Law Commons^™

Planet Netsweeper, Jakub Dalek, Lex Gill, Bill Marczak, Sarah Mckune, Naser Noor, Joshua Oliver, Jonathon Penney, Adam Senft, Ronald Deibert

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Internet filtering technologies play a critical role in shaping access to information online. Whether we are connecting to the Internet from our homes, coffee shops, libraries, or places of work, software that inspects, manages, and/or blocks our communications has become commonplace. When used at the level of large, consumer-facing Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Internet filtering technologies can have significant human rights impacts. A growing number of governments employ Internet filtering systems at this scale in order to undertake national-level censorship of the Internet. Filtered content ranges from pornography, hate speech, and speech promoting or inciting violence, to political opposition websites, …