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Neelie Kroes’ campaign to kill net neutrality
Two months have passed since the European Parliament adopted amendments to enshrine net neutrality in EU law at the beginning of April 2014. The Telecoms Single Market proposal is now being reviewed by the Council (Member States) of the EU. Rather than sitting back and waiting for the Council to carry out its work, Vice […]
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ENDitorial: Turkish censorship – Swedish built, by royal appointment
The level of political support in Sweden for blocking, for blocking outside the rule of law and for the export of the filtering and blocking services of the Swedish internet filtering company NetClean is quite extraordinary. Domestically, Sweden has a chaotic “voluntary” web blocking scheme, whereby Internet providers block a range of websites on the […]
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Freedom of information: EU Commission creates barriers for access to documents requests
It is crucial to know what the European institutions are up to in order to ensure that citizens’ fundamental rights are respected. Democracy requires vigilance and vigilance requires access to information. It is precisely for this reason that freedom of information legislation exists. Since the entry in force of Regulation 1049/2001 setting up the EU […]
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Belgian Big Brother Awards 2014: This year’s winners are…
On 4 June, EDRi member Liga voor Mensenrechten granted the Belgian Big Brother Awards. The public voted for the former public prosecutor Yves Liégeois for his views on DNA databases for newborn babies. The second prize, the professional jury’s prize, went to the “smartphone”, our ever-present pocket-size spy, and the third prize, the Lifetime Achievement […]
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2014: Consultations of importance to digital rights
The European institutions and international policy-making bodies frequently organise consultations, which are open not only to industry but also civil society and individual citizens. These are valuable opportunities to shape policy in a positive way from the outset rather than needing to take to the streets when the wrong policy is developed based on bad […]
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Google’s right to be forgotten – industrial scale misinformation?
When the European Court ruled on the Google Spain case, the press leaped on the decision as an example of the “right to be forgotten”. The Guardian explained that Google would “have to delete links to two pages on La Vanguardia’s website” and that “[l]egal experts said the ruling could give the go-ahead to deletion […]
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EU elections: These are your elected digital superheros
These are the candidates that signed our Charter of Digital Rights and were elected into the new European Parliament 2014-2019. You can also find them on our election campaign page WePromise.EU: http://ep2014.org/map/mep/3
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Citizens demonstrate against data retention in Switzerland
On 31 May 2014, several hundred demonstrators gathered in front of the Swiss parliament in Berne to protest against mass surveillance by means of the so-called “data retention” of communications metadata. A legislative proposal that would significantly expand state powers of surveillance has already been approved by the Council of States (the smaller chamber of […]
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Turkey: Highest court rules YouTube ban violates freedom of speech
Turkey’s highest court ruled on 29 May 2014 that access to video-sharing site YouTube has to be restored. A brief decision published on the court’s website stated that the block was unconstitutional and violated individual rights and freedom of expression. On 3 June the access to the site was finally restored. Until now Prime Minister Recep […]
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Interplay between data protection, competition law & consumer rights
On 2 June 2014, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) hosted an event in the European Parliament to discuss its preliminary opinion entitled “Privacy and competitiveness in the age of big data: The interplay between data protection, competition law and consumer protection in the Digital Economy”. This opinion and event is an attempt by EDPS […]
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EC’s Scoreboard 2014: Broadband access improved, challenges remain
On 28 May 2014, the European Commission (EC) launched the “Digital Agenda Scoreboard 2014”, a report on the progress and trends of the EU Digital Agenda based on data from 2013. The report uses thirteen indicators to assess both the European Union and the Member states by means of comparing their performance with the goals […]
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Social media in key role in the Balkans floods – incited censorship
In late May 2014, the Balkans were hit by disastrous floods. Internet users began commenting and sharing information on social networks and blogs about the floods, but also criticised the government’s response to the disaster and relief efforts in certain areas. Social networks served as a channel quick sharing of information. They were in a […]
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