18 Oct 2012 | Uncategorized
Any extension of state powers of surveillance are — rightly — hotly contested. The current Data Communications Bill is no exception. There are problems with this bill — but maybe not the ones you’ve heard of.
Almost universally, it has been labelled the ‘snoopers charter’ by its opponents, representing an enormous encroachment of state spying into the lives of innocent citizens. Journalists are outbidding each other in their vitriol toward it, usually calling on Orwell. One example from many is Index’s Mike Harris in the Independent: “This proposed scale of state surveillance will add the UK to the ranks of countries such as Kazakhstan, China and Iran.”
This, to me, is misleading. Yes, China, Iran, and Kazakhstan use “Deep Packet Inspection”, which this Bill proposes. But we also bug citizens’ homes — far more intrusive. What matters is the way it is regulated. There is a difference between governments that pass surveillance laws through a vote of elected representatives of those that will be monitored, and governments that do not.
Nor is it about mass surveillance by the state. This Bill is asking/demanding/paying communications companies to collect and retain data on the existence of people’s communications for 12 months, so that in the event that a request is made for that information, it is available.
Crucially, the state only accesses this information when a successful application is made through the existing Regulations of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. This does not include the content of a communication — which has to go through a more stringent process of access. In that respect, not so much has changed, because this all happens already, it’s just that rather often, the information the police want is not there. (And in case no-one noticed, little brother is already miles ahead of what Big Brother is doing.)
That is not to say that the bill is perfect. Four changes would improve it considerably.
First: clarity. All infringements on our civil liberties need to be based on some kind of public understanding and consent that the measures being taken are proportionate and necessary. But the Bill is vague, the technology complicated, some specifics necessarily secretive. Is should be far more explicit: this would allow for at least an informed debate about whether the measures proposed are necessary and proportionate.
Second, given the value of the Internet to the economy and society (something RIPA is pledged to defend); and the potential misuse of modern technology – including the difficulty of splitting content from communication — only the very strictest system of oversight and redress will do here. More is needed.
Third, the root of RIPA is that the more serious the intrusion, the fewer agencies can do it, and for fewer purposes. RIPA makes a distinction between content and communications data — the latter being considers far less intrusive, and so much easier to obtain. But when RIPA was passed, communications data used to be mainly be about who you phoned and when. Now it means what websites you visit, where you are, and whom you email. Therefore a new category for this ‘use’ data may need to be created. The authorisation for accesses should be higher than the current bill proposes, but lower than the Home Secretary signing if off, as with content intercept, ideally a warrant from an independent magistrate.
The final problem troubles me most. It is now far easier for the state to access personal information that we citizens happily put into the public domain. Twitter can be mined in real time, open source Facebook groups can be monitored, networks and relationships contructed: all outside the RIPA legislation. None of this is mentioned in the new bill — but I think it is this that worries the public and many journalists. As I argued in #intelligence this type of widespread, mass social media monitoring needs to regulated, limited, and put on a legal footing. The bill is a chance to tackle this tricky problem: otherwise it could make the current furore seem like a minor skirmish.
Jamie Bartlett is Head of the violence and extremism programme at the UK think-tank, Demos, and Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media. Follow him @JamieBartlett
DEBATE: Index’s Mike Harris on the Comms Data Bill and surveillance
In Britain, the government is proposing legislation (the Communications Data Bill) that will grant the Home Secretary the power to blanket retain data on every citizen for an undefined purpose. It won’t require judicial approval — but potentially every text message, every Facebook message, every phone call, every email from everyone in Britain would be stored on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government. If the Bill passes, companies will have to collect data they don’t currently collect and the Home Secretary will be able to ask manufacturers of communications equipment to install hardware such as ‘black boxes’ on their products to make spying easier. This proposed scale of state surveillance will add the UK to the ranks of countries such as Kazakhstan, China and Iran. This total population monitoring would break the fundamental principle that a judge and court order is required before the state invades the privacy of its citizens by holding their personal data.
