[OP-ED]: My Government's Commitment to the Surveillance State – the UK Queen's Speech
BY Jon Worth | Monday, May 14 2012
Jon Worth argues that the Queen's Speech, delivered last week, presages a return to the "Big Brother" state in the UK. Read More
Thierer: Ahead of ITU in December, Call for "Hands Off the Net"
BY Nick Judd | Monday, May 7 2012
Writing for Forbes, the Mercatus Institute's Adam Thierer has a little fun with hyperventilation about the U.N. International Telecommunication Union meeting coming in December, at which several nations are expected to argue for increased government regulation of the Internet — that's their governments, as opposed to the largely U.S.-based regulatory bodies that oversee core Internet infrastructure today.
This won't be an opportunity for a U.N. takeover of the Internet, Thierer writes. But it could be a chance for international actors to make more room for their narrow national interests to influence the flow of communications online. Without clearly enumerating a list of threats — though the dangers of colluding with individual countries that might want to separate themselves from the rest of the web, a la Iran or China, is a central theme — Thierer calls for a new "Hands Off the Net" policy from the U.S. and allies.
Read MoreObama: Network Disruption in Syria, Iran, Facilitates Human Rights Abuse
BY Nick Judd | Monday, April 23 2012
In an executive order signed Sunday and released by the White House on Monday as President Barack Obama spoke at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial in Washington, D.C., the president called for financial restrictions on entities involved in the disruption, monitoring, or tracking of computers and networks by the Syrian or Iranian governments. The order would block property in the U.S. owned by people involved firsthand in network tracking and disruption, as well as people who provided technology, finances or expertise. It calls out Syrian and Iranian Internet service providers by name, but may be inclusive enough to cause problems for the Swedish telecommunications supplier Ericsson, which has supplied Syrian telecommunications firm Syriatel, said the Electronic Freedom Foundation's Jillian C. York. Read More
Controversial Arizona Anti-Bullying Bill, Seen as Attack on Free Speech, Said to be Stalled
BY Miranda Neubauer | Tuesday, April 3 2012
The Media Coalition, Anonymous and others are speaking out against anti-bullying legislation in Arizona that they say would censor electronic speech. Local station ABC 15 reported late last night that the law "did not make it to [Brewer's] desk, and that it is likely being reworked due to a public outcry calling the measure 'internet censorship.'" Read More
Bahrain and Belarus named Enemies of the Internet
BY Miranda Neubauer | Tuesday, March 13 2012
Reporters without Borders released an updated report yesterday of the countries that it has designated Enemies of the Internet. Read More
Access Is Trying to Block Pakistan from Blocking Internet Access
BY Raphael Majma | Monday, March 12 2012
Activist group Access has started an online petition that asks international software firms to not bid on creating the Pakistani government’s national firewall. On Feb. 23, the Pakistani government placed out an advertisement in the national press calling for software firms and local institutions to bid on “the development, deployment and operation of a national level URL Filtering and Blocking System.” For a number of years, the government has practiced blocking sites that they consider to be “obscene” or offensive to Islam. This new system, which officials want to be capable of blocking up to 50 million URLs, would be a substantial tightening of an already heavily regulated Pakistani Internet. As of December 2011, Pakistan had over 29 million Internet users, all of whom will be affected if the system is put in place. Read More
Amid Protests and a Court Case, ACTA Set to Come Before EU Parliament
BY Antonella Napolitano | Friday, February 24 2012
Next week the European Parliament will start discussing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, a controversial treaty that would set new international standards for dealing with copyright infringements. Next June, the European Parliament will have to vote to ratify or reject the treaty, but what seemed to be little more than a technicality now represents a crucial moment in a public debate on Internet freedom and digital rights. Read More
Iranian Internet Disruptions May Be Sign of Iran's Own "Clean Internet" to Come
BY Raphael Majma | Wednesday, February 15 2012
What appear to be Iranian government efforts to interdict or inspect Internet traffic have come with increasing frequency in recent months. Most recently, Iranian activists and journalists were the target of an anonymous Feb. 13 email “warning” that threatened them with punishment for working for the goals of foreigners. Read More
Momentum Builds in Europe Against Controversial Treaty on Copyright, Counterfeiting
BY Antonella Napolitano | Monday, February 13 2012
Last Saturday, thousands of people rallied all over Europe to protest against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a controversial treaty that would set new international standards for dealing with copyright infringement and other copyright claims. Read More
"Power Politics in the Age of Google"
BY Nick Judd | Thursday, February 9 2012
TechPresident's editorial director, Micah Sifry, will be speaking this afternoon on a panel at Harvard University called "Power Politics in the Age of Google," alongside Susan Crawford, Nicco Mele, Elaine Kamarck and Alexis Ohanian. The panel will be moderated by Harvard Shorenstein Center Director Alex Jones, and will be live-streamed here. Read More