Censorship and State Repression of Online Speech

The Promise Institute for Human Rights and Institute for Technology, Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law present a series on Global Digital Rights Challenges 

Alternating Thursdays: June 17, 2021 – August 12, 2021

June 17, 10am PT Session: Censorship and State Repression of Online Speech

Although the Internet is a global medium, the vast majority of its rules are imposed by State actors. Across much of the Global South, governments face a tension between their desire to harness the economic and social energies associated with Internet access, and its potential to empower opposition voices, whistleblowers, and civil society. The end result is often repressive content rules, including vague or otherwise abusive provisions targeting freedom of speech. This session will discuss Internet censorship in Pakistan, in order to offer a window into how governments seek to curtail the Internet’s expressive benefits, and the nexus between regulatory debates taking place in the United States and European Union, and how the outcomes of these discussions ripple around the world. Our guest, Farieha Aziz, is a leading voice for digital rights in Pakistan, and around the world.

Speaker: Farieha Aziz, co-founder of Bolo Bhi, a civil society organization geared towards advocacy, policy, and research in the areas of digital rights and civic responsibility

Moderator: Michael Karanicolas, Institute for Technology, Law & Policy at UCLA Law

Register at globaldigitalrightschallenges.eventbrite.com

About the series:

Around the world, repressive governments are seeking new and innovative ways to port censorship to the online space, while private sector tech companies increasingly find themselves responsible for making policy on the counters of global speech. Here at home, digital technologies have also become the latest front for debates on systemic racism, and the potential for new technologies to entrench patterns of discrimination. This series, which features global activists on the frontlines of these debates, will examine the pressing digital rights challenges manifesting around the world.