Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

To mark Internet Freedom Day, digital rights groups are calling for reforms to computer crime laws, after the death of activist Aaron Swartz.

Thirty IFEX members protested the sentencing of bloggers, citizen journalists and rights activists, jailed for up to 13 years in the biggest ever trial of pro-democracy activists in Vietnam.

The tragedy of the suicide of Internet activist Aaron Swartz shines a spotlight on profound flaws in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, current hacking laws are too broad and too vague, and the penalties are too heavy-handed.

While not every campaign was successful in quashing efforts to restrict rights, 2012 was a great year worldwide for digital activism, says the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

All things considered, 2012 was a terrible year for online privacy against government surveillance, says the Electronic Frontier Foundation; states around the world are demanding private data in ever-greater volumes – and getting it.

As part of its examination of the major trends influencing digital rights in 2012, the Electronic Frontier Foundation presents a roundup of how laws criminalising certain types of speech have been applied to the Internet.

A group of free expression advocates and journalists have launched the Freedom of the Press Foundation to promote aggressive, public interest journalism; its goal is to crowd-fund donations for organizations that work to expose government mismanagement and corruption.

The website for the new PINK Loves CONSENT campaign, a parody of the Victoria’s Secret website promoting female empowerment and a culture of consent, was briefly taken down, along with its Twitter account, when Victoria’s Secret complained to its hosting provider that the site infringed multiple trademarks and copyrights.