An international coalition of 31 civil society and technology experts asked the Indian Prime Minister’s Office to withdraw the proposed changes to section 79 of the Information Technology Act 2000, which regulates online intermediaries. According to the coalition, requiring intermediaries to ensure traceability of messages would undermine the security of online platforms and create a surveillance [...]

During the World Government Summit in Dubai, Dr Erin Marie Saltman, Facebook’s policy manager for Counterterrorism in Europe, Middle East and Africa, declared that the company is constantly engaged in curbing hate speech and terrorist content on its platform. However, she also stated that in order to eradicate this issue from the online platform, it [...]

The US civil society organisation Public Knowledge published a white paper suggesting a new way to protect customer IoT device security. The paper proposes to create a ‘Security Shield’ label, that will inform consumers whether a product meets the best cybersecurity standards as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The initiative [...]

Facebook, in a reported session at the 2019 edition of the Fairway Galle Literary Festival, held in Sri Lanka from 16-21 January, has outlined its efforts at curbing misinformation and promoting online safety through digital literacy skills programmes. According to Shelley Thakral, head of policy programmes (India, South Asia and Central Asia) at Facebook, the [...]

The World Economic Forum released its publication Our Shared Digital Future Building an Inclusive, Trustworthy and Sustainable Digital Society that was produced in collaboration with leaders from business, government, academia and civil society. The paper aimed at shaping an agenda to move towards a more inclusive, trustworthy, and sustainable digital future in six shared goals [...]

Australia passed a controversial law, the Assistance and Access Bill, designed to compel technology companies to grant law enforcement agencies access to encrypted messages. According to the Guardian, the law intends to ‘co-opt technology companies, device manufacturers and service providers into building the functionality needed for police to do their spying’ and ‘give to Australian [...]

Australia has passed the controversial Assistance and Access Bill, designed to compel technology companies to allow law enforcement agencies access to encrypted messages. According to the Guardian, the law intends to ‘co-opt technology companies, device manufacturers and service providers into building the functionality needed for police to do their spying’ and ‘give to Australian agencies the [...]

The Spanish Senate recently approved a draft law in order to implement at the national level certain provisions of the EU’s GDPR. Certain provisions have triggered strong reactions from civil society groups, in particular regarding an amendment giving the possibility to political groups to "use personal data obtained from web pages and other publicly accessible [...]

Nine international organisations sent an open letter to the European delegation engaged in a high-level political dialogue with Turkey, urging them to address the freedom of expression crisis in the country. The letter refers to the clampdown on journalists and media outlets through the introduction of new legislation, widespread closures of media outlets, prosecutions of journalists, [...]

Two new resolutions on cybersecurity issues have been adopted by the UN First Committee of the General Assembly (GA): one proposed by Russia by a vote of 109 in favour to 45 against, and the other by the USA with 139 in favour to 11 against. The resolution proposed by Russia (A/C.1/73/L.27.Rev.1), which has undergone number of changes since [...]