Week in Review: June 3, 2015

Image taken from Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain.

France: Bill to Allow for More Anti-Terror Measures in Post-Charlie Hebdo  World Internet freedom activists are hoping that the French Senate will reject a bill, which some have likened to the Patriot Act. Crafted as an anti-terror law, the text [FR] has prompted an outcry from the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights and about 1000 [FR] technology companies, lawyers, unions, and other concerned parties due to its potential to restrict netizens' rights to privacy and freedom of expression. At 46 pages long, the bill is far-reaching and would grant French intelligence officers the ability - among other things - to compel Internet providers to install "black boxes" on terror suspects' computers. 

Nauru: President of Small Micronesian Island Country Defends Facebook Ban Citing concerns over the spread of child pornography, in a speech in Bangkok, Nauru's president Baron Waqa justified his country's recent complete ban of Facebook. While the US State Department has expressed concern over these latest developments, other countries - notably Australia - have stayed silent. These recent restrictions are said to have limited ways in which asylum seekers in Nauru can communicate with the outside world, particularly advocates in Australia.

Paraguay: Pyrawebs, an Anti-Privacy Bill, Is Up For a Vote in the Senate Despite the fact that a draft of the bill was already rejected by the House of Representatives last March, the Paraguayan Senate is set to vote this Thursday on an anti-privacy bill that would permit ISPs to retain customer information for 12 months. Strongly opposed by the Paraguayan digital activist group TEDIC [SP], Pyrawebs has acquired a lot of enemies [SP] over the past year, but if it gathers enough votes, it could facilitate extensive data retention in Paraguay.

UN Asks to What Extent Governments Can Restrict Encryption and Anonymity David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, has released his first report to the Human Rights Council. Including research on extra-judicial norms and input from various governments and NGOs, the report establishes a clear linkage between free speech, anonymity, and encryption and calls for their protection. One of our earlier pieces of research on Arab Atheist web forums was cited in the list of sources that informed part of