News & Updates

News & updates

Stay up to date with Access Now’s latest news, analysis, reports, events, community resources, and more. For a weekly digest in your inbox, subscribe to the Access Now Express, or scroll down to see the latest.

how social media companies increase risks for LGBTQ+ people in Africa
Digital Security
Digital SecurityPostAfricaEnglish

How Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws entrap people online

15 May 2025

As we mark the IDAHOBIT 2025, we highlight research on Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws and show how they can lead to digital entrapment and human rights violations.

Post
How Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws entrap people online
15 May 2025
How Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws entrap people online
elections
Internet Shutdowns
Internet ShutdownsPress ReleaseEastern Europe & Central AsiaEnglish

#KeepItOn: Кремль должен воздержаться от отключений во время национальных праздников и мероприятий

12 May 2025

Ниже подписавшиеся решительно осуждают отключения интернета, введённые российскими властями накануне и во время празднования 80-летия Победы во Второй мировой войне.

Press Release
#KeepItOn: Кремль должен воздержаться от отключений во время национальных праздников и мероприятий
12 May 2025
#KeepItOn: Кремль должен воздержаться от отключений во время национальных праздников и мероприятий
elections
Internet Shutdowns
Internet ShutdownsPress ReleaseEastern Europe & Central AsiaEnglish

#KeepItOn: The Kremlin must refrain from imposing internet shutdowns during key national events

12 May 2025

The undersigned human rights organizations call on the UK government to take immediate action to free Alaa, and save his mother’s life.

Press Release
#KeepItOn: The Kremlin must refrain from imposing internet shutdowns during key national events
12 May 2025
#KeepItOn: The Kremlin must refrain from imposing internet shutdowns during key national events
Digital censorship
Content Governance
Content GovernancePress ReleaseAsia Pacific

Access Now statement on digital censorship amid India–Pakistan conflict

9 May 2025

We are alarmed by executive orders issued by the Indian government restricting access to an alarming spectrum of online content, including requiring social media platform X to block access to over 8,000 accounts, including those belonging to journalists, human rights organisations, and independent media outlets.

Press Release
Access Now statement on digital censorship amid India–Pakistan conflict
9 May 2025
Access Now statement on digital censorship amid India–Pakistan conflict
NSO
Surveillance
SurveillancePress ReleaseEnglish

NSO to pay $168 million in damages to WhatsApp for Pegasus spyware hacking 

6 May 2025
Press Release
NSO to pay $168 million in damages to WhatsApp for Pegasus spyware hacking 
6 May 2025
NSO to pay $168 million in damages to WhatsApp for Pegasus spyware hacking 
Freedom of expression
Freedom of Expression
Freedom of ExpressionPost

Combating digital threats to safeguard press freedom

6 May 2025
Post
Combating digital threats to safeguard press freedom
6 May 2025
Combating digital threats to safeguard press freedom
Sweden
Data Protection
Data ProtectionPress ReleaseEuropeEnglish

Civil society must have a seat at the EU Technology Roadmap table

5 May 2025

All stakeholders need to work together to find long-term solutions to complex societal issues, which are based on scientific evidence, and are respectful of rights.

Press Release
Civil society must have a seat at the EU Technology Roadmap table
5 May 2025
Civil society must have a seat at the EU Technology Roadmap table
Digital Security Helpline BG
Digital Security
Digital SecurityPost

How U.S. funding cuts expose civil society to digital attacks

9 Apr 2025
Post
How U.S. funding cuts expose civil society to digital attacks
9 Apr 2025
How U.S. funding cuts expose civil society to digital attacks
Sweden
Privacy
PrivacyPress ReleaseEuropeEnglish

Joint letter on Swedish Data Storage and Access to Electronic Information legislation

9 Apr 2025

Swedish authorities must reject legislation that would force companies to undermine the encryption of their services.

Press Release
Joint letter on Swedish Data Storage and Access to Electronic Information legislation
9 Apr 2025
Joint letter on Swedish Data Storage and Access to Electronic Information legislation
elections
Internet Shutdowns
Internet ShutdownsPress ReleaseAfricaEnglish

Gabonese authorities must ensure internet access throughout upcoming elections

8 Apr 2025

Authorities in Gabon must ensure unfettered access to the internet throughout the upcoming elections in the country on April 12, 2025.