Read the full article here
17 Oct 2012 | News, United Kingdom
Conservative MP Dominic Raab talks to Mike Harris about civil liberties, free speech and how he “wouldn’t lose any sleep” if the UK’s communications data bill were canned
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29 Feb 2012 | Awards
Recognising innovation and original use of new technology to circumvent censorship and foster debate, argument or dissent
Freedom Fone by Kubatana, mobile phone technology NGO, Zimbabwe
Kubatana is an NGO based in Harare that uses a variety of new and traditional media to encourage ordinary Zimbabweans to be informed, inspired and active about civic and human rights issues. As an organisation, it continuously seeks innovative fixes to the challenges of sharing independent information in Zimbabwe’s restrictive media environment. Freedom Fone is one of Kubatana’s solutions. An open-source software, Freedom Fone helps organisations create interactive voice response (IVR) menus to enable them to share pre-recorded audio information in any language via mobile phones and landlines with their members or the general public. The software is aimed at organisations or individuals wishing to set up interactive information services for users where the free flow of information may be denied for economic, political, technological or other reasons. Freedom Fone is one of the many ways Kubatana reaches across the digital divide to inform and inspire the vast majority of Zimbabweans who do not have regular or affordable internet access.
ObscuraCam, smartphone app, USA
ObscuraCam is a free smartphone application that uses facial recognition to blur individual faces automatically. Developed by WITNESS and the Guardian Project, it enables users to protect their personal security, privacy and anonymity. In 2011 and 2012, uprisings throughout the Middle East have shown the power and danger of mobile video footage. ObscuraCam helps protect activists who fear reprisals but want to safely capture evidence of state brutality. Launched in June 2011 and based in the USA, ObscuraCam is the only facial blurring or masking application that has responded to the concerns of human rights groups, citizen activists and journalists. In addition to obscuring faces, the application removes identifying data such as GPS location data and the phone make and model.
Visualizing.org, data visualisation resource, international
Visualizing.org was created to help make data visualisation more accessible to the general public. It calls itself “a community of creative people making sense of complex issues through data and design… and a shared space and free resource to help you achieve this goal”.Data analysts and graphic designers have set themselves the challenge of sharing a constantly proliferating body of public data in an accessible form. Raw data on its own might as well be censored; visualisation opens the door to open information that otherwise would be left languishing on hard disks or, if downloaded, unintelligible to the average citizen. The project offers a place to showcase work, discover remarkable visualisations and visually explore some of today’s most pressing global issues. Created by GE and Seed Media Group, Visualizing.org promotes information literacy. The portal has had a remarkable year.
Telecomix, internet activists, across Europe
Telecomix is the collective name for a decentralised group of internet activists operating in Europe. Their focus is to expose threats to freedom of speech online. During one operation, Telecomix activists published a huge package of data which proved that the Syrian government was carrying out mass surveillance of thousands of its citizens’ internet usage. Telecomix’s revelation that the technology used was supplied by US firm Blue Coat Systems has prompted serious investigations into the involvement of western technology firms in helping repressive regimes spy on their people. In mid-August 2011, Telecomix’s dispersed group of hackers came together to target Syria’s internet. Those attempting to access the internet though their normal browsers were confronted with a blank page bearing a warning: “This is a deliberate, temporary internet breakdown. Please read carefully and spread the following message. Your internet activity is monitored.” Following this, a page flashed up describing how to take precautions to encrypt usage.
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25 Jul 2025 | Africa, Americas, El Salvador, Kenya, Malawi, Middle East and North Africa, News, Palestine, United States
In the age of online information, it can feel harder than ever to stay informed. As we get bombarded with news from all angles, important stories can easily pass us by. To help you cut through the noise, every Friday Index publishes a weekly news roundup of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression. This week, we look at how a human rights group has been forced out of their country, and how the White House faces backlash for banning a popular news outlet.
Human rights on the run: Activists critical of Nayib Bukele forced to flee El Salvador
After 25 years of activism, Cristosal, the most prominent human rights group in El Salvador, has made the decision to relocate its staff and operations out of the country following increasing threats and targeting by the Salvadoran government.
Cristosal had been at odds with President Nayib Bukele’s government for years. The group was at the forefront of critics within the country over the wrongful deportations of Venezuelans to El Salvador from the US and has compiled alleged evidence of torture and corruption within Bukele’s government. But tensions have escalated as El Salvador has forged a strong alliance with the USA under Donald Trump. Executive director of Cristosal Noah Bullock stated that repression against journalists and activists has escalated in the last two months, and that the arrest of Ruth López, Cristosal’s chief legal officer in anti-corruption was the tipping point that pushed them to flee.
López, held in the Izalco prison in the west of El Salvador, is now the only Cristosal employee remaining in the country where it was founded; the group ensured that all staff were safely out of the country before making the announcement out of fear of Bukele’s response. It follows an increasing trend of journalists and activists fleeing the Central American country – at least 40 journalists have relocated since May, alongside over 60 lawyers and activists, due to police harassment, surveillance, and threats of arrest. Cristosal will continue to cover human rights abuses in El Salvador from exile in neighbouring countries Guatemala and Honduras.
