Freedom of expression
"It's a sad day for rights activists: Islamabad High Court allows government to suspend mobile phone services," Pakistan-based rights activist Talal Raza said on 21 March, as Islamabad suffered from a network shutdown. The shutdown coincided with the rehearsal for the Pakistan Day Parade, to be held on 23 March, and has raised serious concerns among human rights defenders. In a statement shared on their website, APC member in Pakistan Media Matters for Democ...
We welcome this topic because it is current and integral to our work. On the one hand there is a lot of “noise” in the mainstream media about so-called “fake news” and what appears to be a fairly rushed response from platforms consisting of increasing in-house regulation of content. On the other hand, human rights defenders and activists we work with express concern that platforms are removing some of their content in a manner that suggests political bias and reinforcing of societal d...
Since its beginning as the Circumvention Tech Festival in 2015, the Internet Freedom Festival (IFF) has grown into one of the largest, most diverse and inclusive gatherings in the internet freedom community. The IFF is organised around seven themes, focusing on the needs identified by the different communities around the world: On the frontlines, Making better tech, Training and ...
Internet shutdowns: A study of social impact in India is the second in the series of DEF’s efforts for advocacy against internet shutdowns. The previous research report, Anatomy of virtual curfews: Human rights vs national security, highlights the existing and emerging threats to fundamental rights and human rights on account of arbitrary, unnecessary, and disproportionate imposition of Inter...
At three different times over the past four years, the EROTICS project: An Exploratory Research on Sexuality and the Internet, by the APC Women’s Rights Programme, sent out a questionnaire to its worldwide network of gender and sexuality activists, advocates, professionals and scholars, to learn about the role of information and communication technologies in their work. The survey was particu...
APC member in the Philippines Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA) expresses grave concern over the decision of the Philippine authorities to shut down cell sites during huge festivities. The organisation calls for transparency regarding the guidelines used by authorities before resorting to signal jamming. As advocates of human rights and communication rights, FMA believes that human rights...
The new report titled “Internet freedoms in Palestine: Mapping of digital rights violations and threats”, available in English and Arabic, constitutes the first of its kind on the Palestinian level. The report analyses freedoms in the Palestinian virtual sphere, especially in the context of violations that have recently been perpetrated against Palestinian activists on social media platform...
In the context of the Internet Governance Forum 2017 and growing international debates about the so called “fake news”, the undersigned organizations would like to express strong concerns about possible paths that the framing of the issue is taking. The terminology has been widely spread in rhetorics from the Global North, but we cannot import such a concept without taking into account the ...
This is the fourth study on internet rights by Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (EMPOWER) under the APC-IMPACT project. It builds on EMPOWER’s previous research on online freedom of expression and freedom of information as well as freedom of assembly and association. It is a feminist response to increased instances of bullying and harassment on social media, seeking better understanding ...
What have our readers liked most during this year that is coming to an end? Check these stories out if you haven't had a chance to read them yet! What do we want to accomplish in 2017? For years, the internet has had a transformative effect throughout the world. Despite the increasing curbs on freedoms and rights, APC will continue to work on promoting access to a free and open internet to impr...
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2018
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