Editor’s Note/Global Investigative Journalism Network: “For the next two weeks, GIJN is running a series drawn from the newly released Reporter’s Guide to the Millennium Development Goals: Covering Development Commitments for 2015 and Beyond, published by the International Press Institute. Agreed to in 2000, the UN Millennium Goals comprise an ambitious agenda to improve quality of life around the world,… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Censorship
Trends in transition from classical censorship to Intenet censorship: selected country overviews
Dr Constance Bitso, Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood Road, Pretoria, South Africa; Prof Ina Fourie, Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood Road, Pretoria, South Africa; Prof Theo Bothma, Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood Road, Pretoria “Censorship is no longer limited to printed media and videos. Its impact is felt much more strongly… Continue Reading
Internet Monitor 2013: Reflections on the Digital World
Internet Monitor 2013: Reflections on the Digital World, Urs Gasser….a collection of essays from roughly two dozen experts around the world, including Ron Deibert, Malavika Jayaram, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Molly Sauter, Bruce Schneier, Ashkan Soltani, and Zeynep Tufekci, among others. The report highlights key events and recent trends in the digital space. “This publication is the first… Continue Reading
Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books
Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books, Jean-Baptiste Michel, et al. Science 331, 176 (2011); DOI: 10.1126/science.1199644 “We constructed a corpus of digitized texts containing about 4% of all books ever printed. Analysis of this corpus enables us to investigate cultural trends quantitatively. We survey the vast terrain of ‘culturomics,’ focusing on linguistic and cultural phenomena that were… Continue Reading
Global Corruption: The 2013 Index by Transparency International
“Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2013 offers a warning that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery continue to ravage societies around the world. More than two thirds of the 177 countries in the 2013 index score below 50, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be… Continue Reading
EFF Introducing a Compendium of the Released NSA Spying Documents
EFF – “The ongoing NSA leaks, Freedom of Information Act lawsuits and government declassification continue to bring vital information to the public about the the ongoing efforts of the NSA and its allies to spy on millions of innocent people. What started out as news detailing the agency’s collections of users’ calling records, phone calls,… Continue Reading
WordPress – Striking Back Against Censorship
“The mission of WordPress.com is to democratize publishing. We’re inspired every day by the ways creators use our platform to bring their voices to the world. Unfortunately, we also see many cases of censorship aimed at WordPress.com authors and users. One area where we’ve seen a number of problems is the censoring of criticism through abuse… Continue Reading
House Report on the Intelligence Authorization Act for 2014
Intelligence Authorization Act for 2014. H.R. 113-227. November 25, 2013.–Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. Rogers of Michigan, from the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, submitted the following. HR 113-227 REPORT together with MINORITY VIEWS [To accompany H.R. 3381] [Including cost… Continue Reading
Government to Release More NSA Documents and FISA Court Opinions in Response to EFF Lawsuit
“On Monday, the US Department of Justice will release to the public hundreds of additional pages of government documents concerning its use of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the provision of law the NSA relies on to collect the call records of millions of Americans. The disclosures will follow closely on the heels of yesterday’s reports in… Continue Reading
Commentary on Google’s latest transparency report – what is missing that they cannot reveal
Rebecca J. Rosen – The Atlantic: “Today brings the release of the first Transparency Report since the Snowden revelations about widespread government surveillance, and Google’s tone has changed dramatically. In contrast with the warm glow of corporate benevolence Google has tended to exude in these moments, today’s Google Blog post announcing the new Report is a touch surly,… Continue Reading
CRS – Promoting Global Internet Freedom: Policy and Technology
Promoting Global Internet Freedom: Policy and Technology – Patricia Moloney Figliola, Specialist in Internet and Telecommunications Policy – October 22, 2013 “Modern communication tools such as the Internet provide a relatively inexpensive, accessible, easy-entry means of sharing ideas, information, and pictures around the world. In a political and human rights context, in closed societies when the more established, formal… Continue Reading
Court Rules Presidential Directives are Not Subject to FOIA but Orders Release of Additional Documents to EPIC
“A federal court has issued an opinion in EPIC v. NSA, EPIC’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit concerning the government’s policy for the security of American computer networks. As a result of the lawsuit, EPIC obtained documents that the National Security Agency had withheld from the public. The documents concern NSPD 54, a presidential policy directive outlining the scope of the NSA’s authority over… Continue Reading
