Facebook Must Stop Tracking Belgian Web Users, Court Rules

By Aoife White

16 February 2018

Facebook Inc. must stop tracking Belgian users’ surfing outside the social network and delete data it’s already gathered, or it will face fines of 250,000 ($312,000) euros a day, a Belgian court ruled.

Facebook “doesn’t sufficiently inform” clients about the data it gathers on their broader web use, nor does it explain what it does with the information or say how long it stores it, the Brussels Court of First Instance said in a statement.


Microblogging Site Weibo Reveals Big Changes After Government Rebuke

By Karen Chiu Xinmei Shen 

9 February 2018

A key feature of one of the most popular social sites in China has returned after government pressure forced Weibo to close part of the site for a week.

In late January, the microblogging site shut down Hot Search, its trending topics section. The reason? State media said Weibo failed to censor content that contradicts with Communist Party values, including vulgar and pornographic materials.


Yes, the EU’s New #CopyrightDirective is All About Filters

By Cory Doctorow

20 January 2019

When the EU started planning its new Copyright Directive (the “Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive”), a group of powerful entertainment industry lobbyists pushed a terrible idea: a mandate that all online platforms would have to create crowdsourced databases of “copyrighted materials” and then block users from posting anything that matched the contents of those databases. More


Kazakhstan Tightens Squeeze on Media

By TOL

4 January 2018

Astana reinforces its status as a no-go area for independent media, while ostensibly more open Kyrgyzstan cracks down on opposition TV station. See more in TOL