Legal Tools

From jailing people for likes to weaponizing copyright, it’s easier to prosecute your critics when you can find them on Facebook.

Internet shutdowns gain popularity, and obscurity

While some internet take-downs make headlines, others serious and trivial never make the light of day

Mariam Kiparoidze

Kazakhstan shut down its internet. These programmers opened a backdoor

The internet blackout fueled fear, panic and even deaths. Thousands of people in Kazakhstan were able to get online thanks to a crusading band of expat technologists.

Can the decentralized web help to protect human rights?

In an age of internet shutdowns, takedown requests and deepfakes, the race is on to create a resilient and verifiable archive for the work of campaigners and citizen journalists

Caitlin Thompson

'The people who control are also being controlled'

The art of Salvatore Vitale examines the array of surveillance technology that surrounds us all

It’s not too late to regulate deepfakes

A legal expert makes the case for international regulation of social media companies and sites hosting manipulated videos

Authoritarian regimes are using Interpol to hunt down their critics

An international arrest notice, designed to deter crime, is being exploited by human rights violators, including China and Russia

Mariam Kiparoidze

Jamaica is poised to end data privacy

A controversial new digital ID bill that would store citizens’ biometric information could be replicated across the Caribbean

Erica Hellerstein

"Last chance for justice" Russian government absolved of activist's murder

A European court ruled the Kremlin isn't responsible for Natalia Estemirova's death in Chechnya. Her daughter warns of the message this sends on human rights in Russia

In Cuba, a geriatric government switches off a wave of youthful infoactivism

More protests are poised to test the Cuban regime’s ability to clamp down on the country’s digital spaces and retain its grip on power

Erica Hellerstein

Russia’s Telegram crackdown is putting obstacles in the path of investigative journalists

Bellingcat’s Christo Grozev explains why the Kremlin wants to block access to personal data on the popular messaging app

Will Congress actually ban facial recognition?

There are no federal laws regulating the use of facial recognition by police. That might be about to change

Caitlin Thompson

Cuba darkens its internet during biggest protests in decades

Cuba follows the new authoritarian handbook in imposing internet blackouts during anti-government demonstrations

Government watchdog finds little oversight over the use of facial recognition technology by US agencies

20 U.S. agencies are using facial recognition with a near-total lack of accountability about how the systems are deployed

Erica Hellerstein

How changing a 26-word US internet law could impact online expression everywhere

The landmark U.S. internet law shields social media companies from legal liability for the content its users post. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are threatening to change it, which could damage digital speech globally

Erica Hellerstein

India's vaccine system excludes millions

As India battles a deadly coronavirus wave, a digital portal for booking vaccines comes under fire for excluding those who lack digital knowledge or access to the internet.

Mariam Kiparoidze

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