Category Archives: Internet Freedom

Digital inclusion and who controls the Internet

Some Internet Activists Think Obama Didn’t Go Far Enough

 

Posted by Tracy Rosenberg on December 15th, 2014
Huffington Post

When Barack Obama came out publicly for the reclassification of the Internet as a public utility, his announcement indicated that the decades-long battle to maintain neutrality on the Web had entered a new high-profile stage.

From a wonky side discussion found mostly in the technology sections of major newspapers and on computer blogs, net neutrality had suddenly morphed into a national obsession, filling up late-night TV and social-media feeds with one meme after another and finally crashing the FCC’s website with 4 million public comments. Continue reading Some Internet Activists Think Obama Didn’t Go Far Enough

CA Public Utilities Commission Buries Net Neutrality Vote

 

Update October 15, 2014: Only hours before a scheduled vote to authorize the California Public Utilities Commission to weigh in on the federal network neutrality debate and share the overwhelming opinions of Californians that the Internet should be re-classified as a public utility, the item was suddenly withdrawn from Thursday’s meeting agenda for undisclosed reasons. Continue reading CA Public Utilities Commission Buries Net Neutrality Vote

Big Data and Privacy

 

Media Alliance joined sixteen other grassroots media group in a letter to the White House embracing a rights-model for the handling of big data.

The letter states “we believe that big data creates significant new risks of racial injustice. In order to ensure a fair and inclusive future for our nation’s communities of color, and to enable the potential benefits of these new technologies to be fully realized and broadly shared, it is vitally important that the emerging policy framework for big data explicitly acknowledges and address issues of racial discrimination”. Continue reading Big Data and Privacy

SXSW Misfire – The Human Hotspot

 

by Emily PriceMashable.com

In what has become a highly controversial move, advertising agency BBH transformed some of Austin’s homeless people into mobile hotspots during SXSW Interactive. Thirteen homeless from Austin’s Front Steps shelter donning an “I’m a 4G hotspot” T-shirt and armed with a MiFi were strategically placed throughout SXSW and offered internet access around their personal location to attendees. Continue reading SXSW Misfire – The Human Hotspot