Tag: Free Expression

Last week, Twitter shut down a tool that helps people hold politicians accountable in 29 countries around the world. The Netherlands-based civil society group Open State Foundation created Politwoops, which scans the Twitter accounts of politicians for tweets they’ve deleted. Deleted tweets can provide insight to the viewpoints of public officials, and journalists have been using Politwoops to keep representatives accountable for what they say publicly. This is an especially disappointing decision because Twitter has been a champion of transparency and free expression for some time.

Today Access joined Article 19, APC, and Human Rights Watch in a letter to Prime Minister Najib denouncing the blocking of Sarawak Report and the revocation of publishing permits. The letter also warned against imposing further restrictions on mass protests planned for this weekend.

This week telecom operators complied with a request from agencies of the Gujarat state government to shut down SMS functionality and disrupt mobile internet service. Access strongly believes no authority should issue internet shutdown orders, and that authorities in the state of Gujarat should urgently rescind the current blanket measures affecting so many Indian citizens and institutions.

The island nation of Nauru may be tiny — only 21 square kilometers (8.5 square miles) — but what is happening there should reverberate around the world. Over the past few weeks, the government of Nauru has imposed an internet shutdown, blocking people from using certain sites on the pretext of protecting them from online pornography. At the same time, it has passed a dangerous new provision in its criminal code that could restrict free expression. These developments are putting people who care about human rights on high alert.