Censorship

Film 'War for Web' warns of CISPA, SOPA, future threats

From Aaron Swartz's struggles with an antihacking law to Hollywood's lobbying to a raft of surveillance proposals, the Internet and its users' rights are under attack as never before, according to the creators of a forthcoming documentary film.

The film, titled "War for the Web," traces the physical infrastructure of the Internet, from fat underwater cables to living room routers, as a way to explain the story of what's behind the high-volume politicking over proposals like CISPA, Net neutrality, and the Stop Online Piracy Act.

"People talk about security, people talk about privacy, they … Read more

Twitter, hate speech, and the costs of keeping quiet

This is a guest column. See below for Greg Lukianoff's bio.

Last month was a bittersweet seventh birthday for Twitter. The Union of Jewish French Students sued the social-media giant for $50 million in a French court in light of anti-Semitic tweets that carried the hashtag #unbonjuif ("a good Jew"). In January, Twitter agreed to delete the tweets, but the student group now wants the identities of the users who sent the anti-Semitic messages so that they can be prosecuted under French law against hate speech. Twitter is resisting. It claims that as an American company protected … Read more

MIT to release redacted documents in Aaron Swartz case

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will release a trove of documents related to the prosecution of Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who committed suicide in January at the age of 26 as he awaited trial on hacking charges.

Critics had faulted MIT's compliance with federal prosecutors planning the case against Swartz, but university President Rafael Reif said in a Tuesday announcement that MIT was "not afraid to reexamine our own actions" and that he was ordering the release in "the spirit of openness, balanced with responsibility."

The documents will be redacted to protect privacy and … Read more

EU votes to reject 'porn ban' proposals

European citizens can breathe a sigh of relief after a vote in the European Parliament has rejected proposals to ban "all forms of pornography" -- including on the Web -- in the region.

Today, 625 members of the European Parliament voted 368-159 in favor of passing a report aimed at stamping out gender stereotypes in the region, with 98 abstaining. However, the controversial "porn ban" section of the proposal was rejected.

This vote forms a majority opinion based on Europe's voting politicians, from which the European Commission can form legislation. Such a law would again … Read more

Meet the 'Corporate Enemies of the Internet' for 2013

National governments are increasingly purchasing surveillance devices manufactured by a small number of corporate suppliers and using them to control dissidents, spy on journalists, and violate human rights, the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders warns in a new report released this afternoon.

The group's 2013 report for the first time names five private-sector companies "Corporate Enemies of the Internet" for their choice to become "digital mercenaries" and sell surveillance and censorship technology to authoritarian regimes.

"If these companies decided to sell to authoritarian regimes, they must have known that their products could be used … Read more

European Parliament blocks citizen e-mails protesting EU 'porn ban'

One member of the European Parliament (MEP) claims the upper house's own IT department is censoring e-mails from citizens.

Pirate Party member Christian Engström MEP blew the whistle on his fellow political colleagues after they had complained to the parliament's IT department that they were receiving vast numbers of e-mails from the very people they represent.

It comes only a day after CNET reported that other European politicians are set to vote next week on a report that could lead to a pan-European EU ban on all forms of pornography in the region.

On his Web site, … Read more

EU to vote on porn ban, calls for Internet enforcement

The European Parliament will vote Tuesday on a proposal that could lead to a blanket ban on pornography in any forms of media with potentially wide-ranging implications for freedom and expression in the 27-member state bloc.

Passage of the proposal, "Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU," would allow the EU to help secure the rights for those across the gender spectrum, particularly women. While the report states that there is an "increasingly noticeable tendency...to show provocatively dressed women, in sexual poses," it also notes that pornography is becoming mainstream and is "slipping into our … Read more

Whatever happened to Bradley Manning? Soon we'll know

O ut of sight, out of mind -- that's the way it might seem when considering the plight of Bradley Manning, who has been held for more than 1,000 days without a trial. But the jailed Army private is getting close to having his day in court. On Tuesday, a military judge refused to dismiss charges against Manning, a former intelligence analyst, who could face a maximum life sentence in connection with charges that he aided the enemy.

Suspected of being the source for WikiLeaks' massive document release of military and State Department files, Manning is being held … Read more

Egypt accused of crowdsourcing censorship

The Web has made it hard to censor things.

Principally because it is both so open and so Byzantine that there are simply so many things out there for a budding censor to sink his opprobrium into.

I can remember when I lived in Singapore and my NFL VHS's -- mailed to me from Switzerland -- were pored over by men and women with extremely sharp eyes and ears that became highly attuned to the sound of John Madden saying "Boom!"

So imagine how much hard work the world's online censors are having to do.

Egypt … Read more

Sex offenders have right to tweet, appeals court says

An Indiana law banning sex offenders from Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled today.

The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out a state law that made it a misdemeanor -- and, in some cases, a felony -- for registered sex offenders to use a "social networking Web site."

"The Indiana law targets substantially more activity than the evil it seeks to redress," the three-judge panel unanimously concluded in an opinion (PDF) written by Joel Flaum.

The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which restricts the government … Read more