Protests and Online Organizing
The right to protest is essential for the future of human rights, justice, and democracy. Protests and online organizing are evolving in digital spaces, and autocratic governments are responding with attempts to undermine privacy, quell dissent, and punish those who speak out. We demand governments and companies respect and protect our freedom to assemble, associate, and speak freely, online and off. We also offer activists and human rights defenders digital safety tools and resources.
Will the Right to Protest survive its migration online?
The human right to protest is crucial because it is a gateway right — it onboards us to other rights. Even for those who have never participated in a protest, or ever plan to, many of the rights we enjoy today are the result of others in the past exercising their right to protest for those rights.
Resources
Content Governance
New world disorder: digital attacks on freedom of assembly
Access Now’s latest report examines the power — and fragility — of our rights to peaceful assembly and association in the digital era.
Freedom of Expression
Iran: alarm over mass arrests of human rights defenders amidst protests
Civil society call for an end to the deliberate violence and arrests against human rights defenders, journalists, and activists during the Iran protests
Freedom of Expression
At the U.N., a new push to end surveillance of protesters — and protect their lawyers
Digital surveillance is threatening the right to protest worldwide. U.N. human rights expert Clément Voule is fighting for strong encryption and tight restrictions on the use of spyware. Here’s why that push is important for human rights lawyers and the activists they represent.
Freedom of Expression
Arab Spring: ten years in, how can we reclaim the internet as an open space?
The internet played a pivotal role during the Arab Spring protests. But a decade on, the state of internet freedom in many Arab countries has deteriorated. Join us for a virtual conversation to explore the evolution of the digital space from a tool of mobilization to one of repression.
Covid-19
RightsCon spotlight: “The Privatised Panopticon: Workers’ Surveillance in the Digital Age”
In a session with European Digital Rights at RightsCon, we will explore how surveillance technology can make your workplace function like a prison: a privatised panopticon that threatens labour movements and undermines human rights.
Digital Security
Human rights groups ask U.N. to intervene in U.S. crackdown on racial justice protesters
Access Now and partners ask the United Nations to take a stand against the U.S. government’s violent response to peaceful protests.
Digital Security
To #SaveDotOrg, we still need safeguards
Today, NTEN, EFF, and Access Now delivered the following letter to the leaders of ISOC and PIR calling on them to reflect and to take immediate action to adopt the safeguards put forward by the #SaveDotOrg campaign.
Latest Updates
Ceasefire in Gaza: it’s time to end digital harms and deliver justice
As physical violence appears to be coming to a halt after 15 months in Gaza, Access Now further calls for a digital ceasefire.
Tackling the “black snakes” undermining digital rights worldwide
As 2025 gets underway, Access Now’s new Executive Director, Alejandro Mayoral Baños, PhD, shares his reflections on the “black snakes” threatening the digital rights movement.
Georgia protests: digital safety tips for peaceful gatherings
Amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent and peaceful protests in many EECA countries, most recently Georgia, CyberHUB-AM and Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline have prepared a guide to support protestors to stay safer online.
بيان مُشترك: المجتمع المدني يُطالب باتخاذ الإجراءات اللازمة قبيل انعقاد منتدى حوكمة الإنترنت
منظمات حقوق الإنسان المُوقّعة أدناه، نحثّ حكومة السعودية على إطلاق سراح جميع المعتقلين الذين اعتقلتهم السلطات السعودية بسبب تعبيرهم عن آرائهم على الإنترنت
Joint statement: civil society demands action ahead of Internet Governance Forum
Civil society urges the government of Saudi Arabia to release people imprisoned for their online expression and foster transparency and accountability ahead of IGF 2024.
Who wins from the IGF? Not those locked up for speaking out
Why we won’t stop defending LGBTQ+ digital rights
Saudi authorities must end misuse of administrative and judicial measures against released human rights defenders including Loujain al-Hathloul
We call on the Saudi authorities to immediately cease misusing administrative and judicial measures against human rights defenders released from prison.
Experts: Apple’s removal of news apps in Russia sets ‘dangerous precedent’
ينبغي إطلاق سراح علاء عبد الفتاح هذا الشهر بعد انتهاء مدة سجنه
Alaa Abd el-Fattah must be released on Sunday, 29 September at the end of his five year prison sentence.
Alaa Abd el-Fattah must be released this month at the end of his prison sentence
Alaa Abd el-Fattah must be released on Sunday, 29 September at the end of his five year prison sentence.
Access Now and KICTANet’s joint memorandum on Kenya’s Assembly and Demonstrations Bill, 2024
Venezuela: digital id as a tool of oppression
Egypt authorities must release activist Mohamed Adel
Human rights organizations urge the Egyptian authorities to immediately release political activist Mohamed Adel, and to comply with their duty to protect his life and health.
Joint Statement: Saudi Arabia must free detainees jailed for their online expression ahead of Internet Governance Forum
Access Now, Amnesty International, and civil society partners demand Saudi Arabia free individuals detained for their online expression ahead the UN Internet Governance Forum in Riyadh.
بيان مشترك: على السلطات السعودية الإفراج عن المحتجزين بسبب تعبيرهم عن آرائهم على الإنترنت قبيل انعقاد منتدى حوكمة الإنترنت
نطالب، بالتعاون مع منظمات المجتمع المدني، السعودية بالإفراج عن الأشخاص المحتجزين بسبب تعبيرهم عبر الإنترنت قبل منتدى حوكمة الإنترنت.