Onlinecensorship.org Tracks Content Takedowns by Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Sites
San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Visualizing Impact launched Onlinecensorship.org today, a new platform to document the who, what, and why of content takedowns on social media sites. The project, made possible by a 2014 Knight News Challenge award, will address how social media sites moderate...
Baseless Calls to Expand Surveillance Fit Familiar, Cynical Pattern
Like clockwork, cynical calls to expand mass surveillance practices—by continuing the domestic telephone records collection and restricting access to strong encryption—came immediately following the Paris attacks. These calls came before the smoke had even cleared, much less before a serious investigation completed. They came from high places too, including ...
Has the TPP Ended the Crypto Wars? Hardly.
The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) fears the grassroots tech community, and rightly so. Internet users are the community that killed SOPA and PIPA in the U.S. Congress and ACTA in the European Parliament. The USTR is right to fear that the same could happen to the Trans-Pacific...
EFF, Public Knowledge File Comments to Help Fix the Patent Office
EFF and Public Knowledge filed comments today at the United States Patent and Trademark Office discussing proposed changes to Patent Office trials. Our comments focus on making the process more fair and accessible for small entities that need to challenge bad patents.
Our first set of comments relates...
Movie Studios Scale Back Their Website-Blocking Strategy in the MovieTube case
On Friday, the major US movie studios quietly backed away from the worst parts of the censorship power-grab they attempted in July in the Paramount v. John Does (MovieTube) case. The studios are still hoping to take MovieTube’s Internet domain names away, but they are no longer asking...
EFF Demands Moroccan Authorities Drop Criminal Charges Against Human Rights Defenders
Misuse Rampant, Oversight Lacking at California’s Law Enforcement Network
Confirmed cases of misuse of California’s sprawling unified law enforcement information network have doubled over the last five years, according to records obtained by EFF under the California Public Records Act.That adds up to a total 389 cases between 2010 and 2014 in which an investigation concluded that a user—often...
Once Again, DMCA Abused to Target Political Ads
If you live in San Francisco (or spend much time on social media) you probably saw a lot of discussion last month about Proposition F, a controversial proposal to regulate short-term property rental services like Airbnb. You may also know that Airbnb spent millions opposing the measure, many...
Tell the U.S. Department of Education: Open Licensing Matters
Tell the U.S. Department of Education: Open Licensing Matters
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is considering a rule change that would make the educational resources the Department funds a lot more accessible to educators and students—not just in the U.S., but around the world. We hope to see it adopted, and that it sets the standard for...
