Digital Rights

News and hard-hitting, insightful, thoughtful, evidence-based, provocative, and progressive analysis of digital rights issues in Canada and around the world.

Human rights groups: “Iranian authorities must immediately release technologists and digital rights defenders”

Access Now, ARTICLE19, Front Line Defenders and the Electronic Frontier Foundation "strongly condemn the Iranian authorities’ ruthless persecution, harassment, and arrest of technologists and digital rights defenders amid the deadly crackdown on nationwide protests" triggered by Mahsa Amini's death in police custody.

The Canadian Progressive
October 17, 2022

A new Declaration for the Future of the Internet

Meanwhile, Internet freedom declined for the fifth time in a row in the U.S., and for the 11th consecutive year globally, according to Freedom House

Obert Madondo
June 20, 2022

Is the Cookie Web Tracker Dying?

The internet’s original data collection tool is still ubiquitous, even as the web moves away from it

Guest Blog
August 14, 2021

PayPal and Venmo enforcement procedures threaten First Amendment protected speech

With over 360 million users, PayPal and Venmo "have a staggering amount of influence over the financial lives of these individuals as well as access to an enormous trove of highly sensitive information that should not flow to the government without adequate safeguards."

Guest Blog
June 17, 2021

Google Ad Portal Equated “Black Girls” with Porn

Research by The Markup found that searching Google’s ad buying portal for “Black girls,” “Latina girls,” and “Asian Girls” led to pornographic content, and searching for “White girls” returned no suggestions, indicating "a racial bias that equated people of color with objectified sexualization while exempting White people from any associations whatsoever."

Guest Blog
January 31, 2021

Twitter permanently bans U.S. President Donald Trump

In the aftermath of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump white nationalists, far-right extremists, white supremacists, QAnon adherents, and ordinary Americans, Twitter permanently banned outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump to reduce “the risk of further incitement of violence”.

Obert Madondo
January 10, 2021

Obert Madondo is an Ottawa-based digital artist, blogger, photographer, graphic designer, web designer, digital rights enthusiast, digital storytelling enthusiast, aspiring filmmaker, and online publisher.

Obert is a former political aide to a prominent former Zimbabwean lawmaker, human rights defender and former freedom fighter. Obert has previously worked as an international development administrator in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa, and Canada.

Obert is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Canadian Progressive, an independent political blog dedicated to producing fearless, evidence-based, adversarial, unapologetic, progressive and activism-oriented journalism situated right at the intersection of politics, technology and human rights.

Follow Obert on Twitter: @Obiemad