Access

How can we help people gain easy and affordable access to a free and open internet to improve their lives and create a more just world? This question has driven our work and strategic priorities for almost 30 years. As the first in a series of six articles, this piece will focus on access.

Point of View, an APC member organisation in India, celebrated International Women's Day on 8 March with the launch of its newest publication, Free To Be Mobile, as part of its mission to ensure that women, girls, queer and trans persons can inhabit digital spaces freely – and fearlessly.

In 2018, the BPF on Gender and Access analysed the potential of supplementary models of connectivity to bridge the gender digital divide. It concluded that these initiatives could be instrumental in helping to overcome the barriers to access faced by women and non-binary people.

Welcome to the 15th monthly round-up of developments impacting your local access networks.

This report presents observations on the shutdowns experienced in recent years, and points to a link between the level of authoritarianism in a country and the likelihood of experiencing a network shutdown. It also looks at the economic and social impacts of these disruptions.

This is a joint submission by Murambinda Works, the Association for Progressive Communications, Internet Society and Rhizomatica. We support the objectives of this proposed regulatory change but feel the changes could go even further in order to more effectively realise those objectives.

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.

Ahead of Cameroon’s review by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, APC, Access Now and Internet Sans Frontières submitted a joint shadow report encouraging the Committee to consider the relationship between meaningful access to the internet and enjoyment of these rights.