After protests broke out over a sharp fuel price hike this week, Zimbabwe’s government ordered a three-day internet shutdown — with police also firing tear gas at demonstrators from a helicopter and arresting dozens. According to NetBlocks, which estimates the cost of internet shutdowns worldwide, the three-day outage could cost the country’s already shaky economy …
A new report out this week shows that China is by far the most effective censor of the internet, and far from retreating, is exporting its model around the world. Beijing has consistently defied all the confident predictions (including by people far more knowledgeable about the internet than Clinton) that this would be impossible. China’s …
Leading human rights groups are calling on Google to cancel its plan to launch a censored version of its search engine in China, which they said would violate the freedom of expression and privacy rights of millions of internet users in the country. A coalition of 14 organizations — including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, …
Uganda’s parliament has passed a law to impose a controversial tax on people using social media platforms. The new Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill will also impose various other taxes, including a 1% levy on the total value of mobile money transactions – which civil society groups complain will affect poorer Ugandans who rarely use banking …
Paris, April 5, 2018: Internet Without Borders is alarmed by the current shutdown of social media platforms and messaging services including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber and important news website such as BBC, in Chad. This new case of censorship comes just a few days after Internet Without Borders and partners submitted a report to the UN Human …
As protests over economic instability and government censorship persist in Iran, the Hassan Rouhani government has reportedly wielded its favorite suppression tactic: blocking the internet. Multiple reports say the government was blocking internet on mobile networks starting on Dec. 30, including social media services like Instagram and messaging services like Telegram, to try and stop …
As posted by Jeremy Malcom on Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) blog: On October 1, a referendum will be held on whether Catalonia, an autonomous region of the northeast of Spain, should declare itself to be an independent country. The Spanish government has ruled the referendum illegal, and is taking action on a number of fronts …
Indian authorities should cease arbitrary restrictions of the country’s internet and telecommunications networks, Human Rights Watch said today. State governments have imposed 20 internet shutdowns so far in 2017, including by four states in June. Shutdowns in response to campaigns on social media and mobile mass messaging applications spreading false and even incendiary information have …
Egypt this week introduced unexpected blocks against the websites of 5 of the most well-known VPN services in the industry. It should come as no surprise that 4 out of the 5 of the blocked sites offer completely free (albeit with restrictions) VPN services and are likely to be some of the most utilised across …
The Internet Society, along with 50 organizations and trade associations and nearly 90 individual experts have written a statement to express deep concerns over the proposal that U.S. Department of Homeland Security may require individuals to disclose their social media account passwords as a condition of entry into the United States. Last week, the new …