Global Policy Weekly – February 16, 2012

Brazil may be among the first countries to file blocking requests with Twitter. The New York Times reports that authorities in Brazil may soon request that Twitter block tweets that make reference to “police roadblocks, radar traps and drunk-driving checkpoints.” Additional coverage at CPJ.

 

India: Facebook and Google report that they have been ordered, by Indian government officials, to remove certain “blasphemous” content from their pages. Read more from Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society.

 

Thailand: Digital rights groups have launched a massive campaign advocating for reforms to the country’s lese majeste law, under which it is a crime to criticize the king. Authorities have prosecuted several individuals who have violated this law online. In 2011, officials warned Facebook users that they could be prosecuted for sharing links to or “liking” content that denigrated the king.

Tunisia: On February 22, lawmakers will vote on a bill that would require the use filtering technologies in order to combat Internet pornography. This would render a re-implementation of the filtering system that was used to block a broad range of content in the country prior to the 2011 civic uprisings that triggered the fall of the Ben Ali government.

 

 

Iran: Internet users in Iran have been facing a variety of tight restrictions on Internet use as elections approach. A study by Tor, the onion routing system that allows Internet users to circumvent blocking and other restrictions on the web, shows a dramatic increase in Iranian users in recent weeks.

 

Europe: Anti-ACTA protests continued across Europe this week, prompting German lawmakers to postpone ratification of the treaty until after the European Parliament votes on the treaty this summer. The Register reports on demonstrations in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Latvia. Global Voices reports on demonstrations in Bulgaria and Portugal.

 

PRIVACY
 

EU: The Article 29 Working Party has issued new guidance on European Patients Smart Open Services (epSOS), a “a pilot project focused on developing an information and communications technology infrastructure that enables access to patient health information.” 

 

US: The International Association of Privacy Professionals will hold the 2012 Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C. on March 7-9. More information here.

Canada: A draft law released in Canada this week would give law enforcement and intelligence officials increased access to customer data from Internet service providers, allowing these authorities to request user data without a warrant.