On Wednesday, the Syrian Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced that it was considering blocking voice calls on WhatsApp and other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to increase revenues in the telecommunications industry, according to an Al-Watan report. However, the decision will present a direct threat to Syrians’ rights to privacy, lead to an increase […]
Yemen’s internet has become increasingly unstable due to the war and the country’s fragmentation. Indeed, the country has witnessed frequent internet shutdowns and interruptions and the warring parties have blocked many websites, violating Yemenis’ rights to freedom of expression and access to information and threatening the already fragile state of press freedom. Until recently, Yemen […]
This week, authorities arrested journalists, bloggers, and human rights activists in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Early Wednesday morning, Egyptian police raided the home of journalist and blogger Wael Abbas and arrested him. His whereabouts are still unknown but authorities confiscated his personal computer, phones, and books, according to a statement published by the Arabic Network […]
Researchers revealed in April that internet filtering technologies produced by Netsweeper, an Ontario-based technology company with offices in the UAE and distributors in the Middle East, existed on state-owned public networks in the Gulf. These technologies filter opposition websites, major international news outlets, human rights and gay rights content, and internet circumvention tools. According to […]
