Freedom of expression
In late May the Guardian released the Facebook Files, leaked internal documents revealing how the company moderates content. Many of us have long called for more transparency around Facebook's content moderation so we can better understand gender-based violence that happens on the platform and provide feedback. Although Facebook has made some improvements1, these documents confirm that it's often one step forward, one step back, as the platform continues to censor women's agency, especially w...
The establishment of 7amleh was driven by the necessity to raise the profile and capacity of online Palestinian advocacy, both in terms of raising awareness of Palestinian issues to an international audience, but also among Palestinians themselves. With this statement, Palestinian NGO 7amleh – Arab Center for Social Media Advancement welcomes visitors to its work, which focuses on improving the skills and capacities of Palestinian and Arab civil society through training on the skills and me...
ICTs and more specifically, the internet create new and promising spaces where national human rights institutions (NHRIs) can improve the way they function and reach out to stakeholders in previously unimaginable ways. Digitalisation has fundamentally changed the way we work. NHRIs can develop practices that systematically help them record and store information about their work in digital form....
The internet is changing the ways in which people interact, trade, learn and communicate. For those who have got access to it, it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine life without it. It offers us all kinds of opportunities, including exercising our human rights both online and offline, as different United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council resolutions have established. The internet als...
On May 16, 2017, the Venezuelan government issued Executive Order 2489, which extends the “state of emergency” in Venezuela that has been in place since May 2016. This new extension authorizes internet policing and content filtering. This measure deepens the existing restrictions to the free flow of information. These restrictions include government blocking of streaming news out...
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and organisations supporting this joint statement welcome the report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Mr. David Kaye, to be presented at the 35th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC). We also welcome the Special Rapporteur’s timely attention paid to network shu...
Bondita Acharya received death threats, as well as being threatened with acid attack, rape and gang rape, after condemning the arrest of three people for the possession of beef on 4 April 2017. The attacks on her include trolling on her Facebook account and other social media with sexually laden, criminal and defamatory posts. Read the full statement here.
The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) held the second round of an internet safety and security workshop series in March 2017. The workshop, held at the NISTF Hall, Kano, was attended by 55 people including journalists, civil society activists, teachers and leaders of students for peace clubs supported by CITAD in tertiary institutions. Explaining the objectives of the wo...
There were countless reasons for a young, Malaysian feminist, internet rights activist, to be excited about RightsCon Brussels. Not least because Belgian waffle is the bomb, but I craved the adrenaline rush of compelling, inquisitorial and powerful discourse on human rights, gender and technology; the sort of interactions that would inspire and spark new perspectives, new ideas, and new friends...
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) expresses its solidarity with civil society in Hungary, who are facing unjustifiable attacks from the government aimed at stigmatising them and undermining their credibility. We stand with the 80,000 people who marched in Budapest in protest of government policies that seek to intimidate civil society and curtail academic ...
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2018
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