Category Digital Rights

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

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."

The Canadian Progressive
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

Government surveillance erodes “our dignity and the things that make us human,” says Edward Snowden

National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden urges us to continue defending our digital rights in the face of burgeoning digital authoritarianism at home and beyond, because mass government surveillance "robs us of private space, eroding our dignity and the things that make us human."

Obert Madondo
December 31, 2020

Boycott Amazon on Black Friday, urges economist Yanis Varoufakis

Boycotting Amazon on Black Friday, the e-commerce’s behemoth’s profitable day of the year, would #MakeAmazonPay for its widely-documented labour malpractices, anti-democratic practices, and ongoing COVID-19 profiteering, says Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis.

Obert Madondo
November 27, 2020

Taking a stand against white supremacy, popular knitting site Ravelry bans content supporting Trump

Ravelry, a free social networking service dedicated to knitting, crocheting, and other yarn crafts, recently made a strong public stance against white supremacy in the form of a policy banning content in support of U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration.

Obert Madondo
July 1, 2019

Surveillance capitalism threatens Canadians’ “ability to think, act and resist”

Meagan Bell argues that surveillance capitalism, the data-driven business model driving Google, Facebook and other Internet companies, weakens Canadians' ability to defend democracy, human rights and the human future.

The Canadian Progressive
May 17, 2019

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urged to comply with GDPR in all countries by 70 consumer groups

A coalition of consumer and privacy groups from the US, Canada and the European Union is urging Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to ensure that his company adopts the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) "as a baseline standard" for all Facebook users around the world.

Obert Madondo
April 9, 2018

Bell-led FairPlay Canada “proposal would weaken Canada’s economy”, says Internet infrastructure coalition

A global coalition of Internet infrastructure companies opposes the Bell Canada-led FairPlay Canada plan to block websites on the ground that the plan, which "lacks accountability and oversight", would weaken both the Canadian economy and our Internet leadership globally.

Obert Madondo
March 29, 2018