Florida governor signs restrictive social media ban for minors
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed one of the country’s most restrictive social media bans for minors into law on Monday. The law bans social media accounts for children under the age of 14 and requires parental permission for accounts for children between the ages of 14 and 15. The law is set to take effect [...]
Kenya’s Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki told the Public Petitions Committee of the National Assembly that the National Security Council (NSC) is coping with the threats posed by social media platforms particularly the app TikTok. TikTok is a short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance, rapidly gaining worldwide popularity in recent years. [...]
Social Media Giants Must Combat Harassment Against Afghan Women
When one creates a social media account, one is bound to the host platform’s privacy policies and community guidelines. Each user knows that should they violate these rules, they risk losing their account. How, then, have so many people managed to use social media to exacerbate the plights of Afghan women and girls? As I [...]
Hong Kong court upholds real-name registration requirement for SIM cards users
The Hong Kong Court of First Instance dismissed an application for judicial review on Friday to challenge the real-name registration regime for SIM card users. The court held that the regime is not “unreasonable” and warrants no interference from the court. The Telecommunications (Registration of SIM Cards) Regulation requires licensed telecommunications companies to record their [...]
The European Parliament of the EU passed on Wednesday the first-ever Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act. The act passed with a majority of 85 percent of lawmakers in favor. It aims to mitigate the risks associated with AI, while ensuring that AI systems uphold privacy, human dignity and fundamental rights. The act is also part of [...]
Canada Supreme Court rules IP address privacy warrants constitutional protection
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 5-4 on Friday that Canada’s Constitution protects Canadians’ internet protocol (IP) addresses from unreasonable search. The police are required to obtain prior judicial authorization before obtaining an IP address for criminal investigations, provided by Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Writing for the majority, Justice [...]
Canada watchdog says Montreal adult entertainment company violated privacy laws
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada Philippe Dufresne announced that Montreal-based adult entertainment company, Aylo, on Thursday violated Canada’s privacy laws. The company allowed videos to be uploaded to Pornhub and other Aylo-owned companies without the knowledge or consent of individuals involved. Following investigation into the company, Dufresne found that although Aylo took initial action to [...]
HRW: increase in human rights abuses by governments outside their nations' borders
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report Thursday detailing an increase in countries sanctioning human rights abuses outside their borders. Normally this would take the form of a former citizen of the nation who had either been exiled or forced to flee being harassed or worse by their nation of origin. These breaches have occurred [...]
The exchange of information is a key driver of today’s digital economy. International trade cannot be performed without business owners’ ability to transfer data across national borders, and multinational enterprises’ (MNE) internal operation relies on the ability to move data among countries where they have business presence. Accordingly, data has come to the center of [...]
India Parliament lower house passes bill to reform telecommunications sector
The lower house of India’s Parliament, the Lok Sabha, passed the Telecommunications Bill, 2023. The bill passed on Wednesday through a voice vote after the government hailed the bill as one of the biggest reforms in the sector. Meanwhile, critics of the bill have voiced privacy and freedom of expression concerns due to the bill’s ability [...]
