Governments should protect people against cybercrime, and they should equally respect and protect people’s human rights. However, across the world, governments routinely abuse cybercrime laws to crack down on human rights by criminalizing speech. Governments claim they must do so… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Free Speech’
11th Circuit's Ruling to Uphold Injunction Against Florida’s Social Media Law is a Win Amid a Growing Pack of Bad Online Speech Bills
There’s a lot to like in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal’s ruling that much of Florida’s social media law—the parts which would prohibit internet platforms from removing or moderating any speech by or about political candidates or by “journalistic… Read More ›
Platform Liability Trends Around the Globe: Taxonomy and Tools of Intermediary Liability
This is the second installment in a four-part blog series surveying global intermediary liability laws. The web of global intermediary liability laws has grown increasingly vast and complex as policymakers around the world move to adopt stricter legal frameworks for… Read More ›
EFF to Court: California Law Does Not Bar Content Moderation on Social Media
Moderated platforms often struggle to draw workable lines between content that is permitted, and content that’s not. Every online forum for user speech struggles with this problem, not just the dominant social media platforms. Laws protecting companies’ ability to moderate… Read More ›
Platform Liability Trends Around the Globe: From Safe Harbors to Increased Responsibility
This is the first installment in a four-part blog series surveying global intermediary liability laws. The vast majority of internet users around the world interact with online intermediaries—including internet service providers (ISPs), search engines, and social media platforms—on a regular… Read More ›
In a Blow to Free Speech, Texas’ Social Media Law Allowed to Proceed Pending Appeal
A constitutionally problematic Texas law limiting social media companies exercising their First Amendment rights to curate the content they carry can go into effect after a federal appeals court lifted a lower court’s injunction blocking it. A three-judge panel of… Read More ›
EFF Statement on the Declaration for the Future of the Internet
The White House announced today that sixty one countries have signed the Declaration for the Future of the Internet. The high-level vision and principles expressed in the Declaration—to have a single, global network that is truly open, fosters competition, respects… Read More ›
Amidst Invasion of Ukraine, Platforms Continue to Erase Critical War Crimes Documentation
When atrocities happen—in Mariupol, Gaza, Kabul, or Christchurch—users and social media companies face a difficult question: how do we handle online content that shows those atrocities? Can and should we differentiate between pro-violence content containing atrocities and documentation by journalists… Read More ›
EFF to European Court: No Intermediary Liability for Social Media Users
Courts and legislatures around the globe are hotly debating to what degree online intermediaries—the chain of entities that facilitate or support speech on the internet—are liable for the content they help publish. One thing they should not be doing is… Read More ›
DSA Agreement: No Filternet, But Human Rights Concerns Remain
The European Union reached another milestone late last week in its journey to pass the Digital Services Act (DSA) and revamp regulation of digital platforms to address a myriad of problems users face—from overbroad content takedown rules to weak personal… Read More ›