Head of global media observation group says many countries are trying to restrict internet freedom in name of security.

Governments across the world – including those in the US and UK – are posing a threat to internet freedom through "hasty" legislation passed due to security fears, the head of an international media watchdog has warned. [...]

Censorship of internet content can take many forms and ranges from governments blocking the dissemination of political opinion to blacklisting pornographic and pirate websites. [...]

According to the ONI data, Iran was the worst ranked, with "pervasive" filtering in the political, social and internet tools categories and "substantial" for conflict/security filtering. Tested in 2011, Iran's filtering was rated as being "highly" consistent and had "medium" transparency. [...]

Last week we saw the Socialists and Democrats, the second-largest bloc in the European Parliament, turn against ACTA. Combined with the stated position of the Green party there, that means ACTA is closer to being thrown out when the vote for ratification takes place in Brussels this summer.

The deciding factor is how politicians in the centre-right coalition of Liberals and Conservatives will vote, and there are now signs that they too are contemplating rejection [...]

Millions of Internet users in Iran will be permanently denied access to the World Wide Web and cut off from popular social networking sites and email services, as the government has announced its plans to establish a national Intranet within five months. [...]

Fears that software similar to that which government wants to use in Britain is being sold to monitor dissidents abroad. [...]

It is the responsibility of manufacturers to ensure their technology is not used to perpetrate human rights abuses. But there are now calls for them to be subject to stringent export controls requiring a licence to sell abroad.

ACTA and TPP have much in common. That's no coincidence, since they are both born of a common desire to move away from multilateral forums like WIPO that are relatively open to scrutiny, to invitation-only groups negotiating behind closed doors. That lack of transparency has allowed all kinds of extreme measures to be proposed without any countervailing arguments being heard about why they are neither fair nor sensible. [...]

House representative Mike Rogers (R-MI) introduced a bill back in November called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (H.R. 3523) or CISPA. It has since been referred to and reported by the appropriate committees. Since then, according to Representative Rogers’ own web site, over 100 members of congress have already announced their support for the bill [...]

The plan would allow secret trials and tracking of calls and online activities for national security reasons. Critics see an attack on freedom and privacy. [...]

Some of the strongest criticism has come from his ruling coalition, including from his No. 2. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg heads the Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in government and a party that traditionally has been a strong supporter of civil liberties. [...]

The European Commission took a stance yesterday (4 April) in favour of a quick adoption of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), against the will of the European Parliament, which plans to reject it in a plenary vote by the summer. [...]

The statement comes in response to noises from the Socialist and Green groups in the European Parliament, which vowed to "bury" ACTA by the summer, before the Court would have a chance to issue a verdict. [...]

Today, the European Commission has taken the next step in the important process of referring the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). By agreeing on the legal submission to be put before the ECJ, the Commission aims to respond to the wide-ranging concerns voiced by people across Europe on what ACTA is about and whether it harms fundamental rights in any way. [...]

On Friday, the White House's annual report on "IP enforcement" came out, and we noted the serious problems with the report. However, we did miss a little tidbit that Declan McCullagh picked up on. Hidden in the details of the report, it does suggest that we still need a "legislative solution" to offshore file sharing -- which was the point of SOPA/PIPA [...].

The government will be able to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK under new legislation set to be announced soon. [...]

"It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public," a spokesman said. [...]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17576745