Deniz Duru Aydin

Here’s a look at what governments say, versus how internet shutdowns truly affect people.

Internet shutdowns violate human rights. Here’s why they keep happening anyway.

After a devastating bomb attack, Turkey ordered a media blackout of the incident and an internet shutdown, endangering people and harming human rights.

Earlier this week, two foreign journalists for Vice working in southeastern Turkey were arrested, raising concerns about the journalists’ safety and security. In a dark reminder of the “Crypto Wars” of the 1990s, a Turkish official stated yesterday that the main reason that these journalists were detained is that they use encryption. This morning, the news surfaced that the journalists have been released and are free to leave the country, although the charges against them have not been dropped. A local translator who had been working with them remains in custody.

This incident raises serious issues for digital rights and digital security, and could cause a powerful chilling effect for freedom of expression — not just in Turkey, but in other conflict-prone regions around the world.

Access analyzes Vodafone’s most recent transparency report.

At the BT (formerly British Telecom) annual general meeting in London, Access directs the following question to company’s CEO, as well as to its board: What specific next steps will BT take this year (that is, in the next 12 months) to better protect customers’ privacy and free expression rights, and to achieve greater transparency around its actions, in every country where you operate?

Multinational telcos Orange and Telenor have published transparency reports shedding light on surveillance across the globe.

As corruption scandals related to international soccer continue to put pressure on FIFA, world governments, and companies in the sports industry, Azerbaijan is preparing to host a major international event: the first-ever European Games. The lack of human rights protections in Azerbaijan — online and offline — poses a threat to people living there, as well to journalists and others visiting to watch the games. We take a look at the digital rights landscape in Azerbaijan, and the implications for people who may be at risk for human rights violations.

This year, 11 companies published transparency reports for the first time, including Snapchat, Kickstarter, and GitHub. We take a look at the information that some of these companies are sharing (or not sharing), and the implications for users’ rights.