Last Tuesday “hacktivist journo” Barrett Brown pled guilty in a US court after a long-running battle with the FBI. He had reported on a high-profile Anonymous hack as well as posting provocative videos on YouTube baiting FBI officials. Alastair Sloan reports
CATEGORY: Digital Freedom
Bunting and Effect: Reforming the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court
A fundamental feature of Obama’s reform agenda centres on a greater oversight role regarding surveillance applications assessed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). Binoy Kampmark reports
Online freedom of speech under threat, Index tells Al Jazeera
Index on Censorship’s Melody Patry speaks to Al Jazeera
India fails to throw weight behind NETmundial
India was among the few governments that did not sign the NETmundial outcome statement. But why does it seem that the world’s largest democracy is not putting its weight behind a “bottom-up, open, and participatory” multistakeholder process? Mahima Kaul reports
Liberalising internet governance: ICANN and the role of governments
Reforms are on the cards for internet governance, but no one seems to be clear what exactly these will do to the way the web is used. Sentiments of doom and gloom mix with utopian forecasts of freedom, Binoy Kampmark writes
NETmundial: Disappointed expectations and delayed decisions
Participants in Brazil’s NETMundial left the meeting with dashed expectations, Simone Marques reports
“If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent, the TPP has you in its crosshairs”
With secret trade negotiations reportedly at a critical stage, campaigners have mounted a global plan to draw the attention to the role that internet providers would play in preventing the free flow of information. Alastair Sloan reports
Cameron’s obsession with porn
Ben Jennings on David Cameron’s war on online pornography.
Russia’s attack on internet freedom: “There is a lot of room for making things worse”
It’s been a bad week for the internet in Russia, with the founder of “Russian Facebook” claiming that Putin loyalists have total control of the site, and the Duma adopting controversial amendments targeting bloggers. Milana Knezevic writes
Singapore: Independent media making a mark despite restrictions
As Singaporeans increasing turn to the internet as their source of news and information, websites and blogs are making an unmistakable impact on the city state’s media landscape, Kirsten Han reports
Boosting Big Brother: Canada and the Digital Privacy Act
Knowledge, claimed Francis Bacon, is power. It is also money. Which is why Canada’s newly drafted Digital Privacy Act, Bill S-4, is considered by the privacy fraternity to be a demon of some proportions, Binoy Kampmark writes
Filtering in the UK: The hinterland of legality, where secrecy trumps court rulings
A slip during an interview revealed the sneaking suspicion of free thinkers. The UK government was no longer restricting itself to censoring web content which was illegal. It was going to start censoring content which it simply didn’t like, Ian Dunt writes