Tag Archives: SOPA

Protect and Defend Freedom of Expression Everywhere, including in Cyberspace

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Statement
January 20, 2012
Human Rights Online Philippines

Protect and Defend Freedom of Expression Everywhere, including in Cyberspace

The Internet has become a vital communications tool which individuals can use to exercise their right to freedom of expression and exchange information and ideas.

We at the Human Rights Online Philippines (HROnlinePH) use Internet as viable platform in the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines. The HROnlinePH features articles, blogs, news information and photos on human rights. Our site also offers current urgent action and list of links to other human rights online resources.

The U.S. Congress, however, is poised to pass a law infringing on freedom of expression. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) would allow the U.S. government officials and Internet providers to censor access to any website around the world. These dual pieces of anti-online piracy legislation moving through U.S. Congress threaten the core of what we and other free media websites do like blocking any of us from accessing sites like YouTube, Google or Facebook.

SOPA is designed to go after foreign websites that offer copies of music, movies and TV shows with impunity. Even without the provision allowing sites to be blocked, the bill would give authority to the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to demand that search engines delete links to sites “dedicated” to copyright infringement. Ad networks and payment processors would be prohibited from doing business with the sites.

This legislation would make the U.S. one of the worst Internet censors in the world joining China and Iran. We all know that these governments are using increasing sophisticated technologies and tactics which are often hidden from the public censor online content, and monitor and identify individuals who disseminate sensitive information about the government and engage in political activities critical to state affairs, which more often than not lead to arbitrary arrests and detention of individuals.

We at the HROnlinePH recognized that freedom of expression can be restricted in “very exceptional cases” like expression involving child pornography, violence against women, incitement to genocide, advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence and incitement to terrorism are all prohibited under international laws and statutes.

But the attempt to restrict Internet access and to cracking down online piracy must be established by law and be in accordance with international human rights standards and must pursue legitimate grounds for such restriction as set forth in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), that “(e)veryone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice” and be proven to be necessary and proportionate.

Every State must ensure that everyone enjoys his or her right to freedom of opinion and expression by maintaining free flow of information on the Internet, and ensuring that the Internet is available, accessible and affordable to all.

We should amplify our voice and increase our ranks in putting SOPA and PIPA back from the brink.

The SOPA and PIPA not only dilute and threaten the right to freedom of expression of all Americans and other persons living in the U.S. but everyone around the world.

Protect our Right to Freedom of Expression. Stop Internet Censorship!

Human Rights Online Philippines
January 20, 2012

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{Repost} Join Our Censorship Protest!

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Join Our Censorship Protest!.

by Jane Wells

Have you been paying attention to all the hubbub online about the proposed U.S. legislation (SOPA/PIPA) that threatens internet freedom? I wrote about it last week over on WordPress.org, but the gist is this: there’s a bill in the U.S. Senate that if passed would put publishing freedom severely at risk, and could shut down entire sites at the whim of media companies. Fight for the Future created this nifty video to sum it up better than I can.

Read complete article @ http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/join-our-censorship-protest/

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Stand for Human Rights, Defend Internet Freedom! – Dakila

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Stand for Human Rights, Defend Internet Freedom!
by DAKILA

January 19, 2012

We cannot deny the power internet has brought upon every individual – suddenly we all have a say; suddenly we can influence many; suddenly, earning knowledge is a click away. As Dakila pointed out in its Digital Activism Program, the extensive reach of social media and digital applications have facilitated the spread of social advocacies by exponential numbers in ways we have never imagined before.

Civil society has no doubt been empowered through the internet. We see this evidently in the latest uprisings and revolutions that have been happening around the world. And the internet has been instrumental in communication and knowledge sharing which has eventually lead to the success of many of these revolutions.

As an organization composed of artists, Dakila understands the need for a law to stop piracy and copyright infringement and to protect intellectual property rights but not at the expense of free speech and integrity of the internet. Simply put, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) are poorly constructed bills that threaten free speech on the internet more than it protects intellectual property rights.

Although SOPA and PIPA are American legislations, its effects will not stop at American borders. The internet is a global village, where physical geographical borders are blurred and where people share information and knowledge among each other regardless of geographical location. With SOPA and PIPA, information and knowledge sharing not only threatens America, but threatens the world as a whole.

Dakila opposes SOPA and PIPA. The internet has been one of the keys to the democratization of several countries, has helped the fight of the 99%, has aided in bringing human rights violations to light. Now more than ever we see its importance in the role to uphold human rights and people’s dignity. The internet, an activist’s tool for revolution and social change, should not be bound by laws that harm more than they benefit.

We have been more empowered and have done things which, ten years ago, we would not have thought we were capable of doing. Let’s us not let an ill-conceived bill take these away from us.

Dakila – Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism
19 January 2012

Source: https://www.facebook.com/notes/dakila/stand-for-human-rights-defend-internet-freedom/10150541261749344

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