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ENDitorial: Racism in Germany – Facebook should do “more”
Xenophobic attacks against refugees in Germany have dramatically increased over the past two years. In the first six months of 2015, German authorities counted 150 attacks on asylum-seeker shelters throughout the country. On 27 August, in an attempt to address the situation, Germany’s minister of justice and consumer protection urged Facebook to take down racist […]
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Austria creates new agency with unprecedented surveillance powers
In the midst of the biggest surveillance scandal of mankind and after years of criticism about rogue secret agencies spying on politicians and the government bodies supposed to control them, Austria is planning to establish a new secret agency. Austria’s draft state security law, “Staatsschutzgesetz”, grants new, far reaching surveillance powers while reducing oversight and […]
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EDRi identifies key challenges to freedom of expression online
On 13 November 2014, EDRi met with the European External Action Service (EEAS) for a civil society consultation on the EU Human Rights Guidelines on Freedom of Expression Online and Offline. The EEAS aims at improving the Guidelines in the future and was seeking input to that end. EDRi had already outlined its position in […]
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Three French NGOs challenge French international surveillance
On 3 September 2015, the non-profit Internet Service Providers (ISPs) French Data Network (FDN) and the FDN Federation (FFDN) as well as a digital rights advocacy group La Quadrature du Net announced the introduction of two legal challenges before the French Council of State against the Internet surveillance activities of French foreign intelligence services, Directorate-General […]
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Privacy Café 2.0: Improving the security of online communications
In order to repeat the success of our previous Privacy Café in the European Parliament, we are organising another training session on how to protect communications and privacy online. The event will provide basic hands-on guidance for increased online privacy for Members of the European Parliament, their assistants and Parliament staff. Since it is a hands-on session for […]
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Key points for a successful consultation on internet platforms
EDRi, together with Access, provided input to the European Commission ahead of the publication of its consultation on online platforms. Download the letter (pdf). It is very important for the future of EU digital policy that the upcoming platforms consultation be as credible, thorough and balanced as possible. The European Commission’s 2010-2012 consultation on the […]
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The School of Rock(ing) EU Copyright
For the first time in nearly a generation, the EU will update its copyright framework. This is a unique opportunity to reform and modernise Europe’s creaking, outdated, ill-adapted rules. Activists interested in taking up on this opportunity will get a crash course in effective copyright activism at a workshop in Warsaw on 5-6 November. To […]
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EDRi launches a campaign for online privacy for kids
Today, we launched a crowdfunding campaign to create a textbook to raise awareness among kids for the protection of their privacy online. “We want to teach children what they need to consider to protect themselves online,” said Kirsten Fiedler, Managing Director of European Digital Rights. “The goal is to create material, translated into as many languages […]
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Portugal: “Voluntary” agreement against copyright infringements
On 30 July 2015, copyright and related rights-holders associations, the General Inspection of Cultural Activities (IGAC), the Portuguese Consumer Directorate-General, the Portuguese Association of Telecom Operators, the organisation responsible for .pt domain registrations DNS.PT, the anti-“piracy” group MAPINET, advertising associations, and (unidentified) consumer associations agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at protecting copyright and […]
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Internet censorship redux – under the guise of regulating gambling
On 12 June 2015 a law came into effect requiring the providers of networks and electronic communication services in Romania to block access to gambling sites as well as sites advertising gambling activities that are unauthorised in the country. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will now be obliged to implement a website blocking system and use […]
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Netzpolitik.org case: Prosecutor dismissed, inquiry dropped
As reported previously in EDRi-gram at the end of July 2015, two reporters of a German digital rights blog Netzpolitik.org, Markus Beckedahl and André Meister, were under investigation for treason after the publication of leaked documents revealing plans to expand German internet surveillance. On 10 August, German federal prosecutors announced that the much disputed investigation will […]
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Facebook patent: Lending based on social connections
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has granted Facebook a patent which could allow “authenticating an individual for access to information or service based on that individual’s social network.” The main use for this technology is to allegedly prevent members of a network from sending spam to other members with whom they aren’t […]
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