Press Release
Gabonese authorities must ensure internet access throughout upcoming elections
8 Apr 2025
Gabonese authorities must ensure internet access throughout upcoming elections
Authorities Gabon #KeepItOn
Internet Shutdowns
Internet ShutdownsPress ReleaseAfricaEnglish

#KeepItOn: authorities in Gabon must safeguard open and secure internet access during elections

8 Apr 2025

#KeepItOn urges authorities in Gabon to keep the internet, social media, and all communication channels open and secure during the April 12 elections.

Press Release
#KeepItOn: authorities in Gabon must safeguard open and secure internet access during elections
8 Apr 2025
#KeepItOn: authorities in Gabon must safeguard open and secure internet access during elections
autorités gabonaises
Internet Shutdowns
Internet ShutdownsPress ReleaseAfricaFrench

#KeepItOn : Nous exhortons les autorités gabonaises à garantir un accès Internet ouvert et

8 Apr 2025

La coalition #KeepItOn exhorte le Gabon à garantir l’accès à Internet et aux réseaux sociaux avant, pendant et après les élections du 12 avril.

Press Release
#KeepItOn : Nous exhortons les autorités gabonaises à garantir un accès Internet ouvert et
8 Apr 2025
#KeepItOn : Nous exhortons les autorités gabonaises à garantir un accès Internet ouvert et
elections
Internet Shutdowns
Internet ShutdownsPress ReleaseAfricaFrench

Les autorités gabonaises doivent garantir un accès internet libre et sécurisé pendant les élections

8 Apr 2025

Authorities in Gabon must ensure unfettered access to the internet throughout the upcoming elections in the country on April 12, 2025.

Press Release
Les autorités gabonaises doivent garantir un accès internet libre et sécurisé pendant les élections
8 Apr 2025
Les autorités gabonaises doivent garantir un accès internet libre et sécurisé pendant les élections
Freedom of Expression
Freedom of ExpressionPress ReleaseEuropeEnglish

All democratic forces must act for a strong and independent civil society

7 Apr 2025

We call on all democratic forces to oppose disinformation around
the role of civil society organizations to protect the unique role in European
democracy.

Press Release
All democratic forces must act for a strong and independent civil society
7 Apr 2025
All democratic forces must act for a strong and independent civil society
Shutdowns in Myanmar
Press ReleaseAsia PacificEnglish

Joint statement: Myanmar must lift internet restrictions following devastating earthquake

31 Mar 2025
Press Release
Joint statement: Myanmar must lift internet restrictions following devastating earthquake
31 Mar 2025
Joint statement: Myanmar must lift internet restrictions following devastating earthquake
Shutdowns in Myanmar
Press ReleaseAsia PacificBurmese

မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၌ အဆိုးဝါးဆုံးမြေငလျင်ဒဏ်ခံရချိန်တွင်အင်တာနက်အပါအဝင် ဆက်သွယ်ရေးလိုင်းများ ဆက်လက်ဖြတ်တောက်ထားခြင်းနှင့်အင်တာနက်​ကန့်သတ်မှုများ ဆက်လက်လုပ်ဆောင်နေသော စစ်ကောင်စီအား ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ရှုံချပြီး၊ အဆိုပါ ကန့်သတ်ထားမှုများကို ပယ်ဖျက်ရန်တောင်းဆို

31 Mar 2025
Press Release
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၌ အဆိုးဝါးဆုံးမြေငလျင်ဒဏ်ခံရချိန်တွင်အင်တာနက်အပါအဝင် ဆက်သွယ်ရေးလိုင်းများ ဆက်လက်ဖြတ်တောက်ထားခြင်းနှင့်အင်တာနက်​ကန့်သတ်မှုများ ဆက်လက်လုပ်ဆောင်နေသော စစ်ကောင်စီအား ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ရှုံချပြီး၊ အဆိုပါ ကန့်သတ်ထားမှုများကို ပယ်ဖျက်ရန်တောင်းဆို
31 Mar 2025
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၌ အဆိုးဝါးဆုံးမြေငလျင်ဒဏ်ခံရချိန်တွင်အင်တာနက်အပါအဝင် ဆက်သွယ်ရေးလိုင်းများ ဆက်လက်ဖြတ်တောက်ထားခြင်းနှင့်အင်တာနက်​ကန့်သတ်မှုများ ဆက်လက်လုပ်ဆောင်နေသော စစ်ကောင်စီအား ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ရှုံချပြီး၊ အဆိုပါ ကန့်သတ်ထားမှုများကို ပယ်ဖျက်ရန်တောင်းဆို
UN Global Digital Compact
Connectivity
ConnectivityPress ReleaseGlobal

