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
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Category Archives: Free Speech
Announcing the Net Data Directory
“The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is delighted to announce the launch of the Net Data Directory, a free, publicly available, searchable database of different sources of data about the Internet. The directory is intended to make finding useful quantitative data about a broad range of Internet-related topics—broadband, cybersecurity, freedom of expression, and more—easier… Continue Reading
Set your data free and reap the rewards
“…Make data available. So what do you do? Many disciplines, universities, and federal agencies have started to build repositories, slowly filling caverns of data to mine. The best ones allow for easy uploading and a pathway to making these observations machine-readable, with provenance information and metadata inseparable from the pudding that is your data. Well-known… Continue Reading
Study identifies metadata mining of telephone data by NSA
“Privacy protections against government surveillance are often scoped to communications content and exclude communications metadata. In the United States, the National Security Agency operated a particularly controversial program, collecting bulk telephone metadata nationwide. We investigate the privacy properties of telephone metadata to assess the impact of policies that distinguish between content and metadata. We find… 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
Economist and Time Websites blocked in China
New York Times: “The Economist and Time have joined the list of foreign news websites currently blocked in mainland China. The sites appear to have been censored as a result of recently published cover articles in the magazines critical of the growing power of China’s president, Xi Jinping. According to GreatFire.org, a website that tracks… Continue Reading
Free Expression on Campus: A Survey of U.S. College Students and U.S. Adults
Report by Gallup, The Knight Foundation and the Newseum Institute: “The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees Americans freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and the right to petition the government without retribution. The ways in which the First Amendment has been interpreted and applied over time… Continue Reading
Campaign Exposes Fissures Over Issues, Values and How Life Has Changed in the U.S.
Pew Research Center – “The 2016 presidential campaign has exposed deep disagreements between – and within – the two parties on a range of major policy issues. But these divisions go well beyond the issues and extend to fundamentally different visions of the way that life in the United States has changed. Overall, 46% of… 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
EFF – What We Talk About When We Talk About Apple and Compelled Speech
Via EFF – “Last week, EFF filed a brief in support of Apple’s fight against the FBI, in which we argued that forcing Apple to write—and sign—a custom version of iOS would violate the First Amendment rights of Apple and its programmers. That’s because the right to free speech sharply limits the government’s ability to… 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
Encryption and Evolving Technology: Implications for U.S. Law Enforcement Investigations
Via FAS – CRS Report – Encryption and Evolving Technology: Implications for U.S. Law Enforcement Investigations, Kristin Finklea Specialist in Domestic Security February 18, 2016. “Because modern-day criminals are constantly developing new tools and techniques to facilitate their illicit activities, law enforcement is challenged with leveraging its tools and authorities to keep pace. For instance,… Continue Reading
