designers and researchers partnered with SMEX to produce an interactive prototype that would transform the catalogue into a user-friendly tool for exploration.
Sketching options
The process begins with sketching and exploring possible different visualisation approaches with the available variables.
Plotting the data
This prototype was created using D3. Each black circle on the timeline represents a law. Each law has a series of associated metadata.
In the next phase, colour will be added to help the user distinguish between the countries.
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Building empathy
The inclusion of Olfa Riahi's story also adds a human element to the project, highlighting the real consequences of the implementation of these severe laws. In this image we can see the Arab Spring mapped to 2011, which could perhaps explain why so many new laws were passed during this time period.