Meta Launches New Online Safety Course for Journalists

Meta has launched a new, free online digital security and safety training course for journalists and human rights defenders, which takes participants through a range of key elements to help protect their privacy, counter harassment and more.

As explained by Meta:

“Supported by the Meta Journalism Project, the self-paced 90-minute course will teach journalists and human rights defenders how to protect their digital assets and increase the security of their operations.”

The new program has been created in conjunction with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the Border Center for Journalists and Bloggers (BCJB), and is available via the ICFJ website.

Course modules include

• Laying a strong digital security foundation
• Secure social media usage
• How to report from difficult situations in a secure fashion
• Countering online harassment

Journalists and civil society advocates will soon also be able to participate in a series of webinars on digital security to further enhance their learning.

The course couldn’t be more timely, with Russian authorities now banning social media platforms and news outlets over what it claims has been misreporting of its invasion into Ukraine.

Both Facebook and Twitter have been blocked for Russian users (Instagram and WhatsApp remain active), while the BBC is one of several major news outlets that’s been forced to shut down its Russian operations due to a recent law change which ‘appears to criminalize the process of independent journalism’ in Russia.

Amid efforts to control what journalists can and cannot report, maintaining safety for correspondents is crucial, and this course will help improve digital literacy, in order to maximize online sources without putting yourself or your contacts at undue risk.

It’s a good initiative, and hopefully it will enable more journalists to better understand their options in this respect.

You can read more about Meta’s new security and safety training course here.