Over the past few years, Internet users have found their voice in the halls of power. Through legal challenges, speaking to legislators, and effective online organizing, we’ve beat back many attempts to create mechanisms of censorship and strip speakers of… Read More ›
Archive for December 2016
Ringing in the New Year with Resistance: 2016 in Review
Since the Electronic Frontier Alliance launched this spring, dozens of grassroots groups across the country have found common cause. United by digital rights principles including freedom of expression, access to knowledge, and privacy, they independently pursue a vast array of… Read More ›
U.S. Special Operations Numbers Surge in Africa’s Shadow Wars
Africa has seen the most dramatic growth in the deployment of America’s elite troops of any region of the globe over the past decade, according to newly released numbers. In 2006, just 1% of commandos sent overseas were deployed in… Read More ›
Russia Hysteria Infects WashPost Again: False Story About Hacking U.S. Electric Grid
(updated below) The Washington Post on Friday reported a genuinely alarming event: Russian hackers have penetrated the U.S. power system through an electrical grid in Vermont. The Post headline conveyed the seriousness of the threat: The first sentence of the article directly linked… Read More ›
Chipping Away at National Security Letters: 2016 in Review
When Congress passed the USA FREEDOM Act in 2015 as part of the country’s reckoning with the post-9/11 surveillance state, comparably little attention was paid to amendments the law made to national security letters (NSLs). At the time, EFF said… Read More ›
Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Wide Web): 2016 in Review
It’s been twenty years since John Perry Barlow declared cyberspace independent, but there continues to be a long line of not-so-weary giants aiming to expand their territory over the electronic frontier. Here is 2016’s roll call of national governments and courts who… Read More ›
Tor at the Heart: Firefox
During the month of December, we’re highlighting other organizations and projects that rely on Tor, build on Tor, or are accomplishing their missions better because Tor exists. Check out our blog each day to learn about our fellow travelers. And… Read More ›
Barack Obama Wasn’t Nearly As Tough on Israel as Republican Presidents
The Obama administration’s final moves on the Israeli-Palestinian issue — a symbolic resolution allowing the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements and a speech by Secretary of State John Kerry warning that the settlement project could permanently end the two-state… Read More ›
“Code of Silence” Revisited: An Update on the Watts Investigation
On October 6, The Intercept published “Code of Silence,” a four-part investigation of a far-reaching criminal enterprise within the Chicago Police Department. For more than a decade, a team of gang tactical officers led by Sgt. Ronald Watts were major… Read More ›
Ava DuVernay's Documentary "13th" About Mass Incarceration Shortlisted for an Oscar
Ava DuVernay’s recent Netflix documentary, “13th,” just picked up three Critics’ Choice Awards and is on the Oscar shortlist for best documentary. The film chronicles how the U.S. criminal justice system has been driven by racism from the days of… Read More ›