scholarly journals A Study of the Landscape of Internet Censorship and Anti-Censorship in Middle East

10.29007/vpbg ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Rahimi ◽  
Bidyut Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Internet Censorship ◽  
The Right ◽  
Geographical Locations

The power of technology is one which supersedes any other tool of communication ever formulated and implemented by human beings. The internet has been long cited by scholars and practitioners alike to be an empowerment tool that allows individuals to either seek, receive or dole out information and ideas without any basis being drawn on boundaries or geographical locations. This, therefore, means that online communication has to be protected in lieu with the international dictums and pretensions that call for the right to freedom of expression.

Free Speech in the Digital Age

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Digital World ◽  
The Right

This collection of thirteen new essays is the first to examine, from a range of disciplinary perspectives, how the new technologies and global reach of the internet are changing the theory and practice of free speech. The rapid expansion of online communication, as well as the changing roles of government and private organizations in monitoring and regulating the digital world, give rise to new questions, including: How do philosophical defenses of the right to freedom of expression, developed in the age of the town square and the printing press, apply in the digital age? Should search engines be covered by free speech principles? How should international conflicts over online speech regulations be resolved? Is there a right to be forgotten that is at odds with the right to free speech? How has the Internet facilitated new speech-based harms such as cyber-stalking, twitter-trolling, and “revenge” porn, and how should these harms be addressed? The contributors to this groundbreaking volume include philosophers, legal theorists, political scientists, communications scholars, public policy makers, and activists.

icann’s New Generic Top-Level Domain Names Dispute Resolution Procedure Viewed Against the Protection of the Public Interest of the Internet Community: Litigation Regarding Health-Related Strings

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Vezzani
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Commercial Arbitration ◽  
Domain Names ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Rules Of Procedure ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

icann’s decision to liberalize the market for Internet Generic Top-Level Domain Names has been giving rise to many concerns, related in particular to the registration of health-related strings, which may favour fraud and the dissemination of misleading health information. However, a very sophisticated mechanism has been put into place by icann, intended to prevent the registration of strings which face opposition from a significant portion of the community they purportedly aim to serve, or which are contrary to generally accepted principles related to morality and public order. Tailored after the model of commercial arbitration, icann rules of procedure are noteworthy in that they give standing to all interested Internet users and to an Independent Objector. Though underlining some of its procedural deficiencies, this article emphasizes the importance of the icann mechanism in the “constitutionalization” of the Internet. It also discusses the contribution of icann expert panels to international human rights discourse, as illustrated by the expert panel determinations walking the tightrope between freedom of expression and the right to health.

scholarly journals Freedom of expression and protection of personal data on the Internet: The perspective of Internet users in Serbia

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (47) ◽  
pp. 5-34
Author(s):  
Marta Mitrović
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

The paper examines the views of Internet users concerning the protection of their rights on the Internet. The Web survey, conducted by the snowball sampling, included 783 Internet users who expressed their views regarding the ways the state (Serbia) and private agents (Facebook and Google) relate to the right of freedom of expression and privacy on the Internet. Also, the survey was used to examine the individual responsibility of users when it comes to the use of Internet services. Several hypotheses suggested that Internet users in Serbia do not have confidence in the country and private actors on the issue of protecting their rights. However, users also do not demonstrate a satisfactory level of individual responsibility. The most important findings indicate that: 1) only one-sixth of the respondents consider that the Government of the Republic of Serbia does not violate the privacy of Internet users; 2) almost half of the respondents do not feel free to express their views criticizing the government; 3) almost 90% of users are not satisfied how Facebook protects their privacy, while it is 1% lower in the case of Google; 4) a third of respondents answered positively to the question whether they had read terms of use of the analyzed companies, but half of them did not give a correct answer to the main questions; 5) only 8.9% of respondents who claimed to have read terms of use are aware of the fact that Facebook shares their data with third parties.

scholarly journals Internet and freedom of expression in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 1023-1042
Author(s):  
Ljiljana Mijović
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Private Life ◽  
European Convention ◽  
The Internet ◽  
European Court ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Control

Internet as a means of communication, whatever the type of information it might be used for, falls within the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. As established in the European Court's case law, freedom of expression constitutes one of the essentials of a democratic society, therefore limitations on that freedom foreseen in Article 10 § 2 of the Convention are to be interpreted strictly. In order to ensure effective protection of one's freedom of expression on the Internet, States bear a positive obligation to create an appropriate regulatory framework, balancing the right to freedom of expression on one and the limitations prescribed in Article 10 § 2, on the other hand. Special attention in doing so is to be paid to the risk of harm posed by content and communications on the Internet to the exercise and enjoyment of other human rights and freedoms guaranteed by the European Convention, particularly the right to respect for private life. While it is the fact that the electronic network, serving billions of users worldwide, will never be subject to the same regulations and control, because of the national authorities' margin of appreciation, the European Court established commonly applicable general principles regarding the Internet as a media of exercising right to freedom of expression.

