World Press Freedom Index 2011-2012 – “Syria, Bahrain and Yemen get worst ever rankings – This years index sees many changes in the rankings, changes that reflect a year that was incredibly rich in developments, especially in the Arab world, Reporters Without Borders said today as it released its 10th annual press freedom index. Many… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Censorship
Twitter announces new policy to withhold tweets in specific countries
Via CDT: “Earlier this week, Twitter announced that it will begin making certain Tweets inaccessible to users in countries where the content of those Tweets is illegal. In announcing its new policy, Twitter was acknowledging the challenge that all global social media sites face: governments ask tech companies to comply with local content laws and… Continue Reading
Draft Report: Enhancing Personnel Reliability among Individuals with Access to Select Agents
Enhancing Personnel Reliability among Individuals with Access to Select Agents, Report of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), December 2011 “Scientific research on highly pathogenic microorganisms and toxins underpins our ability to successfully combat infectious diseases affecting humans, animals and plants, and enables the development of effective countermeasures against bioterrorism threats. An in-depth… Continue Reading
International Bloggers and Internet Control
International Bloggers and Internet Control, Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, Jillian York, Robert Faris, and John Palfrey. Berkman Center for Internet & Society, August 2011 “The Internet is an increasingly contested space, particularly in countries with repressive governments. Infringements on Internet freedom, particularly through Internet filtering and surveillance, have inspired activists and technologists to develop technological… Continue Reading
Report on Online Security in the Middle East and North Africa
“The Berkman Center is pleased to release Online Security in the Middle East and North Africa: A Survey of Perceptions, Knowledge, and Practice. This report describes the results of a survey of 98 bloggers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) carried out in May 2011 in order to study bloggers perceptions of online… Continue Reading
UN – Report of Special Rapporteur on promotion and protection of right to freedom of opinion and expression
United Nations General Assembly: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, May 16, 2011 “This report explores key trends and challenges to the right of all individuals to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds through the… Continue Reading
EFF: Documenting Tools for Beating Internet Censorship
“Because we believe that Internet censorship is not only against the basic purpose of the Internet, which is to let people communicate what the want to with the people they want to communicate with, but also fundamentally against the universal right to freedom of opinion and expression [which] includes freedom to hold opinions without interference… Continue Reading
Mozilla: Homeland Security Request to Take Down MafiaaFire Add-on
Via Harvey Anderson…who works at Mozilla on legal and business affairs.” Homeland Security Request to Take Down MafiaaFire Add-on, May 5, 2011 – “From time to time, we receive government requests for information, usually market information and occasionally subpoenas. Recently the US Department of Homeland Security contacted Mozilla and requested that we remove the MafiaaFire… Continue Reading
Leaping Over the Firewall: A Review of Censorship Circumvention Tools
“A new Freedom House report found that while the majority of circumvention tools used to evade government censorship online perform similarly well, the country in which they are used and the nature of the censorship dictate their effectiveness. No one tool provides a silver bullet for security as governments become more sophisticated in filtering content… Continue Reading
Middle-East and African Governments Censoring Citizens Using Western Technologies
News release: “Today, the OpenNet Initiative, a partnership between the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs (Munk School) and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, announced the release of a new report titled West Censoring East: The Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors, 2010-2011 by Helmi… Continue Reading
2010 Trend Watch Update: Global Internet Censorship
Peter Eckersley: “At the beginning of this year EFF identified a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we thought would play a significant role in shaping digital rights in 2010, with a promise to revisit our predictions at the end of the year. Now, as 2010 comes to a close, we’re going… Continue Reading
Two Essays Diverge on Power of Social Media
Small Change – Why the revolution will not be tweeted, by Malcolm Gladwell: “he world, we are told, is in the midst of a revolution. The new tools of social media have reinvented social activism. With Facebook and Twitter and the like, the traditional relationship between political authority and popular will has been upended, making… Continue Reading
