November 16th, 2012
A Christian man who was
demoted after making posts opposing gay marriage on Facebook won in an employment case against his employers today. Adrian Smith, an employee of Manchester’s Trafford Housing Trust, lost his managerial position and received a 40 per cent pay cut after receiving a written warning from his employer reprimanding him for making a post saying that allowing same-sex weddings in churches were “an equality too far”. The court ruled that the demotion was a breach of contract, as Smith’s posts were made on a private page and outside of working hours. A legal technicality limited Smith’s damages to £100.
No Comments
Tags: Tags: Adrian Smith, Christianity, employment law, Facebook, freedom of expression, gay marriage, religion, social media, Trafford Housing Trust, UK,
November 13th, 2012
A panel discussion in London yesterday did not offer much hope that prosecutors and politicians will defend free speech online. Paul Bernal reports
(more…)
November 12th, 2012
Police in Kent, England have arrested a man after he posted a picture of a burning Remembrance Day poppy on Facebook. According to the Kent Police website, the man is being questioned on suspicion of “malicious communications”. (more…)
October 9th, 2012
Yorkshire man Azhar Ahmed has been given a community order after being found guilty of “sending a grossly offensive communication”. Ahmed, 19, from West Yorkshire wrote on Facebook that “All soldiers should DIE & go to HELL!” This morning at Huddersfield Magistrates’ Court he was
fined £300 and ordered to complete 240 hours of community service over a two-year period.
October 8th, 2012
A man who admitted to posting “despicable” comments about missing five-year-old
April Jones on his Facebook page has been
jailed for 12 weeks. Matthew Woods appeared at Chorley Magistrates’ Court today, where he pleaded guilty to “sending by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive” (
section 127 (1) a of the Communications Act 2003). Woods’ comments, which included some of a sexually explicit nature about the youngster who went missing last week, were deemed so “abhorrent” that they deserved the longest sentence that could be passed, less a third to account for Woods’ early guilty plea.
August 24th, 2012
Search engines and social networking sites are at the heart of Web 2.0. To unreasonably threaten them with liability for user content misses the point, says Marta Cooper (more…)
July 13th, 2012
Russian parliamentarians have passed legislation that will establish a central register of banned websites. The new laws are ostensibly designed for child protection, but Andrei Soldatov says the real aim is to take control over the country’s burgeoning social networks
(more…)
1 Comment
Tags: Tags: Andrei Soldatov, censorship, Facebook, free speech, internet, livejournal, Russia, social networks, Twitter, Vladimir Putin,
June 28th, 2012
Last week we hosted a conference with the Global Network Initiative (GNI), where we had a heated debate around surveillance, security, and freedom of expression. Check out the conversation here.
(more…)
No Comments
Tags: Tags: data, digital freedom, Douwe Korff, Eric King, Facebook, freedom of expression, Global Network Initiative (GNI), Heather Brooke, Ian Brown, privacy, privacy international, Richard Allan, security, Stephen Deadman, surveillance, Tom Smith,
