censorship
Freedom of expression and freedom of the press are key issues in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. However, media organisations do not always cover the Agenda and the numerous initiatives behind it, which leaves them unknown to the greater public. How can we bridge these gaps between key human rights initiatives and the wider public, with the help of the media? To address this, APC participated in a session at the Global Festival of Action in Bonn, Germany, an annual...
Protests in Sudan have spread to an unprecedented level, with women and young people being at the forefront of a movement for change that seems to have succeeded in ousting President Omar al-Bashir, after months of struggle both online and offline. But how did this all start? Let's take a look back. Months of protests and repression, in the streets and online On 19 December 2018, a demonstration started in Atbra, a town in northern Sudan, against the increase in food prices and the general sh...
The Internet Freedom Festival (IFF) held in Valencia, Spain on a yearly basis has become one of the main events for civil society on internet rights with a special focus on surveillance, censorship and circumvention worldwide. The 2019 Internet Freedom Festival marks an important milestone, as it will be celebrating its fifth anniversary, with occasions for celebration and reflection. The...
The year 2019 started with five African countries – Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon, Sudan and Zimbabwe – facing internet disruptions, a very dangerous trend that reveals a rise in authoritarianism on the continent. This is the focus of Despots and Disruptions: Five Dimensions of Internet Shutdowns in Africa, a recently launched study by APC member Collaboration on Inte...
There are so many places to get porn. The online space is awash with naked bodies, a good majority of them on there consensually and a small but disturbing proportion not. The watching of naked bodies is big business, with one porn-based hub stating that in 2018 alone, 111 years (or one million hours) were uploaded onto their platform. This would mean that even if you dedicated your entir...
After the arrest of Award-winning Philippine journalist and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, APC member Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA) published the following statement (also published on their website). As of 14 February, Ressa has been freed on bail, a day after her arrest on charges of "cyber-libel" drew international condemnation. FMA denounces the arrest of Rapple...
Together with Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and 70 human rights organisations, APC signed a joint letter to Google's CEO Sundar Pichai concerning Google's plans to launch a censored search engine in China ahead of his testimony before US Congress on 11 December. The project, code-named Dragonfly, is reportedly in development and would be designed to meet the censorship requir...
To: Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer, Google Inc cc: Ben Gomes, Vice President of Search; Kent Walker, Senior Vice President of Global Affairs; Scott Beaumont, Vice President, Greater China and Korea 11 December 2018 Dear Mr. Pichai, We are writing to ask you to ensure that Google drops Project Dragonfly and any plans to launch a censored search app in China, and to re-affirm the compan...
Media Matters for Democracy (MMfD) has published multiple reports highlighting concerns with the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (PECA) and offered recommendations for improvement. In their first comprehensive review of PECA 2016, they took a look at the procedural issues that have defined the implementation of the law. This study presents a brief overview of the impleme...
An unexpected duo, tech bros and sex workers, banded together in February in opposition to two bills meant to curb online sex trafficking. Despite their efforts, the bills, Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), were incorporated into a conglomeration of the two, called the FOSTA-SESTA package. With a bipartisan approv...
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2019
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