Wikimedia Foundation/Legal/Censorship

This page records laws and proposed legislation around the world that could affect free expression.


Brazil

edit

India

edit
  • See en:Internet censorship in India#2011
  • In April 2011, new "IT Rules 2011" (NOTIFICATION, MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (Department of Information Technology) THE GAZETTE OF INDIA, 11th April, 2011) were adopted as a supplement to the 2000 Information Technology Act (ITA) as amended by the 2008 Information Technology (Amendment) Act. Before the amendment, section 79 of the IT Act shielded intermediaries such as Google, Facebook and Twitter from any liability for user generated content [1]. The new "Intermediary Guidelines" make it necessary for the intermediaries to observe "due diligence" and not to host information that is blasphemous, grossly harmful, harassing, invasive of another's privacy, racially, ethnically objectionable, disparaging, belongs to another person and harm minors in any way [2]. The rules enable any individual or public or private institution to get content removed from websites in 36 hours, in most cases simply by notifying the website owners or intermediaries such as Google, Yahoo and others. Takedown requests can be based on any of 15 vaguely drafted parameters, without stating any reasons or requiring any judicial or quasi-judicial order in support [3]. In case intermediaries don’t act within 36 hours, they are exposed to legal liability, both civil and criminal, under the Information Technology Act, 2000 [4].
    • October 2011 the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) carried out an undercover investigation into the “chilling effects”, with six out of seven major websites removing innocent content online without proper investigation, after a CIS researcher had sent “fraudulent” takedown letters to seven internet companies making claims without providing any evidence that certain third-party content violated provisions under the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules [5]. Report: Intermediary Liability in India: Chilling Effects on Free Expression on the Internet 2011
    • In January 2012, a Delhi Court issues summons to Google, Facebook headquarters for objectionable content [6]. Top executives from al subpoenaed companies were originally scheduled to make a court appearance im March 2012, but court date moved to May 23 [7].
    • March 2012 Kerala-based advocate Shojan Jacob filed the first ever writ challenging the rules in the Kerala High Court [8] [9].
    • April 24, 2012: P Rajeeve, Member of Parliament has tabled a motion to annul the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) rules, 2011 and told ET that the Left parties are "more or less" in support of the motion and that it has been accepted for discussion [10].
  • Following the August en:2012 Assam violence, the Government of India ordered more than 300 specific URLs blocked, including i.a. Wikipedia (apparently an article on the Danish cartoon controversy [11], of the 3 indicated Wikipedia URLs 1 didn't exist [12])

Italy

edit

Mexico

edit
  • December 2013: proposed amendment to the Industrial Property Law, Federal Law on Copyright and the Federal Penal Code, recently presented at the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, very similar to SOPA and the Sinde Law in Spain, would affect the functioning of the Wikimedia projects in Mexico.[21] position draft

Pakistan

edit

Philippines

edit

Russian Federation

edit

Saudi Arabia

edit
  • In 2011, the Saudi government introduced new Internet rules and regulations that require all online newspapers and bloggers to obtain a special license from the Ministry of Culture and Information.[4] The CITC is responsible for regulating the Internet and for hosting a firewall which blocks access to thousands of websites, mainly due to sexual and political content, including articles of the English and Arabic Wikipedia, en:Wikipedia:List of articles censored in Saudi Arabia. The legal basis for content filtering is a resolution by the Council of Ministers dated 12 February 2001.[5] See en:Censorship in Saudi Arabia#Internet.

Turkey

edit

Ukraine

edit
  • 21 January 2014 Banner, uk:Вікіпедія:Закон № 721-VII: "Ukrainian Wikipedia community expresses its strong protest against the Parliament passed and the President signed Law 721-VII «On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine" On the Judicial System and Status of Judges "and procedural laws for additional measures to protect the security of citizens" which, when implemented can seriously damage the freedom and openness of the Internet, including Wikipedia. (...) Community announces the establishment of a banner in protest and announce the daily 30 minute strike from 16:00 to 16:30 Kyiv time Ukrainian-language section of Wikipedia, from Tuesday 21 January 2014, during which the page will not be accessible to readers of all the world every day." (See en:Anti-protest laws in Ukraine)

Uzbekistan

edit

References

edit

Other resources

edit