Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

According to the New York Times, the Department of Justice is locked in a “prolonged standoff” with WhatsApp. The story may represent a disturbing preview of the next front in the FBI’s war against encryption.

Since his detention, many human rights groups have campaigned for his release. On 21 April 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared his detention a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and called for his release, yet the Syrian authorities refuse to free him.

March 13-19 is Sunshine Week, when open government activists around the country make noise about the need to reform laws on access to information. EFF created “The Foilies,” name-and-shame awards for agencies and officials who stand in the way of transparency and accountability.

A joint letter to Kazakhstan’s President Nazarbayev calling for review of recent state actions towards Seytkazy Matayev and the National Press Club.

A breakdown of the events that are changing the free expression landscape in Asia and the Pacific.

While the FBI has framed its demand as addressing a single phone, it has failed to address concerns that the implementation of the order would necessarily place at risk the security of millions of other devices and the people who use them.

While seeming to offer some promise, the newly proposed federal interagency privacy council has a limited mandate, and ultimately represents an overdue nod to privacy principles the Obama administration has repeatedly abused in practice.

Blogging platform Medium is now blocked in Malaysia, apparently in an effort to censor an investigative news outlet critical of the government.