Access to information

We welcome the passing of the Copyright Amendment Bill by both the National Assembly and the National Council of the Provinces and encourage the president to sign the Bill into law without delay. The Bill is a good reflection of a transformative vision for a more equal and just society.

APC echoes the deep alarm expressed by the Secretary-General at the opening of this session over the shrinking of civic space online. We highlight the disturbing trend of internet shutdowns, which in violation of international law, restrict a range of rights and harm communities.

The #KeepItOn Coalition, made up by more than 180 organisations from over 68 countries, including APC, calls on the Nigerian authorities to keep the internet open during the upcoming elections in the country.

In response to reports that the government has shut down the internet, this joint open letter calls on the ICT minister of Zimbabwe to ensure the stability and openness of the internet.

This paper focuses on the human rights impacts of recent initiatives in three countries (Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania) to “tax” the internet through introducing excise duties on, essentially, internet access and/or use.

The undersigned civil society organizations, call on Facebook to provide a mechanism for all of its users to appeal content restrictions, and, in every case, to have the appealed decision re-reviewed by a human moderator.

Welcome to the tenth monthly round-up of developments impacting your local access networks.

The HERMES (High­-frequency Emergency and Rural Multimedia Exchange System) project by Rhizomatica is the winner of the Mozilla NSF-WINS grand prize in the Off-the-Grid Internet Challenge.