June 2nd, 2011
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
reports Gwinnett County schools in Georgia employ a filter, Blue Coat, that blocks access to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender site and classifies them as sexually explicit or pornographic. The ACLU drafted a
demand letter on 23 May, asking the county to remove the filters from the schools and respond to its inquiry by 30 May, but has not yet received a response. Nowmee Shehab, a recent graduate and former president of the LGBT club at one of the schools told ACLU she was unable to access LGBT sites to plan activities. She stated, “Students need to be able to find information about their rights and about suicide and bullying prevention, and now they’re not able to get to information that’s really important for them.”s
May 27th, 2011
Just hours after the PROTECT IP Act passed unanimously in the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon placed a
hold to prevent it from reaching the Senate. Wyden argued the legislation was an “overreaching approach to policing the internet.”
The act was introduced two weeks ago and authorises the government to use court orders to prohibit internet search engines from displaying sites that violate intellectual property laws. It would also force internet providers to block “rogue” sites offering pirated goods.
Media groups fighting for anti-piracy protection have largely praised the legislation.
May 24th, 2011
US view: The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jillian York and Cindy Cohn examine the Ryan Giggs affair
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January 17th, 2011
This article was first published in Media Guardian
The information genie cannot be put back into the bottle, however hard authorities try. But the authorities continue to exploit the internet as a means of control
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January 12th, 2011
Calls to outlaw violent political rhetoric in the wake of the Tucson attack are misguided, says Aryeh Neier. The solution is not to ban vitriol but to speak out against it
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December 16th, 2010
As funders threaten to punish the US gallery that censorsed the first major US exhibition of gay art, Salil Tripathi looks at the fallout of America’s culture wars
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December 8th, 2010
Financial journalist Nick Kochan explains that whoever is masterminding the economic suffocation of Wikileaks is using the same tactics as those who target terrorist groups
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December 6th, 2010
As hundreds of mirror sites circumvent attempts at internet censorship of the Cablegate documents, Wikileaks journalist James Ball calls on the US to remember its principles on internet freedom
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