Joint statement: five-point plan for an inclusive WSIS+20 review

29 Mar 2025
Press Release
Joint statement: five-point plan for an inclusive WSIS+20 review
29 Mar 2025
Joint statement: five-point plan for an inclusive WSIS+20 review
FreeAlaa Banner
Freedom of Expression
Freedom of ExpressionPress ReleaseEnglish

Joint appeal for Alaa Abd el-Fattah

14 Mar 2025
Press Release
Joint appeal for Alaa Abd el-Fattah
14 Mar 2025
Joint appeal for Alaa Abd el-Fattah
GDPR procedural
Data Protection
Data ProtectionPublicationAsia Pacific

Submission on India’s draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules

11 Mar 2025

Access Now’s comments and recommendations on India’s draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025.

Publication
Submission on India’s draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules
11 Mar 2025
Submission on India’s draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules
Bodily harms: how AI and biometrics curtail human rights PR header
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial IntelligencePublicationAsia Pacific

Comments on MeitY’s report on AI governance guidelines

11 Mar 2025

Access Now’s comments on the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) report on AI governance guidelines.

Publication
Comments on MeitY’s report on AI governance guidelines
11 Mar 2025
Comments on MeitY’s report on AI governance guidelines

Access Now in the news

South Sudan #KeepItOn
Internet Shutdowns

Russian internet shutdown that disrupted essential services condemned by rights groups

14 May 2025
News
Russian internet shutdown that disrupted essential services condemned by rights groups
The Record ↗
14 May 2025
Russian internet shutdown that disrupted essential services condemned by rights groups
AI Action Summit
Artificial Intelligence

AI will help make ‘life-or-death’ calls in rammed UK asylum system

13 May 2025
News
AI will help make ‘life-or-death’ calls in rammed UK asylum system
Context ↗
13 May 2025
AI will help make ‘life-or-death’ calls in rammed UK asylum system
TikTok
Content Governance

Why India’s censorship of news media online without stating reasons is unlawful

13 May 2025
News
Why India’s censorship of news media online without stating reasons is unlawful
Skoll ↗
13 May 2025
Why India’s censorship of news media online without stating reasons is unlawful
Más allá de Pegasus: políticas públicas contra periodistas y sociedad civil en El Salvador
Surveillance

La empresa propietaria del software espía Pegasus, condenada a pagar 168 millones de dólares a Meta

7 May 2025
News
La empresa propietaria del software espía Pegasus, condenada a pagar 168 millones de dólares a Meta
El Pais ↗
7 May 2025
La empresa propietaria del software espía Pegasus, condenada a pagar 168 millones de dólares a Meta
Private tech, humanitarian problems: how to ensure digital transformation does no harm
Connectivity

Will India’s new satellite internet rules impact Starlink’s ambitions? We asked five experts

7 May 2025
News
Will India’s new satellite internet rules impact Starlink’s ambitions? We asked five experts
Rest of World ↗
7 May 2025
Will India’s new satellite internet rules impact Starlink’s ambitions? We asked five experts
Press under Attack – Digital Strategies to Intimidate Journalists in Latin America
Surveillance

حكم بتغريم شركة “إن إس أو” الإسرائيلية 168 مليون دولار لاختراقها “واتساب”

7 May 2025
News
حكم بتغريم شركة “إن إس أو” الإسرائيلية 168 مليون دولار لاختراقها “واتساب”
The New Arab ↗
7 May 2025
حكم بتغريم شركة “إن إس أو” الإسرائيلية 168 مليون دولار لاختراقها “واتساب”
NSO
Surveillance

Court clash between Meta and NSO ends in $168 million defeat for spyware firm

7 May 2025
News
Court clash between Meta and NSO ends in $168 million defeat for spyware firm
Reuters ↗
7 May 2025
Court clash between Meta and NSO ends in $168 million defeat for spyware firm
Surveillance

