from the raise-your-hands-if-you-are-surprised dept.
Global online freedom declined for a fifth consecutive year as more governments stepped up electronic surveillance and clamped down on dissidents using blogs or social media, a survey showed Wednesday.
The annual report by non-government watchdog Freedom House said the setbacks were especially noticeable in the Middle East, reversing gains seen in the Arab Spring.
Freedom House found declines in online freedom of expression in 32 of the 65 countries assessed since June 2014, with "notable declines" in Libya, France and Ukraine.
The researchers found 61 percent of the world's population lives in countries where criticism of the government, military or ruling family has been subject to censorship.
And 58 percent live in countries where bloggers or others were jailed for sharing content online on political, social and religious issues, according to the "Freedom on the Net 2015" report.
CISA (Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act) in the USA and TPP (Trans=Pacific Partnership) globally will likely continue the trend.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @12:22PM
[comment redacted]
(Score: 3, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Friday October 30 2015, @01:07PM
In socialist France, comment redactez vous!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @02:09PM
Did you suffer a lot from from your stroke?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @04:03PM
i think we went from 64 Kb c64 to now "who needs more then 640 KB" in the internet privacy world.
soon steve jobs will be fired and apple will be sold short only to move to a awesome comeback.
next we will have the pentium calculating flaw in the internet privacy world, which will be something like "install this and read all and every
data accumulated by 5 eyes so far from any device" and then probably we will have geocities, myspace and then, finally somebody
from the trenches of world war I will step in and take it to the absolute next level of facebook and google .. only in the internet privacy world.
at this point i hope to be old enough not to have to care anymore
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @05:40PM
Change comes one funeral at a time as they say.
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Wednesday November 04 2015, @11:06AM
Thank you Phoenix666 for submitting the story!
Where does one start; I'm not sure the report makes any sense any more.
In some ways they seem to be putting a brave face on the very poor results, and maybe the concept of “internet freedoms” has been made irrelevant in the form they give it.
Mass surveillance vs. freedom (of speech/internet) has complicated interactions and in general (but not always) it is far more subtle and manipulative than outright censorship, harassment, or losing your kids, friends, job, property, or life.
The report says Iceland, Estonia, Canada, Germany, Australia, the US, and Japan are the best countries.
That really ought to put into perspective how bad things are:
- Iceland, tiny country, next to no power or influence, largely “ethnically”/culturally homogenous, quite strong social control/conformity (some of it working in favor of “internet freedoms”). Tries to do some actual good and sticks out like a sore thumb because they're just about the only country that does.
- Estonia, I don't know enough to comment. Small country, EU member, NATO member, Baltic country, Nordic affiliation, possibly quite strong social control/conformity some of which might be in favor of “internet freedoms”.
- Canda, FiveEyes member and no slouch. Halfway between the US (horrible) and the EU (horrible) i.e. horrible.
- Germany, FourteenEyes member. Merkel recently instructed Zuckerberg to ramp up exclusion of unapproved messages aka “racism” [rt.com] on Facebook (i.e. anything for or against islam for starters).
- Australia, FiveEyes member. Has passed laws giving free reign to FiveEyes.
- US, FiveEyes member. Spends the most money on surveillance, main inspiration for all the copy-cat behaviour and loss of “internet freedoms” elsewhere globally.
- Japan, partner to FiveEyes but below any known membership status(?), largely “ethnically”/culturally homogenous, very strong social control/conformity (some of it working in favor of “internet freedoms”).
So at least four of the seven “best” countries are deep into global mass surveillance. Three of them at the very top (FiveEyes). In addition a fifth country is a very important regional ally.
Does make sense to talk about “internet freedoms” when everyone everywhere is being surveilled?
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))