Freedom of Expression
This year, we’re celebrating International Women’s Day by spotlighting Access staffers around the world — in Washington, Tunisia, Brussels, and New York. We asked them a simple question: Why do you fight for digital rights?…
4 March 2015
Today, President Barack Obama issued a presidential memorandum addressing the increased development and use of drones within the United States. Among other things, the memorandum, which has the force of law, requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to develop a multistakeholder process for the creation of non-binding rules governing commercial drone use. The NTIA will collaborate with businesses and civil society organizations to develop the guidelines, which must be drafted to adequately address threats to privacy and free expression posed by the public use of the technology, particularly the unique challenges of drones as mobile internet service platforms. …
15 February 2015
In a worrying move against freedom of expression on the internet, Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa publicly shamed critics for their statements on social networks and asked his supporters to attack them online. Digital rights organizations worldwide, including Access, issued this statement condemning the president’s disturbing reaction.…
12 February 2015
Access joined EFF, Global Voices Advocacy, New America’s Open Technology Institute, and Ferrari & Associates, P.C. in a letter calling for the OFAC—the agency charged with enforcing the sanctions—to issue a general license that would protect internet users.…
12 February 2015
Today more than 20 digital and civil rights organisations released a joint statement calling on world leaders to resist expanding surveillance measures in wake of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy. …
29 January 2015
This week, the Democratic Republic of the Congo ordered a full shutdown of internet and SMS traffic in response to protests against the government. The shutdown is just the latest example of telcos complying with government censorship orders, albeit reluctantly. …
23 January 2015
The High Court of Kenya has temporarily suspended the implementation of eight clauses of the Security Laws (Amendment) Act of 2014, which restricts the exercise of human rights in Kenya. Access applauds the High Court’s decision in suspending these parts of the law law and urges the Court to thoroughly consider the entire law’s human rights impact in its ultimate assessment. …
7 January 2015
Anyone who thinks that net neutrality is a boring issue for computer geeks needs to look outside the U.S. Countries around the world are championing the cause of an open internet by pushing for laws and policies that protect the features that made the internet what it is today. And they are just as fired up about net neutrality as President Obama himself was just this month, when he gave his full support for the open net. Net neutrality is not an American issue, or a European issue, or an African issue. It is increasingly a global issue.…
24 November 2014
The sweeping new powers contained in Australia’s terror laws have the potential to violate privacy and expression rights of Australians and non-Australians and to “strike at the heart of press freedom.” The terror laws create a mutually reinforcing surveillance scheme, greatly restricting the spaces in which people are free to think and to act on and offline.…
29 October 2014
As of today, Oct. 10, SMS services are being blocked in Tajikistan. Though Tajik authorities deny responsibility for any blocking or disruptions, many observers say the government is attempting to thwart a planned rally by Group 24, an opposition organization labeled extremist by the Tajik Supreme Court.…
10 October 2014
A coalition 11 European and international digital rights groups submitted a letter to the Google Advisory Council to set the record straight about the so-called “right to be forgotten” and to address misrepresentations of a recent European Court of Justice ruling.…
9 September 2014
Dear , On Thursday September 25, Access invites you to join civil society groups for an Apero on the Future of the Internet. This is a crucial time for the digital economy and online expression. Decisions the European Parliament makes…
9 September 2014