NSO Group damages in WhatsApp spyware case could be in the ‘tens of millions,’ experts predict

30 Apr 2025
News
NSO Group damages in WhatsApp spyware case could be in the ‘tens of millions,’ experts predict
The Record ↗
30 Apr 2025
NSO Group damages in WhatsApp spyware case could be in the ‘tens of millions,’ experts predict

Defending digital rights: inside Access Now’s global fight for online freedom

25 Apr 2025
News
Defending digital rights: inside Access Now’s global fight for online freedom
Safety Detectives ↗
25 Apr 2025
Defending digital rights: inside Access Now’s global fight for online freedom
Surveillance

Judge limits evidence about NSO Group customers, victims in damages trial

23 Apr 2025
News
Judge limits evidence about NSO Group customers, victims in damages trial
23 Apr 2025
Judge limits evidence about NSO Group customers, victims in damages trial
Digital censorship
Digital Security

How to protect yourself from phone searches at the U.S. border

21 Apr 2025
News
How to protect yourself from phone searches at the U.S. border
WIRED ↗
21 Apr 2025
How to protect yourself from phone searches at the U.S. border
Bigger, bolder: U.S. slaps sanctions on spyware company and executives
Surveillance

Cyber experts offer lukewarm praise for voluntary code governing use of commercial hacking tools

11 Apr 2025
News
Cyber experts offer lukewarm praise for voluntary code governing use of commercial hacking tools
CyberScoop ↗
11 Apr 2025
Cyber experts offer lukewarm praise for voluntary code governing use of commercial hacking tools
Proceed with caution: Sandvine removed from U.S. Entity List
Surveillance

U.S. to sign Pall Mall pact aimed at countering spyware abuses

11 Apr 2025
News
U.S. to sign Pall Mall pact aimed at countering spyware abuses
The Record ↗
11 Apr 2025
U.S. to sign Pall Mall pact aimed at countering spyware abuses
México: un Decálogo de Derechos Digitales en Redes Sociales o una receta para la censura
Transparency

Making money out of a disaster: fake news in Myanmar quake

10 Apr 2025
News
Making money out of a disaster: fake news in Myanmar quake
Reuters ↗
10 Apr 2025
Making money out of a disaster: fake news in Myanmar quake
autorités gabonaises
Internet Shutdowns

Gabon elections – “We urge authorities to ensure unrestricted access to the internet”

10 Apr 2025
News
Gabon elections – “We urge authorities to ensure unrestricted access to the internet”
10 Apr 2025
Gabon elections – “We urge authorities to ensure unrestricted access to the internet”
UN Cybercrime Treaty: FAQ on necessary reforms
Cybersecurity

Rights group calls on Thai government to end alleged cyberattacks against civil society

10 Apr 2025
News
Rights group calls on Thai government to end alleged cyberattacks against civil society
The Record ↗
10 Apr 2025
Rights group calls on Thai government to end alleged cyberattacks against civil society

Events

Join us at an upcoming event hosted by Access Now or our partners, and reach out to connect with us in person or online.

Web Summit Vancouver

Access Now at Web Summit Vancouver

May 28 All day

Event
Access Now at Web Summit Vancouver

May 28 All day

Access Now at Web Summit Vancouver
Image: AI's human rights impact
Artificial Intelligence

Inter-American approach to the AI international regulatory landscape

May 6 @ 4:00 pm 6:00 pm CEST

Event
Inter-American approach to the AI international regulatory landscape

May 6 @ 4:00 pm 6:00 pm CEST

Inter-American approach to the AI international regulatory landscape
Freedom of Expression

Strategic Workshop of the DSA Human Rights Alliance

May 5 @ 4:00 pm 6:00 pm CEST

Event
Strategic Workshop of the DSA Human Rights Alliance

May 5 @ 4:00 pm 6:00 pm CEST

Strategic Workshop of the DSA Human Rights Alliance
Freedom of Expression

Situation of Press Freedom in Tunisia

May 5 @ 8:00 am 1:00 pm UTC+1

Event
Situation of Press Freedom in Tunisia

May 5 @ 8:00 am 1:00 pm UTC+1

Situation of Press Freedom in Tunisia