Pt II: EFF Evaluates the FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules in its “Report and Order”
In Part I of this post, we looked at the FCC’s stated basis for its authority to regulate the Internet in its Report and Order, issued in late December 2010.
Now, we turn to the substance of the FCC’s Order, and specifically how the Order stacks...
Will the Rise of Wikileaks Competitors Make Whistleblowing Resistant to Censorship?
Since it began publishing a trove of classified United States Embassy cables on November 28, 2010, Wikileaks has faced an onslaught of censorship that demonstrated how online speech is vulnerable when intermediaries refuse to host contentious or unpopular speech. When payment providers, service providers and even ...
ICE Seizures Raising New Speech Concerns
As legislators in DC contemplate expanding government copyright enforcement powers, there's new reason to worry that government agents are misusing the Internet policing powers they already have -- with disastrous consequences for thousands of innocent bystanders. Torrentfreak is reporting that the Department of Homeland Security's ICE agents temporarily...
Secretary Clinton Unveils New Funding for Activism Technology, Rhetorical Refresh in Internet Freedom Speech
Earlier today, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a speech about Internet freedom titled, "Internet Rights and Wrongs: Choices and Challenges In A Networked World." In her remarks, Clinton built on prior statements about the U.S. Government's commitment to a free and open Internet, responding in part to...
Privacy in the Wake of Olympic Security: Wikileaks Sheds Light on How the U.S. Pressured Brazil
Privacy advocates have observed for years that countries hosting the Olympic Games introduce increasingly heightened security and surveillance measures for the event, but rarely cut back on public surveillance after the games are finished. Because these expanded surveillance measures are often made permanent, we noted with interest a...
Egypt's Internet Blackout Highlights Danger of Weak Links, Usefulness of Quick Links
In response to ongoing protests, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ordered a shutdown of all Internet access for five whole days, from January 28 to February 2, but social media and news continued to flow in and out of the country thanks to a group of protagonists dedicated to supporting the...
EFF to Judge: Watch for Fairness in Mass Copyright Suits
One of the major problems with the mass copyright lawsuits we seen over the last year is that the judges hearing the cases often aren’t aware of the full legal and practical context of the litigation. That’s because they are asked to make important decisions (e.g., whether to allow...
As International Privacy Day is Celebrated, Governments Continue to Chip Away at Privacy Rights
"Effective data protection is vital for our democracies and underpins other fundamental rights and freedoms." - Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship.
Last Friday, privacy advocates and government officials in countries across the world celebrated the 5th annual International Privacy...
Egyptian Actions Highlight Dangers in U.S. Cybersecurity Proposals
The Egyptian regime's shutdown of the Internet in an attempt to preserve its political power highlights the dangers of any government having unchecked power over our Internet infrastructure, and puts a fine point on the risks to democracy posed by recent Congressional proposals to give the President a broad mandate...
Internet Security Savvy is Critical as Egyptian Government Blocks Websites, Arrests Activists in Response to Continued Protest
As we've seen in Iran and Tunisia, social networking tools have given activists in authoritarian regimes a powerful voice, which can be heard well beyond their own country. But the use of social networking tools has also given their governments ways to identify and retaliate against them. This week we...
