Berkman Center

Webcast Feb. 10, 6pm ET: The Future of Freedom and Control in the Internet Age (via Global Voices co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon)

Global Network Initiative launches

Berkman is pleased to announce the launch of the Global Network Initiative, a dynamic effort developed in partnership with leading human rights groups, academics, socially responsible investment firms, and information and communications technology (ICT) companies, including, to date, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!. This unique coalition is working together to uphold the human rights to freedom of expression and privacy in the ICT sector, supporting companies as they resist governments seeking to enlist them in acts of censorship, filtering, and surveillance that violate international standards...

29 oct 2008

Diverse Coalition Launches New Effort To Respond to Government Censorship and Threats to Privacy

In an effort to protect and advance the human rights of freedom of expression and privacy, a diverse coalition of leading information and communications companies, major human rights organizations, academics, investors and technology leaders today launched the Global Network Initiative.

28 oct 2008

"Breaching Trust," China’s TOM-Skype platform

Our colleagues at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab have released a major report, "Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China’s TOM-Skype platform," by Nart Villeneuve, with a foreword by OpenNet Initiative Principal Investigators Ron Diebert and Rafal Rohozinski. The report "reveals troubling security and privacy breaches affecting TOM-Skype -- the Chinese version of the popular voice and text chat software Skype."

2 oct 2008

Global Voices Olympics Special Coverage

2008 Olympics: OpenNet Initiative on Internet filtering in China

China, Internet filtering, and the Olympics

The 2008 Olympics open in Beijing in about a week, and Internet filtering practices in China have again made international headlines as journalists and others experience the so-called Great Firewall firsthand; or, as our colleagues at the OpenNet Initiative blogged yesterday, "On the Olympic stage, the Great Firewall remains a player."

31 jul 2008

Thinking through section 201 of the Global Online Freedom Act

Over on the Future of the Internet blog, Berkman summer intern Brendan Ballou takes a look at the Global Online Freedom Act being considered by Congress...

18 jul 2008

US Senate hearing on "Global Internet Freedom: Corporate Responsibility and the Rule of Law "

Yesterday, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law heard testimony on "Global Internet Freedom: Corporate Responsibility and the Rule of Law." The Berkman Center's John Palfrey and Colin Maclay submitted written testimony for the hearing...

21 may 2008

Yahoo! launches Business and Human Rights Program

As part of the Principles on Free Expression and Privacy effort, the Berkman Center has been participating in an ongoing dialogue among cross-sector stakeholders - including companies, NGOs, socially responsible investors, and academics - on the importance and complexity of offering ICT services in a wide range of national settings, with a focus on both collective and individual company action. The participants have shown great commitment to the effort, and we are thrilled to see the trailblazing approach that Yahoo! is taking by launching The Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Program, an integrated platform to advance this work in the near and far term.

8 may 2008

Berkman Center for Internet & Society