“MSU Law’s First Amendment Law Clinic is the only clinical program in the country solely dedicated to the protection of student speech and press rights. Now, a $500,000 donation from leading Michigan attorney and MSU Law Trustee Richard D. McLellan will expand the clinic’s impact nationwide by creating a Free Expression Online Library and Resource… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Censorship
USNews article – Google as global censor across all its brands
Robert Epstein, June 22, 2016: Google, Inc., isn’t just the world’s biggest purveyor of information; it is also the world’s biggest censor. “…But as the golden gateway to all knowledge, Google has rapidly become an essential in people’s lives – nearly as essential as air or water. We don’t let public utilities make arbitrary and… Continue Reading
Facebook Response to Chairman John Thune’s letter on Trending Topics
Colin Stretch, Facebook General Counsel – News Release: “Last week we met with Chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee John Thune to describe our investigation in response to anonymous allegations of political bias in our Trending Topics feature and to discuss the preliminary results of our work. Today, we sent Chairman Thune a follow… Continue Reading
The Guardian – How the Pentagon punished NSA whistleblowers
Mark Hertsgaard – The Guardian – “By now, almost everyone knows what Edward Snowden did. He leaked top-secret documents revealing that the National Security Agency was spying on hundreds of millions of people across the world, collecting the phone calls and emails of virtually everyone on Earth who used a mobile phone or the internet.… Continue Reading
GAO Reports – Medicare, Military Readiness, Nuclear Security, DC, DOD Advertising, Human Rights in Egypt
Medicare: Claim Review Programs Could Be Improved with Additional Prepayment Reviews and Better Data, GAO-16-394: Published: Apr 13, 2016. Publicly Released: May 13, 2016. Military Readiness: DOD Needs to Incorporate Elements of a Strategic Management Planning Framework into Retrograde and Reset Guidance, GAO-16-414: Published: May 13, 2016. Publicly Released: May 13, 2016. Nuclear Security: Status… Continue Reading
California’s Legislature Wants to Copyright All Government Works
Via Ernesto Falcon – EFF: “AB 2880 will give state and local governments dramatic powers to chill speech, stifle open government, and harm the public domain. The California Assembly Committee on Judiciary recently approved a bill (AB 2880) to grant local and state governments’ copyright authority along with other intellectual property rights. At its core,… Continue Reading
Public Opinion toward Internet Freedom in Asia: A Survey of Internet Users from 11 Jurisdictions
Public Opinion toward Internet Freedom in Asia: A Survey of Internet Users from 11 Jurisdictions, May 4, 2016. Fei Shen, Lokman Tsui “This paper, which is being released as part of the Berkman publications series in conjunction with the Digital Asia Hub, summarizes the findings from a survey of Asian Internet users. The purpose of… Continue Reading
WSJ – Librarian Who Saved Timbuktu’s Cultural Treasures From al Qaeda
“A middle-aged book collector in Mali helped keep the fabled city’s libraries, books and manuscripts safe from occupying jihadists…” Continue Reading
Onlinecensorship.org Launches Inaugural Report
Via EFF: “We’re proud to announce today’s release of Onlinecensorship.org’s first report looking at how content is regulated by social media companies. Onlinecensorship.org—a joint project of EFF and Visualizing Impact (VI) that won the 2014 Knight News Challenge—seeks to encourage social media companies to operate with greater transparency and accountability toward their users as they… Continue Reading
FREEMUSE Annual Statistics on Censorship and Attacks on Artistic Freedom in 2015
Art Under Attack – FREEMUSE Annual Statistics on Censorship and Attacks on Artistic Freedom in 2015: “Artistic freedom is under extreme pressure in far too many countries. The Freemuse annual report summarises censorship and threats on artistic freedom in over 70 countries. While at the UN level there have been positive signs of larger attention… Continue Reading
New updates for Amber open source plugin to keep links accessible
“The Berkman Center is excited to announce a new release for Amber, the open source tool for WordPress and Drupal that helps fight Internet censorship and link rot by keeping linked content accessible…Amber v1.4.2 is a result of the feedback and input we’ve received from so many early adopters. The new version for WordPress increases… Continue Reading
Google – Protecting the world’s news from digital attack
Google Official Blog: “The web is an increasingly critical tool for news organizations, allowing them to communicate faster, research more easily, and disseminate their work to a global audience. Often it’s the primary distribution channel for critical, investigative work that shines a light into the darkest corners of society and the economy—the kind of reporting… Continue Reading
