Russia and China, two figureheads for internet censorship, collaborated to create a cybercrime convention and present it before the United Nations. The United Nations General Assembly has approved their resolution and agreed to create a committee to oversee the initiative sometime in 2020. On the surface, this looks to be a step in the right […]
Don’t let the data privacy bill fool you – it’s designed to take a lot more than it gives. The current bill sitting before the Indian government can have widespread consequences if passed. Rather than promoting privacy rights for Indian internet users, this bill pledges to hand over anything and anything civilians do online directly […]
Iran has never been an idyllic place to live for those that value freedom and human rights. The past few years have seen an upsurge of Iran’s population vocalizing their opposition to the political structure and archaic laws they feel are designed to oppress them and stifle their freedom. Amid these protests, the Iranian government […]
You’re never truly safe on the internet – especially not on social media. We’re often reminded that once we put something out onto the open internet, we can never really take it back. This is especially true when there are spies for foreign governments working at the headquarters of a social media network you use. […]
If the country of Turkmenistan had a motto, that motto would be “Just Don’t Do It”. Turkmenistan’s confusingly eccentric and egomaniacal leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow (who prefers to be cordially referred to as His Excellency or Distinguished Supreme Commander in Chief) has passed laws abolishing term limits and appears to intend to install himself as president […]
Russia may become the latest country to isolate itself from the global conversation. Their controversial policies and potential involvement in election meddling has increased the scrutiny of Russia’s role online, although the country has refused to admit to any wrongdoing. Russia’s authorities have been very conspicuously working in the background to remove the global internet […]
While other areas of the world are becoming seemingly more liberal, China is in a permanently regressive state. Rather than changing views and laws to reflect the desires of Chinese citizens, China’s Communist Party has doubled down by removing more and more freedoms and altogether eliminating the reasonable expectation of privacy for its citizens. China’s […]
From a human rights perspective, Turkey has never been a utopia. Recent developments provide empirical evidence that Turkey has taken a turn for the worse, with its government imposing even stricter bans, blocks, and regulations that make everyday life difficult for its citizens. Unsurprisingly, Turkey was one of the last countries to sign the The […]
Coming July 29th, Cuban society is going to become “computerized” and new censorship regulations are going to take place that drastically alter how free speech and internet content will be blocked moving forward. According to the Cuban government, the new internet changes are nothing more than a matter of “legal regulations that allow the implementation […]
As the growth of websites and free discourse has grown–so too has government crackdowns, blacklists, and all other forms of internet censorship. Turkey has been a hotspot for censorship since 2014, banning access to over 245,825 websites. Only 11,879 of these blocked websites have been blocked through the regular court process. All the other websites […]
If most of the past Russian laws for online censorship were shotgun blasts, the newest Russian law is an “internet censorship nuke”. And it looks like the nuke has just landed. From now on, the Russian government can make it a crime to “disrespect” the state on the internet. This law is put into effect […]
