freedom of expression
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) condemns the crackdown on peaceful protesters in India, including the harassment of APC staff member Gayatri Khandhadai. We urge the Indian government and all relevant authorities to: Stop the crackdown on protesters. Respect and protect the rights of Indian citizens to peacefully protest, assemble and associate online and offline as guaranteed under Article 19(1)(b) of the Constitution of India. Cease arbitrary arrests, release all who...
On Friday 22 and Saturday 23 November 2019, GreenNet's website and most of our online services, including most of our customers’ websites, went offline for several hours on two occasions. Our technicians became aware of the outage on Friday lunchtime and worked remotely and at our data centre until the small hours of Saturday morning to identify the fault and restore access to websites and emails. By about 2 a.m. on Saturday things were coming back online, but they went down again later tha...
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) presents this report on the experience and situation of women and lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, intersex, queer and asexual (LGBTIQA+) persons and communities in relation to the intersection of religion and online spaces, with particular examples from Asia given the pressing nature of the issues in the region. Women and people of diver...
Online platforms and electronic communication have facilitated the spontaneous, dispersed, democratic forms of protest characterising the movement in Hong Kong. A variety of different forms of protest can thus be promoted and organised from the grassroots of a leaderless movement. Thus on any given weekend in Hong Kong, while those trashing symbols of "red capital" (Chinese banks and companies)...
A group of human rights activists and organisations from Southeast Asia are calling to stop the attacks on democracy and media activists, as well as other individuals-at-risk, for their expression online. In the increasingly authoritarian region, we stand witness to bloggers, protestors, human rights defenders, journalists and everyday internet users being harassed, threatened, b...
Update: On 10 October, Alaa was able to inform his lawyers, and put it officially on record, that he has been beaten, threatened and robbed at the Tora Prison. He was told if he spoke out it would become worse, and faces the risk of further beating and torture. In the words of his family, "Alaa decided, as always, not to be silent. We, now, must do our part." ---------...
A brief observation of the analytical frameworks used by a great number of Kenyan social media users around the controversy surrounding the release of the Kenyan film Rafiki may make you more familiar with the rubrics of “artistic freedom” and “freedom of speech” than those of “queerness” and “precariousness” (here “queerness” accounts for those Kenyans who live outsid...
Since 11 April 2019, software developer, cybersecurity expert and digital rights activist Ola Bini, a Swedish national living for the past six years in Ecuador on a legal permit, has been illegitimately kept in detention as a political prisoner in Ecuador. Appeals for Ola’s release by his legal team have been stonewalled by the Ecuadorian authorities at every turn. His arrest is a serious vio...
In 2018 the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) affirmed that the “surveillance of digital communications must be consistent with international human rights obligations” and in accordance with a “publicly accessible, clear, precise, comprehensive and nondiscriminatory” legal framework, without any arbitrary or unlawful interference with the right to privacy. UNGA called on states and...
TikTok is a mobile platform for creating and sharing 15-second videos. Or as described by Wired, “a short-form monitised musical meme machine”. TikTok users lip sync, dance and perform to popular songs, dialogue or voiceovers from films and television shows and other audio clips from popular culture and edit the videos creatively using the templates and effects provided on the platform. It ...
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2019
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