10+ Years of Activists Silenced: Internet Intermediaries’ Long History of Censorship
Recent decisions by technology companies, especially “upstream” infrastructure technology companies, to drop neo-Nazis as customers have captured public attention—and for good reason. The content being blocked is vile and horrific, there is growing concern about hate groups across the country, and the nation is focused on issues of racism and...
Will TPP-11 Nations Escape the Copyright Trap?
TPP-11 nations have the historic opportunity to rein in excessive copyright term extension
Latest reports confirm that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is being revived. The agreement had been shelved following the withdrawal of the U.S. from the negotiation process. Over the past year, countries eager...
It’s Time to Strengthen California’s Public Records Law
Update: On Sept. 7, 2017, we changed our position from supporting the bill to neutral. Read our update here.
In 2015, the Center for Public Integrity undertook a major investigation aimed at grading all 50 states to ascertain their transparency and accountability. When it came to California,...
DOJ Backs Down From Overbroad J20 Warrant. But Problems Still Remain
The government has backed down significantly in its fight with DreamHost about information related to the J20 protests. Late on Tuesday, DOJ filed a reply in its much publicized (and much criticized) attempt to get the hosting provider to turn over a large amount of data about a...
Washington State Tries to Crack Down on Cyberbullying — But Routine Criticism Is Blocked Instead
The scourge of online harassment can scare many people away from expressing their opinions online. It’s a problem that calls for sophisticated, multi-layered solutions. But a law in Washington state is demonstrating how some approaches to the issue can go terribly wrong, potentially blocking the routine criticism of...
As First NAFTA Round Opens in Secrecy, Digital Rights Groups Fear Another TPP
The opening round of a series of negotiations over a proposed revised North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) began this week in Washington, D.C. between trade representatives from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Already it is clear that the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has ignored...
Fighting Neo-Nazis and the Future of Free Expression
In the wake of Charlottesville, both GoDaddy and Google have refused to manage the domain registration for the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website that, in the words of the Southern Poverty Law Center, is “dedicated to spreading anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism, and white nationalism.” Subsequently Cloudflare, whose service...
Student Privacy Tips for Parents
The beginning of the school year is right around the corner. Over the summer, your school may have acquired new devices, software, and educational technology (or ed tech) to use in classrooms. Or, your school may have expanded existing technology programs, or may be thinking about adopting new forms of...
Five Actions Californians Can Take Right Now to Promote Digital Civil Liberties
Update [Sept. 13, 2017]: EFF has moved to a neutral position on S.B. 54 (the California Values Act) and deactivated our email action tool. For more information, please read our new blog post explaining how the most recent amendments dropped key digital privacy measures.
Over the next...
Thai Activist Jailed for the Crime of Sharing an Article on Facebook
Thai activist Jatuphat “Pai” Boonpattaraksa was sentenced this week to two and a half years in prison—for the crime of sharing a BBC article on Facebook. The Thai-language article profiled Thailand’s new king and, while thousands of users shared it, only Jutaphat was found to violate Thailand’s strict...








