Tag: Business & Human Rights

A year and a half after the Snowden revelations, more technology companies and telcos are publishing transparency reports on government requests for user information and content removals. Several companies published transparency reports for the first time in early 2015, including Daum Kakao, Reddit, Medium, and Cheezburger. These are innovative companies — and they came up with novel approaches to presenting their data and policies.

Two weeks from now, Access will head to Manila to host RightsCon — our signature conference featuring digital rights activists, companies, government officials, technologists, and academics — together with our partners Engage Media and the Foundation for Media Alternatives. We’ll be tackling the most pressing issues affecting digital rights and the open internet.

Hundreds of technologists, companies, governments, and human rights advocates to convene in Manila to discuss privacy, security, corporate responsibility.

This week the U.S. government issued a General License to provide users with easier access to the internet and a wide range of software, hardware, and services “incident to personal communications” in Sudan. Access applauds the move, which follows years of advocacy by our organization alongside civil society partners in the U.S. and Sudan.

Access has submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court about the SMS shutdown in the Central African Republic during June and July 2014. The submission supports the latest ICC investigation into crimes against humanity in CAR, the Court’s second probe into the “endless” list of atrocities perpetrated there.

As the 8th round of the TTIP negotiations just ended in Brussels, Access reflects on the state of play of this major transatlantic trade deal.

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.

The UN Human Rights Council will review the human rights record of the government of Spain on Wednesday as part of its Universal Periodic Review. Access calls on UN member states to recommend that Spain halt the criminalization of encryption, and to protect the rights of all users in the country.