How Big Tech’s Content Moderation Policies Cou...
By Gideon Sarpong Social media advocates have historically lauded its ability to facilitate democratic progress by connecting people over space and time, enabling faster and wider mobilization than ever before. However, in recent years, this optimism has faded, and platforms have also become effecti... |
Defending Digital Rights in the Democratic Repub...
By Morgan Frost While the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the fourth largest country in Africa in terms of population, it has one of the lowest levels of internet accessibility across the continent. Weak democratic governance and the prevalence of several armed groups has left the DRC to f... |
Facebook and Google will not save us from fake n...
By Aleksander Dardeli Every day, our world produces 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, the equivalent of 250,000 Libraries of Congress, much of it information generated and disseminated via social media by people like you and me. It is increasingly clear that the news media no longer have a monopoly on... |
Azerbaijan’s Triple Threat to Media and Freedo...
By Turgut Gambar Azerbaijan has been routinely condemned for its alarming human rights record, endemic levels of corruption, and election fraud. Not surprisingly, according to Freedom House’s 2018 Freedom in the World report, Azerbaijan is assessed as a “not free” country. While Azerbaijan has... |
The Battle for Freedom of Expression Online: Whe...
By Andreas Reventlow Online surveillance, phishing, and content blocking is familiar territory for most journalists who uncover corruption, misuse of power, or who report on human rights abuses. Although their rights to freedom of expression and privacy online are challenged on a near-daily basis, h... |
Open Internet Principles for Democracy: Putting ...
Last year the editor of Abia Facts Newspaper, a small, local news platform in Nigeria was arrested at his home on charges of blackmail and criminal defamation. According to the state security officers who detained him, his crime was the reporting he had done on a local politician. More startling, ho... |
Internet Universality Indicators – UNESCO ...
By Xianhong Hu While the emerging digital environment offers new opportunities for journalists to investigate and report information in the public interest, it also poses particular challenges regarding privacy, access to information, source protection, freedom of expression and participation. In th... |
Multistakeholder Internet Governance Under Attac...
Once a shining example of the power of socioeconomic inclusion and the effectiveness of strengthening civic participation, the political upheaval in Brazil over the past two years has destabilized democratic gains once thought to be well established. As a researcher who was first drawn to Brazil bec... |
Cameroon’s Internet Shutdown Cannot Stifle Dis...
By Elie Smith The Internet has been turned off for more than 80 days in parts of the West African country of Cameroon. And while this has garnered international condemnation, what most onlookers have not yet fully grasped is how the shutdown is related to long-simmering regional tensions within the ... |
The Missing Stakeholder in Internet Governance ...
As an Internet policy researcher I have closely followed the outcomes of the annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF), but this year was the first time I had the opportunity to participate in person when it was convened two weeks ago in Guadalajara, Mexico. I was there to coordinate CIMA’s new initi... |