It’s day 26 of war in the Middle East. The UN chief says with the conflict now totally out of control, diplomacy must prevail. Ongoing strikes in Israel and Iran have included intensifying Israeli attacks against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, while some US troops are heading to the region, the Pentagon has confirmed. Meanwhile, Iran has told the UN maritime agency that the Strait of Hormuz remains open to “non-hostile” ships not associated with the US and Israel. UN News app users can follow coverage here.
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UN resolution urges reparations for slavery’s ‘historical wrongs’
Applause erupted in the UN General Assembly Hall on Wednesday as Member States adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. -
MIDDLE EAST LIVE 25 March: Strait of Hormuz, Human Rights Council meets
It’s day 26 of war in the Middle East. Ongoing strikes in Israel and Iran have included intensifying Israeli attacks against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, while some 2,000 US troops are reportedly about to mobilize to the region. Meanwhile, Iran has told the UN maritime agency that the Strait of Hormuz remains open to “non-hostile” ships not associated with the US and Israel. In Geneva, a rare urgent debate on the crisis is also getting under way at the Human Rights Council. Stay with us for live updates from across the UN system. UN News app users can follow coverage here. -
Digital Hopes, Real Power: Reflecting on the Legacy of the Arab Spring
This is the first installment of a blog series reflecting on the global digital legacy of the 2011 Arab uprisings.
A new generation of protesters, raised on social media and often fluent in the tools of digital dissent, has taken to the streets in recent months and years. In Bangladesh, Iran, Togo, France, Uganda, Nepal, and more than a dozen other countries, young people have harnessed digital tools to mobilize at scale, shape political narratives, and sustain movements that might once have been easier to ignore or suppress.
The tools at their disposal are vast, allowing them to coordinate quickly and turn local grievances into visible, transnational moments of dissent. But each new tactic is met in turn: governments now implement draconian regulations and deploy sophisticated surveillance systems, content manipulation, and automated censorship to pre-empt, predict, and punish collective action.
This cycle of digital empowerment and repression is not new. In many ways, its roots can be traced to the 2011 uprisings that rippled across the Middle East and North Africa. Often referred to as the “Arab Spring,” these movements didn’t just reshape politics…they transformed how we talk about the internet, and how governments respond in times of protest, crisis, and conflict. Fifteen years later, the legacy of that moment still defines the terms of resistance and control in the digital age.
At the time, we were sold the comforting narrative that the internet would help bring about democracy, that connectivity itself was revolutionary, and that Silicon Valley’s products—particularly social media platforms—were aligned with the people. It was a narrative that tech executives were sometimes happy to amplify and certain Western governments were happy to believe.
But the same networks that helped protesters to organize and broadcast their demands beyond their own borders laid the groundwork for new forms of repression. Over the years, the same tools that were once celebrated as tools of dissent have become instruments for tracking, harassing, and prosecuting dissenters.
This series examines the digital legacy of the 2011 uprisings that shook the region: how governments refined censorship and surveillance after 2011, how platforms alternately resisted and enabled those efforts, and how a new generation of civil society has pushed back.
“Over the years, the same tools that were once celebrated as tools of dissent have become instruments for tracking, harassing, and prosecuting dissenters.”
When Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire on December 17, 2010, after repeated harassment by local officials, he could not have known the chain reaction his act would spark. After nearly twenty-three years in power, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali faced a public fed up with repression. Protests spread across Tunisia, ultimately forcing him to flee.
In his final speech, Ben Ali promised reforms: a freer press and fewer internet restrictions. He left before either materialized. For Tunisians, who had lived for years under normalized censorship both online and off, the promises rang hollow.
At the time, Tunisia’s internet controls were among the most restrictive in the world. Reporting by the exiled outlet Nawaat documented a sophisticated filtering regime: DNS tampering, URL blocking, IP filtering, keyword censorship. Yet despite that machinery, Tunisians built a resilient blogging culture, often relying on circumvention tools to push information beyond their borders. When protests began—and before international media caught up—they were ready.
Eleven days after Ben Ali fled, Egyptians took to the streets. International headlines rushed to label it a “Twitter revolution,” mistaking a tool for a movement. Egypt’s government drew a similar conclusion. On January 26, authorities blocked Twitter and Facebook. The next day, they shut down the internet almost entirely, a foreshadowing of what we’d see fifteen years later in Iran.
As Egyptians fought to free their country from President Hosni Mubarak’s autocratic rule, protests swept across the region to Bahrain, where demonstrators gathered at the Pearl Roundabout before facing a brutal crackdown; to Syria, where early calls for reform spiraled into one of the most devastating conflicts of the century; to Morocco, where the February 20 Movement pushed for constitutional change. Outside of the region, movements took shape in Spain, Greece, Portugal, Iceland, the United States, and beyond.
