Blogs
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The new and improved EDRi-gram
The EDRi-gram that you know and love has received a facelift! Welcome to EDRi-gram 2.0. We know that change can be hard but we hope that you are as excited as we are to take the newsletter and EDRi’s efforts to the next level.
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Upload filters? Still no, thanks
Together with thousands of protestors, EDRi has fought against mandatory upload filters in the Copyright Directive. Despite the Directive having been adopted, including the infamous Article 13 (now 17) that could lead to upload filters, the Directive allows for some flexibility to prevent the worst impacts on our freedom of expression.
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Keep private communications private
On 27 July, the European Commission published a Communication on a EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The Communication indicates that messaging services (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger…) may see their privacy protections undermined under new legislation that will be proposed this week.
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Down with (discriminating) systems
Amidst a particularly hectic time for digital rights policy in Europe, there remains a large elephant in the room.
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Digital Services Act: what we learned about tackling the power of digital platforms
A year into EDRi’s policy and advocacy efforts to improve the DSA, we take stock of our efforts in mapping challenges and successes in enabling positive change.
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ICAO mandates worldwide government surveillance of air travelers
Playing out the endgame we predicted last year of a two-decade campaign by the US government to establish a global regime of government surveillance of air travelers, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has adopted an amendment to the Chicago Convention on Civil Aviation that will require each of the 193 state parties to that treaty — essentially every national government in the world — to require all airlines operating international flights to provide a designated government agency with complete mirror copies of all reservation records (“Passenger Name Records“) in a standard PNRGOV transmission format.
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EDRi demands an open, safe and accountable internet – will you join us?
Today, 19th August 2020, European Digital Rights (EDRi) submitted its response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the Digital Services Act package. In addition, EDRi releases its official DSA Consultation Answering Guide designed to help other civil society organisations, collectives and citizens with an interest in upholding human rights to submit their own response to the European Commission.
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IBM’s facial recognition: the solution cannot be left to companies
On 8 June 2020, IBM’s CEO announced to the US Congress that – on the grounds of “justice and racial equity” – the company would “sunset” its “general purpose” facial recognition technologies. EDRi has addressed the company through a letter, but IBM's response suggests the organisation is motivated by public relations, instead of fundamental rights.
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Europol: Non-accountable cooperation with IT companies could go further
There is an ongoing mantra among law enforcement authorities in Europe according to which private companies are indispensable partners in the fight against “cyber-enabled” crimes as they are often in possession of personal data relevant for law enforcement operations. For that reason, police authorities increasingly attempt to lay hands on data held by companies – sometimes in disregard to the safeguards imposed by long-standing judicial cooperation mechanisms.
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Digital rights for all
In this article we set out the background to EDRis’ work on anti-discrimination in the digital age. Here we take the first step to explore anti-discrimination as a digital rights issue, and then, what can EDRi do about it? The project is motivated by the need to recognise how oppression, discrimination and inequality impact the enjoyment of digital rights, and to live up to our commitment to uphold the digital rights of all.
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The threat on OTF as a wake up call for European digital sovereignty
Around 2 billion people in 60 countries are able to use the internet securely and without risks of being surveilled or censored. And all of this, thanks to the work done by a non-profit called Open Tech Fund (OTF) for only 15 million dollars a year. However, all of this may be over soon.
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European Commission derails copyright reform in South Africa
Last year, the South African parliament adopted a progressive new copyright bill that would have drastically improved access to educational materials, introduced a fair use exception, implemented the Marrakesh treaty for the benefit of people who are blind or print disabled, and strengthened the negotiating positions of authors and performers in their negotiations with publishers.
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