Tag: Business & Human Rights

On Monday, 24 February, the Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee of the European Parliament will vote on the European Commission’s Telecoms Single Market proposal. This proposal includes provisions that put the future of the internet at risk as if not adequately amended, it would allow telcos to restrict the rights of internet users and establish a two-tiered internet in Europe.

Venezuela has become the first South American government to take credit for shutting down nationwide access to the servers of massive online social networks to stifle political demonstrations.

Today, Turkish President Abdullah Gül signed a law increasing the government’s already tight grip on the internet. Even before Gül put pen to paper, Turkey was home to one of the world’s most restrictive internet censorship regimes — and this new legislation will only further undermine Turkish internet users’ fundamental rights.

Nearly a month after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit) struck down the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) authority to enforce existing network neutrality rules, the FCC announced its response. In a statement today, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler engaged in impressive verbal acrobatics to avoid the simple truth: In order to protect the open and innovative internet the FCC must correct its earlier mistakes and expand the agency’s regulatory authority over internet service providers (ISP) under Title II of the 1996 Communications Act.

In September 2013, the European Commission presented its proposed regulation for a single market for electronic communications (see Access’s analysis here). The Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee is the lead committee for this proposal and will provide its final report on February 24, before the legislative proposal is voted on by the full European Parliament in early April 2014.

Access welcomes yesterday’s vote in the LIBE Committee, which addressed several of the problematic provisions and proved its commitment to protecting the internet as a platform for free expression and innovation.

Yesterday, the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) presented its final report on the activities of the American and British spy agencies surveillance programmes and their impact on E.U. citizens’ fundamental rights.

Access is excited to announce the three finalists to the $10,000 Access Facebook Award, part of the Access Innovation Prize!