Legislation
ONI Blog: Global Online Freedom Act Approved By House Subcommittee
The House of Representative's Africa, Global Health and Human Rights Subcommittee approved the Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA) last week. GOFA would require the State Department to identify countries that censor Internet content and restrict online accress in its annual Country...
ONI Blog: Egypt's Government Plans to Block All Online Pornography
Mohamed Salem, the head of Egypt's Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology, told the Egypt Independent that the government will begin banning pornography completely from the Internet. The National Telecommunications Regulation Authority will form a committee to lay out the technical...
- Posted on 29/Mar/2012; tagged in Egypt, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Legislation, Social filtering
ONI Blog: United Nations' ITU Stirs Up Fears of Global Internet Regulation
Another international attempt at reigning in copyright infringement could turn into a scary aftermath of SOPA and PIPA, critics say. The United Nations recently proposed an increase in Internet regulation powers for the International Telecommunications Union, a move that ...
ONI Blog: Reddit Users Create "Free Internet Act" in Response to SOPA/PIPA
Reddit users are actively combating controversial proposed Internet legislation SOPA and PIPA with a proposal of their own. Austrian Reddit user “RoyalWithCheese22" initiated the Free Internet Act and now heads the subreddit "r/fia." According to its mission statement, the group seeks...
- Posted on 23/Feb/2012; tagged in United States of America, United States/Canada, Legislation, Internet tools filtering
ONI Blog: Anonymous Protests ACTA with Planned Regular Attacks
Hacking group Anonymous is taking more severe measures to protest ACTA. Last week, the group hacked into several Federal Trade Commission websites, including business.ftc.gov, consumer.gov and ncpw.gov. It also announced plans to attack government and corporate websites on a regular, weekly...
- Posted on 22/Feb/2012; tagged in United States of America, United States/Canada, Europe, Legislation, Anonymity
ONI Blog: Europeans Protest ACTA as More Countries Sign Treaty
After the Polish government announced that it would support the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, protests—both online and off—erupted in Poland. Last Friday, The Washington Post reported that members of the leftist party Palikot's Movement protested the move toward ACTA by wearing...
ONI Blog: Russian Communication Minister Criticizes SOPA
Russian communication minister Igor Shchyogolev recently published an op-ed piece in Russian newspaper Vedomosti that condemns the SOPA bill as a censorship tool. Shchyogolev critiqued the business impacts of proposal, saying, "It is impossible to block and censor the...
ONI Blog: Polish Websites Attacked After Government Signs ACTA
While United States Congressional members have been experiencing uproar with the SOPA/PIPA controversy, Poland's gotten into its own legislative crisis regarding a different Internet censorship bill. Immediately following the government's announcement of its planned signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, several public...
- Posted on 24/Jan/2012; tagged in Europe, Legislation
ONI Blog: Iran Creates Stricter Controls in Internet Cafés Ahead of Elections
The Iranian government is stepping up controls on the Internet in the country, just in time for the country's legislative elections in March. New measures have been placed on Internet cafés that will now require users to provide...
- Posted on 20/Jan/2012; tagged in Iran, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Legislation, Human rights, Political filtering
ONI Blog: India Threatens to "Pull a China" and Block Social Networking Sites
China is well known as a leader in online censorship, but no other government has explicitly referenced the country as an example to follow—until now. Last Thursday, Delhi's High Court ordered Facebook and Google India to remove all "objectionable and offensive" material...