Models of Political Representation for ICT Adoption in a Networked Society

2014 ◽  
pp. 66-80
Keyword(s):  
Political Representation ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Global Network ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ict Adoption ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Ict Revolution ◽  
Networked Society

The Internet, a global network of digital technologies, is arguably the largest and most democratic system that human beings have ever created. It is often proposed that ICT revolution, particularly the Internet, could be well utilised by the parliamentarians to improve the responsiveness and efficiency of transactions between government and elected politicians, elected politicians and their constituents, public services and the citizen. Models of political representation in a networked society and the technological and the constitutional are addressed in this chapter. The former sees the transformative opportunities of the Internet, whereas the latter model sees the Internet as a support to existing relationships between parliamentarians and their constituents. To illustrate this, the chapter examines the role of parliament within contemporary democratic governance and political online communication. Different models of political representation and parliament as a symbol of political representation in the networked society is addressed.

Legal Protection of the Right to be Forgotten on the Internet in European and Arab Legislation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Jamal Barafi ◽  
Ali Hadi Al-Obeidi
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Right To Privacy ◽  
European Approach ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
Right To Be Forgotten ◽  
The Right

Abstract The development of the Internet and mass media has facilitated access to information and freedom of expression in unprecedented ways, but in so doing there have been many violations, especially of the right to privacy. Such violations have led to calls for the establishment of the right to be forgotten. In this paper, we focus on clarifying the concept of the right to be forgotten and the conditions for establishing this. Moreover, we consider the European approach to the right to be forgotten (RTBF), showing how different European instruments have been employed to recognize this right, such as recommendations, regulations, and directives, in order to coordinate national efforts on this issue. In addition, this paper will analyze the stance of some national Arabic legislation regarding the RTBF.

Authoritarianism and the Internet

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (04) ◽  
pp. 1427-1457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan Druzin ◽  
Gregory S. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Internet Censorship

This article argues that Internet censorship is more fragile than is generally supposed and is, in fact, vulnerable to abrupt collapse. The volume and rapidity of online communication renders perfect policing of the Internet technologically impossible. Authoritarian governments are thus forced to rely on Internet users to police themselves in the form of self-censorship. This strategy has proven largely successful—legal ambiguity regarding what constitutes impermissible speech fosters norms of self-censorship. This reliance on self-censorship, however, renders these censorial systems susceptible to shocks. We set out a model that explains sudden breakdowns in Internet censorship that we term “cyberspeech cascades.” A cyberspeech cascade occurs when small expressions of online dissent produce large shifts in public perception regarding the acceptable limits of online expression that are, in fact, inaccurate. Online bandwagons of progressively more brazen speech proliferate into large-scale torrents of uncensored expression, triggering the temporary collapse of self-censorship norms online.

scholarly journals The Phenomenon of Human Rights from the Perspective of Islam and the West

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Abdullah Haqyar
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Western World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
The West ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
The Right

The phenomenon of human rights, in its contemporary sense, is not even ancient in Western thought, and it came from the context of a social and political movement in France, and the most important of the fundamental rights that collected under this title is the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to equality, the right to asylum, the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of opinion and religion, women's rights, the right to participate in social and political life, and the right to personal property. It is an established principle that the first condition for the exercise of these rights is their incompatibility with the rights of other human beings and their human rights. The philosophical basis of human rights in the West consists of three important principles: the principle of human dignity, equality and justice. But the difference between human rights in the West and Islam is that "God" is at the center of the Islamic worldview, while in the Western world the "man" is the central one, and man is the measure of all rights. A clearer interpretation of the two types of "God-centered" or "human-centered" ideas in the West is the predominance of human-centeredness and in Islam the predominance of God-centeredness. The philosophical foundations of human rights in Islam are the principle of human dignity, the principle of God-seeking, the principle of human immortality, and the principle of its developmental relation to the set of being.

scholarly journals Internet Censorship Circumvention Tools: Escaping the Control of the Syrian Regime

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walid Al-Saqaf
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Information Control ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Media ◽  
Internet Censorship ◽  
Censorship Circumvention ◽  
The Arab Spring

Studies have shown that authoritarian regimes tend to censor the media to limit potential threats to the status quo. While such censorship practices were traditionally aimed at broadcast and print media, the emergence of the Internet and social media in particular, prompted some authoritarian regimes, such as the Assad regime in Syria, to try and exert a similar level of censorship on the Internet as well. During the Arab Spring, the Syrian regime blocked hundreds of websites that provided social networking, news, and other services. Taking Syria as a case study, this paper examines whether Internet censorship succeeded in preventing Internet users from reaching censored online content during 2010−2012. By analyzing the use of Alkasir, a censorship circumvention tool created by the author, the paper provides empirical evidence demonstrating that users were in fact able to bypass censorship and access blocked websites. The findings demonstrate that censorship circumvention tools constituted a threat to the information control systems of authoritarian regimes, highlighting the potential of such tools to promote online freedom of expression in countries where Internet censorship is prevalent.

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