The Internet doesn’t end at national borders — neither should people’s right to connect and share information. Yet more and more nations see the Internet as a threat or, worse, as a tool for censorship, surveillance and repression.
Now more than 40 countries engage in Internet filtering and censorship, according to the OpenNet Initiative. They do this thanks to Western companies that sell blocking and surveillance technologies to repressive regimes. We have seen it in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and Syria, where American-made technology is used to spy on, track and even hunt down pro-democracy activists. It’s happening across Asia as well as nations seek new means to clamp down on the people-powered growth of the Internet.
People often assume that their ability to speak freely via cellphones, websites and Internet services is protected. But the First Amendment and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are checks on government authority — not on corporations. And whether we’re texting friends via our smartphones, sharing photographs on Flickr, uploading videos to YouTube, or posting updates to Facebook, people are communicating with each other and sharing more and more of their lives via these privately controlled websites and networks.
Increasingly, these corporate communication platforms aid government acts of spying, censorship and human rights violations. The companies that create and operate this technology hide behind licensing agreements, opaque terms of service and government gag orders to deflect blame for silencing speech.
Free Press is working with a global alliance of free speech and digital rights groups to hold Internet companies responsible for their actions, clarify our universal right to connect and update policy to protect free speech in the age of ubiquitous mobile phones, social media and broadband.
Our goal is to ensure that power over the Internet remains in the hands of the people who use it every day and to stop efforts by companies and governments that use modern communications technology as a means of repression and exclusion.