There is no doubt that the European Union’s GDPR has changed the cyber regulation landscape forever. As onlookers from non-EU countries urge their governments and regulators to adopt similar legislation, countries are rapidly adopting their own sweeping data protection and cyber legislation, much of which is below the standards required to genuinely protect the rights of their citizens.  

In late 2021, OPTF and Engagemedia started collaborating on a research report that investigated digital safety and internet freedom in South and Southeast Asia. The final report is now available. Sadly, the findings paint a bleak picture when it comes to ensuring human rights defenders and at-risk communities are safe and secure in the digital world.

This article was commissioned by the OPTF to as part of a project to encourage more writing on digital rights issues. Adenike Fapohunda is a candidate attorney who did her final year thesis on the Nigerian Twitter ban. Her writing can be found at https://medium.com/@nikefapohunda

A Hermes Center study on Identification, Facial Recognition, and European Union Funding

Twitter DMs asking for confirmation of my rural home GPS address sounded casual at first. Next came anonymous emails from supposed Oxford professors asking when I’ll be back in my home country. It peaked with the embassy of my country physically stalking me abroad. Once when I was safe in exile, I connected it all. The dots made frightening sense.

This article is a part of a series of pieces commissioned by the OPTF, written by people from all around the world. Mallory Knodel is the Chief Technology Officer of the Center for Democracy and Technology and a member of the Internet Architecture Board at the IETF.

For decades, Hong Kong has maintained one of Asia’s freest Internet environments, despite being a part of China. As a special administrative region, reverted to Chinese sovereignty since July 1, 1997, Article 30 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law(1) guarantees the freedom and privacy of communication of residents.