Getting the boot: White House bars Wall Street Journal from Trump’s Scotland trip
The White House has come under fire for barring The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) from joining the media entourage covering Donald Trump’s trip to Scotland following a controversial report regarding Trump and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The article contained a description of a letter Trump allegedly wrote to Epstein for the disgraced financier’s 50th birthday, including a drawing of a naked woman and allegedly including the quote “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump denied ever writing the letter, and reportedly threatened to sue WSJ if they released the article. US press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated WSJ were kicked from the press pool due to “fake and defamatory conduct”.
A spokesperson for rival newspaper New York Times has condemned the decision, dubbing it “an attack on core constitutional principles underpinning free speech and a free press“, while the White House Correspondents Association’s president Weijia Jiang stated that it should “concern all who value free speech and an independent media”. It is merely the latest incident of the Trump administration cracking down on media organisations; in February the White House revoked the Associated Press’s access to presidential events after it refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America” as Trump had decreed.
A tipping point: BBC joins media orgs in statement on Gaza starvation
The BBC have released a joint statement with Agence France-Presse (AFP), Associated Press (AP) and Reuters expressing concern over the rapidly increasing threat of starvation to their journalists reporting from Gaza.
International journalists are currently barred by Israel from entering the Gaza Strip, meaning that the only reporters on the ground are local Palestinian journalists, who are as affected by the ongoing conflict as civilians. The statement reads, “For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.”
It follows an AFP statement calling for Israel to allow its freelance journalists to leave Gaza, reporting that they had been forced to cut back on their coverage of the conflict due to starvation; one journalist said, “we have no energy left due to hunger”. This aligns with widespread reports that the famine in Gaza is reaching unprecedented levels due to Israeli forces blocking aid into the country. The chief of the World Health Organization stated that Gaza is suffering “man-made mass starvation”, and over 100 humanitarian groups released a joint statement detailing the “intense famine” faced across Gaza. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer refuted this, telling Sky News that “There is no famine in Gaza”, and that all food shortages had been “engineered by Hamas”.
A step in the right direction: Malawi decriminalises defamation
In a landmark judgement regarded as a huge step towards press freedom for the south-east African nation, Malawi has ruled that criminal defamation is unconstitutional, stating that it was a “disproportionate and unjustifiable limitation on constitutional freedom”.
The judgement came as part of a case concerning Malawian social media influencer Joshua Chisa Mbele, who challenged Section 200 of the Penal Code – the section criminalising defamation – after charges were brought against him for comments he had made regarding a public official. The Malawi chapter of Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) described the case as “a landmark victory for freedom of expression”.
The law had allowed those found guilty of defamation to face criminal sanctions, such as steep fines and imprisonment. The court ruled arbitrary interpretations of the law and the fear of reprisal harming public discourse meant that the law violated constitutional rights regarding free speech. However, true press freedom in Malawi remains distant: publishing “false news” can be met with up to two years in jail, while the “unauthorised transmitting of data” can be met with up to five years’ imprisonment.
A swift U-turn: Terror charges against Kenyan activist dropped after backlash
Notable Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi was arrested on 19 July 2025, accused of “facilitation of terrorist acts” during the widespread protests that have shaken Kenya over the last two months. His arrest sparked outrage across the country and worldwide, with rights groups denouncing the charges raised against him and #FreeBonifaceMwangi going viral on social media. Now, the terror charges have been dropped, in place of the lesser charge of the illegal possession of ammunition without a licence.
Investigators reportedly searched his home and office, seizing personal devices such as a laptop, notebooks and two unused teargas canisters. The search warrant used by the police also allegedly accused Mwangi of paying “goons” to incite the protests, a claim that Mwangi denies. He stated outside court 21 July that he has never worked with “goons” and that “people hate [Kenyan President William] Ruto for free.”
Mwangi is often involved in protests, and has been detained a number of times. In May, he and Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire were detained and allegedly tortured following a protest in Tanzania before being dumped at the borders of their respective countries. Recent protests in Kenya have been met with intense repression, with Ruto ordering officials to shoot demonstrators in the leg to ensure they are incapacitated but not killed – nevertheless, 65 people are reported to have died in protests since unrest began on 12 June.
