Human rights

ONI Blog: A Censorship-Free Alternative to the Global Internet?
As interest in finding alternatives to the global internet and reliance on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) has increased, many parties, ranging from online activists to municipal governments and Silicon Valley start-ups, have experimented with decentralized mesh networks, or meshnets—a...
ONI Blog: Threats to the Open Net: July 20, 2012
A controversial Russian piece of legislation that would give the government broad powers over the Internet was passed by the upper house of parliament. Opponents of this law fear that it could lead to an increase in online censorship. ...
ONI Blog: Threats to the Open Net: July 13, 2012
The Russian Duma, the lower house of Parliament, unanimously passed a controversial Internet bill after four amendments were inserted. While these amendments were inserted to substantially narrow the criteria under which the government could shut down a site deemed...
ONI Blog: Internet blackout in Sudan?
In response to recent protests, the government of Sudan has instituted tighter state control over both foreign and domestic news sources, particularly online sources. However, rumors of an impending Internet shutdown appear to be unsubstantiated for now. Students at the University...
ONI Blog: Syria ramps up cyber mining to target activists
While web surveillance is far from a new issue in Syria, it appears that under the current state of insecurity the Assad government is raising surveillance to the next level, militarizing the web and using the internet as a tool to target...
ONI Blog: Secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Threatens Web Freedom, Critics Say
News of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) surfaced last week with the leak of the US chapter concerning intellectual property. A trade agreement between nine countries including Australia, Singapore, and Peru, the bill threatens even more restrictions on intellectual...
ONI Blog: ONI Releases 2011 Year in Review
The OpenNet Initiative is proud to announce the release of its 2011 Year in Review, a collection of the year's top instances of filtering, surveillance, and information warfare around the globe. Starting domestically, 2011 saw the beginnings of SOPA and PIPA, bills...
ONI Blog: Ai Weiwei Says Censorship in China Will Ultimately Fail
After being released from retainment last year, Ai Weiwei has published an op-ed criticizing Internet censorship by the Chinese Communist Party. The Guardian UK published a commentary titled "China's censorship can never defeat the internet" last Sunday by Ai. In criticizing...
ONI Blog: Reporters Without Borders Releases "Enemies of the Internet" Report
Last week on World Day Against Cyber Censorship, Reporters Without Borders released this year's "Enemies of the Internet" report. Among the newest additions to the list are Bahrain and Belarus, both of which had been under surveillance but had not...
ONI Blog: CPJ Urges End To Internet Censorship in 2011 Report
The Committee to Protect Journalists recently released its 2011 "Attacks on the Press" report. In the report, the CPJ urged countries and organizations to band together to fight censorship. One of the articles in the report noted that with...

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