In each context, digital platforms helped circulate images, testimonies, and tactics across borders. They created visibility—and, in turn, inspired a playbook. Governments watched not only their own populations but one another, quickly learning how to disrupt networks, identify organizers, and seize back control of the narrative.
Cause and Effect
To be clear, the internet didn’t create these movements. Decades of repression, corruption, labor organizing, and grassroots activism did. Later research confirmed what many in the region already understood: digital tools helped people share information and coordinate action, but they were neither the spark nor the engine of revolt.
But regardless, the myth of the “Twitter revolution” had consequences. The breathless coverage, and rapid policy reactions that followed shaped state strategy around the world. Governments across the region and well beyond invested heavily in surveillance technologies, developed new legal mechanisms, increased their own social media presence, and found ways to influence platforms. Internet blackouts, once rare, became a normalized tool of crisis response. And companies were forced into increasingly public decisions about whether to resist state pressure or comply.
When it comes to the internet, the legacy of the 2011 uprisings that swept the region and beyond is a story about power: how states moved to consolidate control online, how platforms—often under pressure—have narrowed the space for dissent, and how civil society has been forced to evolve to defend it.
This five-part series will take a deeper look at how the internet as a space for dissent and for hope has changed over the past fifteen years throughout the region and well beyond.
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The Conflict Between Sustainable Debt and Sustainable Life in Argentina
After twelve years without the IMF’s intervention in Argentina’s economic policies, in 2018, Argentina signed a new, highly controversial, 50 billion loan with the Fund. This loan, which violated Argentine domestic rules and IMF rules and may have been illegal under international law, worsened the economic situation rather than stabilizing it. In 2022, after secretive and “docile” negotiations…
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The Convicted Kosovar Bank Burglar With a Cameo in a Drake Video
Originally from Kosovo, Hamdi Lataj has listed his address in one of Toronto’s most exclusive condo towers, sits courtside at Raptors basketball games, and appears in a music video for the hip-hop superstar Drake.
The 62-year-old man of Albanian descent appears to live a life of luxury. But police and prosecution files from both Canada and the U.S. reveal Lataj’s troubled past.
He was convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to commit bank burglary, and sentenced to two years in prison, according to court records obtained by reporters. The group he was with had attempted to burgle a Brooklyn bank by breaching the building’s roof. Lataj was apprehended while fleeing the scene in his Cadillac.
While Lataj has no criminal record in Canada, his name has surfaced in law enforcement probes. An investigation file from a decade ago reveals that police once suspected he was trafficking drugs with Mexican cocaine kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
In a more recent probe, police put him under surveillance in an illegal gambling and money laundering investigation involving the Hells Angels biker gang, and alleged Toronto-area members of Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia.
Aside from his alleged underworld associations, Lataj has also rubbed shoulders with one of Toronto’s most famous sons. He can be seen laughing and chatting with Drake in the rapper’s 2023 video for the song Polar Opposites, sitting with surly men playing cards in a dark gambling den.
Drake and the other men are filmed in the shadows, wearing red leather jackets emblazoned with the black eagle of the flag of Albania. On Youtube, the video has so far racked up almost 10 million views.
It is unknown if Drake was aware of Lataj’s criminal history before appearing in the video with him. Neither man replied to messages, phone calls, and hand-delivered letters seeking comment.
Drake’s representatives at The Agency Group PR LLC invited reporters to send questions, but did not respond to multiple follow up emails and phone messages. Lawyers who have represented Drake in legal cases did not respond to emailed questions or phone messages.
In a case of art imitating life, Drake’s production team perhaps unwittingly cast an actual ex-convict in Polar Opposites. The video plays up an underworld scenario that puts an Albanian twist on a common gangster theme — and it dropped amidst a years-long public feud with rapper Kendrick Lamar.
In his 2024 song “Euphoria,” Lamar disses Drake for his lack of street cred, dismissing him as “a scam artist with the hopes of being accepted.”
Unlike many rappers, Drake comes from a relatively privileged background, which makes him an easy target, said Alan Cross, an expert on the history of popular music whose podcasts include Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry.
“He’s not from the inner city of America, he’s something completely different,” Cross said. “He’s a child actor turned hip hop star.”
Far from Drake’s entertainment industry beginnings in the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation, Polar Opposites shows the tall, muscular rapper hanging with a decidedly adult crowd. The camera cuts between Drake brooding in the glow of video gambling machines, and shooting pool with grizzled characters like Lataj.
Lataj’s presence in the video was reported the day it was released by Albanian-language media outlet Ballkani, which referred to him only as Drake’s “friend.” A Kosovar community Facebook group sent congratulations to Lataj, saying he “made us proud” by appearing with the rap megastar. Despite Lataj’s appearance in Drake’s video, there’s no evidence that the two are close.
