CONTENTS PAGE Summary 04 Introduction 05 Research Methods 07 Political Context: Dissent and Exile in Egypt, Syria, and Iran 10 Threats Beyond Borders: Regime Motives and Capabilities 12 A Toolkit of Transnational Repression 17 The Silencing Effects of Transnational Repression 24 Digital Security Practices Among Exiled Activists 28 Conclusion 33 Recommendations References 34 38 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research would not have been possible without the generous funding and support of the Open Technology Fund. The Information Controls Fellowship offered the ideal platform and network to complete this project. I am also grateful to the host organization, Hivos, in particular the MENA team who took on the project despite their busy schedule. The research was further facilitated by an affiliation to the Political Science Department of the University of Amsterdam, provided by the program group Transnational Configurations, Conflict and Governance. Valuable feedback on the research process and earlier versions of the report came from Tin Geber, Wieke Meilink, Daniel Ó Cluanaigh, Nadia Novibi, Oussama Jarousse, Gillo Cutrupi, Noura Aljizawi, Robert Adams, and Benjamin Stachursky. Nate Schenkkan gave essential advice on the recommendation section. Thank you to John R. Stith for his meticulous copy-editing of the report. Most of all, I wish to thank my numerous interlocutors for sharing their time and insights with me. Speaking with each one of them has been an instructive and enriching experience. Without them this report simply would not exist. All errors and misrepresentations are obviously mine. 3 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Marcus Michaelsen was an Information Controls Fellow with the Open Technology Fund in 2018-19. He holds a PhD in Media and Communication Studies and has previously worked as a researcher for the “Authoritarianism in a Global Age” project in the Political Science Department of the University of Amsterdam. As of 2020, he continues to research digital technologies, human rights, and authoritarian politics in the Law, Science, Technology and Society research group (LSTS) at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels.