Search

Once it was heralded as the last bastion of freedom of speech, a realm which transcended national law and the whims of the courts. But last night the internet was facing up to a harsh new reality after Australia's supreme court ruled that a local businessman could sue a website for libel in Melbourne even though it was based in the United States.

Why are American corporations, which have labored hard to present positive global images, providing censorship and surveillance technologies to what many see as China's Big Brother Internet? The short answer: money. Building China's Internet means making lots of it, and companies that want access to this new market often must give the Chinese leadership what it demands.

Police dealing with civil unrest during the G8 summit in Scotland will have controversial weapons that have been blamed for the deaths of 104 civilians in the United States and Canada.

Tell the World Bank to stop funding incinerators. Dioxin factories are not ''sustainable development''! Stand in solidarity on Sep. 25 with people in Kenya, Argentina, South Africa, Mexico, India, Brazil, Turkey, Mozambique, Nigeria, Philippines, South Korea, Bulgaria, and the U.K. as they tell the World Bank to break its ugly incinerator habit.

China's government reiterated on Thursday that foreign Internet companies such as Google Inc. must abide by its laws, which require censoring online material that is considered to be politically sensitive.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Privacy International yesterday released the fifth annual Privacy and Human Rights survey. The report reviews the state of privacy in over fifty countries around the world. It was released at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.