Lataj appears to enjoy the trappings of wealth in Toronto, while also donating to causes back in his native Kosovo. Social media posts and news clippings indicate he has given at least 200,000 euros ($235,000) to community facilities in his homeland.
Reporters could not find evidence of his profession other than two firms that report very little activity, including one that invested in a junior mining company. In police files from Canada, his occupation is listed as “unknown.”
Brooklyn Bank Burglary
Lataj has led a colourful life across the Atlantic since leaving Kosovo at some point in the 1980s. Immigration case files show Lataj entered the U.S. illegally in 1986. He was later placed into deportation proceedings, but granted voluntary departure instead of being forcibly removed.
Court records show that he failed in an asylum claim in 1987, but he remained in the U.S. until the appeal process was exhausted, and racked up a criminal record there. Immigration records reveal that Lataj has been convicted of several charges in the U.S., including a 2001 burglary case.”
According to legal documents from the burglary case, a court found that Lataj had become involved with a group of emigres from the former Yugoslavia and Albania who had allegedly “engaged in and planned several commercial and bank burglaries in the New York area.”
Lataj was arrested and convicted for the burglary of a Brooklyn bank after police found the roof was breached with cutting tools. Lataj was caught trying to flee in his Cadillac, which featured heavily in police surveillance reports, and he was sentenced to two years in federal prison.
After being released in March 2003, Lataj was once more slated for deportation to Kosovo, which was eventually ordered in 2009. As part of his appeals process, Lataj had argued to U.S. officials that deportation would put him at risk, because of a “blood feud” his family was involved in back home.
A 2013 U.S. indictment obtained by OCCRP and the Investigative Journalism Bureau named Lataj along with several suspects including Arif Kurti, also known as “the Bear.” American authorities identified Kurti as an alleged leader of a drugs and money-laundering gang operating out of New York. Kurti was convicted of drug trafficking in the case in 2014.
Lataj was never brought to trial in that case, although the indictment linked him to marijuana trafficking and money laundering.
Lataj’s name has been redacted from the current version of the indictment. His name was visible in an earlier version of the document due to a poor redaction effort, which was fixed in later versions. Officials at the Eastern District of New York declined to comment on reasons for the redaction, or whether Lataj was ever charged.
Bad Company
Lataj eventually moved north to Canada.
A federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) document dated September 2016 shows that, by 2013, police suspected him of drug trafficking in Toronto and elsewhere in the country. An RCMP spokesperson said that due to the historical nature of the case file, they were unable to assist reporters in their inquiries. It’s unclear if Lataj was charged.
The 2016 RCMP police file shows a Canadian police officer suspected Lataj of trafficking cocaine alongside Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán. Described by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency as “the world’s most dangerous, prolific drug trafficker,” Guzmán is serving a life sentence.
In the RCMP document, the submitting officer swore he had “reasonable grounds” to believe that individuals including Guzmán and Lataj “committed the indictable offence of Trafficking” an illegal substance, “to wit: cocaine.”
Calvin Chrustie, a retired RCMP senior operations officer, said the document appears to be an “Information” sworn before a justice of the peace, a formal document used by police to lay criminal charges.
“In this case, the officer is swearing that he had reasonable grounds to believe that individuals including Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera, Hamdi Lataj and others committed offences related to cocaine trafficking and participation in a criminal organization,” said Chrustie, now a senior partner with the security and intelligence advisory firm Critical Risk Team.
“That legal threshold, ‘reasonable grounds to believe,’ sits above suspicion but below proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The document records sworn allegations used to initiate the criminal process, and court endorsements on the form indicate that some of the charges were later withdrawn,” he said.
Neither Lataj nor Guzmán appear to have been charged in the case, which targeted an alleged co-conspirator, Stephen Tello. The charges against Tello were eventually withdrawn.
Tello was later sentenced to a lengthy prison term in Canada on separate drugs offences. American court records include testimony from El Chapo’s longtime righthand man, Alex Cifuentes-Villa, indicating that Tello had at one point been the cartel’s main “worker” in Canada. Tello did not respond to a request for comment.
Lataj was back on Canadian law enforcement radar in August 2019, records show.
More than a year earlier, police in Ontario had begun an investigation called Project Hobart, aimed at dismantling a gambling ring allegedly involving the Hells Angels biker gang.
An application for discovery by the defendants, obtained by reporters, shows a judge granted permission for police to surveil Lataj’s car and cellphone. He is named on a list of “principal known persons” surveilled by police in the operation, which targeted a ring suspected of involvement in illegal gambling websites, illicit gaming parlors, and money laundering.
Others approved by the judge for surveillance included Angelo Figliomeni. OCCRP has previously reported on Italian and Canadian investigations into Figliomeni, who police suspected to be the boss of the Toronto faction of Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia. Neither Lataj nor Figliomeni were ever listed as charged in the case. A lawyer for Figliomeni did not respond to a request for comment.’
