Report Wilton Park Conference: Freedom of Expression Online 02/13

IMG_0173In February, I was invited to participate in a conference on Freedom of Expression organized by Wilton Park and renown UK think thank at their headquarter outside of London.

The event was interesting, many attendances are from UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), government officials of several European countries, freedom of expression and human right non-governmental organizations as well as several journalists, and representatives from several internet companies. Many region represented including Africa, Middle East, and South East Asia.

Interesting to note that now, as a global issue Freedom of Expression is included under human rights issue and discussed as such while facing many challenges.

I noticed that different stages of Internet Users in different countries/regions is one of them. Multistakeholderism where Internet mostly rule by giant-country-like-corporation is another.

Civil society (whatever that is), is only small part of it.

If you find this issue interesting, dear reader, you might want to check out the recently release report from the conference, available at this link at the bottom:

Freedom of expression online: identifying and addressing challenges and developing a shared vision and a working partnership [WP1216]

Take down Censorship, not Speech #indiacensor #kapilsibal

Link

The Indian government, which this year already instituted incredibly restrictive rules for taking down ‘disparaging’ content, now wants websites like Google and Facebook to prescreen user-generated content and prevent ‘offensive’ or ‘disparaging’ content from being seen.

SIGN THE PETITION calling on the Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal and the Indian government to drop their attempt to force companies to censor user generated content.

Sign here:  Take down Censorship, not Speech.