censorship

Living under constant fear of being targeted with religious hate and hate speech is a shared experience of Sri Lanka’s Muslim community. In this podcast, journalist and researcher Sara Pathirana talks to Sheikh Arkam Nooramith – a Sri Lankan Islamic scholar, and Ms. Hafsah Muheed – an experienced professional working on gender-based violence and women’s health, about how the community deals…

The pandemic has amplified our need for a safe and secure internet, but can we have one now without surveillance and censorship. Read here to know what happened at the original epicentre of the COVID-19 virus and what measures of internet censorship were deemed necessary by the Chinese government to bring the pandemic under control.

In 2019 the High Court of Malaya (Malaysia) upheld a fatwa ruling that bans the organisation Sisters in Islam for going against Islamic teachings. In particular, this ruling limits their use of social media. Read more to hear about the complexities of activism and speech in Malaysia for feminist groups and individuals.

Censorship has been replaced online by a system of content moderation controlled by companies, and these rely on both automation as well as human moderators employed to sift through content. The choice is not between the alleged neutrality of the impersonal machine and the errors and finiteness of human moderation, as both work in tandem.

Between right-wing governments and corporate capture of online spaces, there are interesting shifts in how sexuality is censored and governed online and offline. This article looks at the reach and over-reach of laws related to obscenity and censorship in South Asia and the impact that has had on free speech around sex, sex work and sexuality.

The Tumblr porn ban reveals how laws in one country against sex trafficking can be used to police content online, and especially has an impact on queer, trans and other sexuality related content. Here Tiffany Mugo talks about what that does to the discourse around sex positivity online.

A study on the impact of network shutdowns, closure of mobile internet connectivity services in Manipur.

A zine on the implications of the new laws on sex trafficking that has implications for digital rights, rights of sex worker groups and sex workers. Though the law has been introduced in the United States of America, the implications are global as censorship curtails global platforms such as Skype, and could have potential implications on internet censorship norms globally.

Google has been giving access to users' personal information to the US government under its PRISM program. Six activists in South Korea took the tech giant to court demanding they be given access to the information Google holds on them, and won.

Internet censorship in the name of morality in Pakistan is rampant, and the trend continues to grow as new laws and regulations are introduced. But just a cursory look at this trend reveals that the censorship is not just vague, but also sexist, targeting women's expression and experiences online.