License plates listed in the Project Hobart case files match those of a Range Rover Lataj can be seen posing beside in a January 2021 post on social media. To his other side is a Porsche GT2RS, a model that can sell for more than $400,000. It’s not clear if Lataj owns the cars.
While Lataj did not respond to requests for comment, the Ontario Provincial Police declined to answer questions about his involvement in the Hobart case. Police said “the matter has been before the courts and an individual’s criminal record is protected” under privacy laws. They referred questions to the Ministry of the Attorney General, which did not respond to requests for comment.
Like his connection to the Hobart case, many questions about Lataj remain unanswered. But his public profile does provide some clues about his lifestyle.
Corporate registration documents show his company address at a penthouse in an upscale downtown Toronto condo tower, where units were listed last year at a monthly rent of more than CAN $11,000 (about $8,026).
Lataj has been seen in photos sitting in coveted front row seats at Toronto Raptors basketball games. Tickets like that are worth thousands of dollars — even tens of thousands during finals.
In newswire images dating back to May 2019, a beaming Lataj can be seen standing courtside next to former Raptors star Kyle Lowry, celebrating the team’s NBA Eastern Conference win.
Lataj’s passion for basketball is one shared with Drake. The rap mogul was named the Raptors’ global ambassador, and has appeared at games in the team’s purple jersey.
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Two thirds of consultants want to work for new NHS online hospital
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France Fines First Batch of Pirate IPTV Subscribers Following Reseller Bust
France has been at the forefront of the fight against online piracy for years.
It pioneered the three-strikes “graduated response” system back in 2009, where the Hadopi agency tracked, warned, and fined online pirates, mostly those using BitTorrent.
As piracy shifted to streaming, however, enforcement became more complicated. Unlike BitTorrent, IPTV services don’t broadcast users’ IP addresses publicly, which has made individual subscribers difficult to identify and prosecute.
However, IPTV operators and resellers keep records. When investigators reach those records, subscribers can find themselves exposed.
19 IPTV Subscribers Fined
Last week, the French football league LFP announced that the Arras Public Prosecutor’s Office reached financial settlements with 19 subscribers of a pirate IPTV service. These users signed a criminal settlement that requires them to pay a fine ranging from €300 to €400.
The criminal investigation was started following a complaint from LFP. The prosecutors eventually identified 21 defendants and have now settled with 19 of them. The remaining two defendants are resellers, who are summoned to appear before the Arras criminal court in April, Zataz reports.
This is the first case in France where IPTV users are sanctioned. While the plea agreements are relatively modest, LFP stresses that the law provides for penalties of up to €7,500.
The authorities did not disclose how the subscribers were identified, but IPTV resellers typically hold customer records including email addresses and payment details. If the authorities collected this as evidence, they could effectively expose the subscribers.
Mafia-like Ecosystem
The Arras case is not the first time European IPTV subscribers have faced consequences. In Italy, the Guardia di Finanza identified thousands of subscribers following the dismantling of a pirate network, and rights holders subsequently sent civil damages demands on top of the criminal fines.
Last May, the authorities announced that 2,282 pirate IPTV subscribers had been fined across 80 Italian provinces. Following this action, rightsholders collected additional damages settlements of up to €1,000 from a number of the same people.
France has followed a different path, but the Arras prosecutions suggest the gap may be narrowing. In its official communiqué, the LFP made clear the intent behind the action, while warning that more actions are underway.
“The LFP and LFP Media welcome this strong message to users of piracy services, who mistakenly believe they can act with impunity when in fact they are knowingly contributing to a mafia-like ecosystem that seriously harms the entire sports sector,” the organization writes.
“Many criminal actions targeting resellers of IPTV subscriptions are underway, and their customers may, as such, be questioned and prosecuted,” the league added (TF translated).
Millions of LFP Pirates Remain
While LFP hopes that the prosecutions and the associated fines against 19 IPTV subscribers will send a deterrent message, there is still a long way to go.
At a sports piracy conference held at Roland-Garros on March 23, LFP Media’s Douglas Lowenstein presented survey data showing that around two million people in France watched Ligue 1 via pirate services this season, making it the most pirated competition in the country.
Prosecuting millions of people isn’t very practical, which is why rightsholders are also continuing to push for expanded site-blocking powers.
Arcom, France’s broadcasting regulator, has blocked more than 12,600 domain names since 2022, but rightsholders argue that real-time automated blocking is needed to keep pace with live match piracy. This is particularly important with the 2026 FIFA World Cup in mind.
The French football league is pushing for Article 10 of a pending sports law, which would allow automated blocking without manual approval. Sports Minister Marina Ferrari has indicated the legislation could move before June, ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
If LFP’s warnings are correct, we may also see more prosecutions of IPTV pirates in the near future. In any case, the two resellers in the Arras case will have made their appearance in court by then, which is scheduled for April 7.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.