2023 has been an unfortunate reminder that the right to free expression is most fragile for groups on the margins, and that it can quickly become a casualty during global conflicts.
They surfaced in bills and laws around the world that explicitly restrict LGBTQ+ freedom of expression and privacy.
The digital rights community has observed an uptick in censorship of LGBTQ+ websites as well as troubling attempts by several countries to pass explicitly anti-LGBTQ+ bills restricting freedom of expression and privacy-bills that also fuel offline intolerance against LGBTQ+ people, and force LGBTQ+ individuals to self-censor their online expression to avoid being profiled, harassed, doxxed, or criminally prosecuted.
One prominent example is Ghana's draconian ''Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021.' This year, EFF and other civil society partners continued to call on the government of Ghana to immediately reject this draconian bill and commit instead to protecting the human rights of all people in Ghana.
To learn more about this issue, read our 2023 Year in Review post on threats to LGBTQ+ speech.
The war in Palestine has exacerbated existing threats to free expression Palestinians already faced,, particularly those living in Gaza.
EFF teamed up with a number of other digital rights organizations-including 7amleh, Access Now, Amnesty International, and Article 19-to demand that Meta take steps to ensure Palestinian content is moderated fairly.
Digital rights organizations were shocked to learn in October that the 2024 Internet Governance Forum is slated to be held in Saudi Arabia.
Following the announcement, we joined numerous digital rights organizations in calling on the United Nations to reverse their decision.
EFF has, for many years, expressed concern about the normalization of the government of Saudi Arabia by Silicon Valley companies and the global community.
In recent years, the Saudi government has spied on its own citizens on social media and through the use of spyware; imprisoned Wikipedia volunteers for their contributions to access to information on the platform; sentenced a PhD student and mother of two to 34 years in prison and a subsequent travel ban of the same length; and sentenced a teacher to death for his posts on social media.
We have been disheartened this year to see the push in the UK to pass its Online Safety Bill.
EFF has long opposed the legislation, and throughout 2023 we stressed that mandated scanning obligations will lead to censorship of lawful and valuable expression.
The Online Safety Bill also threatens another basic human right: our right to have a private conversation.
From our point of view, the UK pushed the Bill through aware of the damage it would cause.
Despite our opposition, working closely with civil society groups in the UK, the bill passed in September.
EFF will monitor Ofcom's drafting of the regulation, and we will continue to hold the UK government accountable to the international and European human rights protections that they are signatories to.
While 2023 has overall been a disappointing year for free expression, there is always hope, and for us this has come in the form of renewed efforts to free our friend and EFF Award Winner, Alaa Abd El Fattah.
Alaa's hunger strike did result in improved prison conditions and family visitation rights, but only after it prompted protests and fifteen Nobel Prize laureates demanded his release.
Read other articles about the fight for digital rights in 2023.
This Cyber News was published on www.eff.org. Publication date: Wed, 27 Dec 2023 19:13:05 +0000