On May 11, 2022, the Fifth Circuit reinstated Texas state law HB 20 which allows private parties to sue tech platforms with 50M+ MAUs for their censorship of user-generated content based on “the viewpoint of a user or another person”. On May 13, technology lobbying groups NetChoice and the Computer...
Most designated terrorist organisations have long since abandoned mainstream social media in favour of alternative platforms or self-developed technologies that rely on decentralisation and enhanced levels of encryption. The most persistent examples of terrorist content are confined to smaller...
The eagerly awaited Digital Services Act (DSA) aims to provide for a safer and more transparent online environment for millions of Europeans. In many aspects, this is a very progressive and relevant proposal that may introduce a quite sophisticated and modern approach to platform regulation. However...
Canada wants to force YouTube, TikTok and other video- and audio-sharing sites to prominently feature more of the country’s artists, a move that digital-law experts and former government officials call one of the most aggressive internet regulations yet from a Western country. Read more.
Two years on from the April 2019 Online Harms White Paper, the government has published its draft Online Safety Bill. It is a hefty beast: 133 pages and 141 sections. It raises a slew of questions, not least around press and journalistic material and the newly-coined “content of democratic...
In an effort to gain greater control over social media platforms, governments around the world are enacting laws requiring that tech platforms appoint in-country representatives and store user data locally. That can put individual representatives in the crosshairs of governments seeking to exert...
Twitter has removed more than 50 tweets critical of the Indian government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and did so at the request of the Indian government. First reported by Indian news site MediaNama, the Indian government sent Twitter an emergency order on Friday to censor 52 tweets...
Court authorizes Cyber Unit to continue operating in the shadows, conducting quasi-judicial censorship without allowing social media users to defend their rights or even to know that the state has been involved in removing their online content. Read more.
On March 24, 2021, the Zambian parliament enacted the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act which went into effect on April 1, 2021. The law creates protections for individuals against cyber crime, addresses child safety online, and imposes new telecommunications surveillance requirements. In addition...