Readings

• Facebook issues its second Government Requests Report which shows via an interactive map how many request are made around the world and which percentage of those requests receive a response. For example, in the U.S., of the 12,598 requests, which affect 18,715 accounts, 81% received some sort of response.

• England's Metropolitan Police (Met) attempted to silence a whistleblower who exposed the Met's manipulation of crime statistics. Met police officers will soon be required to wear digital cameras while on duty.

• The UK government also just launched their digital inclusion strategy, which aims to reduce the number of those within the country that are offline by about 25 percent.

• The World Economic Forum blog examines a number of technologies and apps that are making the courtroom more efficient.

• The Open Rights Group is fighting unnecessary censorship created by UK Internet filters by launching a campaign to make web censorship in the UK more transparent: it's updating its blockedinUK.org website and creating a probe that can determine if a URL is blocked, and if so, from which networks.

• NDITech tries to use publicly available data on protest movements in Bosnia and Herzigovina as well as Ukraine to try and detect patterns.

• Geneva launches an online digital policy platform.

• A Cambodian cyber crime bill that the free speech organization Article 19 and other activists say will undermine free speech. One particular provision criminalizes online content that “generates insecurity, instability, and political cohesiveness.”

• The online community is confused about how to denote Crimea on the map.

• The Philippine government is giving donors, consisting of 64 countries and seven multilateral organizations, access to its Foreign Aid Transparency Hub. The portal will allow donors to better monitor their pledges.

Reports and Publications

• The Center for Internet and Society's Sunil Abraham writes, "Who Governs the Internet? Implications for Freedom and National Security"

• The Center for Democracy and Technology issues a report on "Government Surveillance and the Right to Privacy"

• Article 19 publishes a newsletter on "Freedom of Expression in East Africa"