Across the world, authorities are wildly overreacting to the threat posed by online activism. History says it won’t work. Expect more Aaron Swartzs, Bradley Mannings and Kim Dotcoms in coming years.
READ MORE38 Results
WAR ON THE INTERNET
How the internet rewires the circuits of our public space — and you
The internet is changing Australian society, you, and even your own head — and 2012 gave vivid emphasis of how that is happening. Crikey’s man in Canberra on the politics and policy shifts.
READ MORE
Assembling the building blocks of global net regulation
It’s become clear that the Australian government is working to launch an international attack on online privacy.
READ MORE
Revealed: who the govt spoke with on data retention plans
The appearance of the Attorney-General’s Department at an inquiry into national security reforms has revealed some disturbing insights into its proposal to retain internet data.
READ MORE
Radio chiefs’ error: mistaking social media for traditional media
Mainstream media powerbrokers only understand social media in traditional media terms, undermining their efforts to deal with it.
READ MORE
The legal industry faces a steep internet learning curve
Efforts to thwart the impact of social media on the criminal justice system will fail. In the first of a two-part series, why the legal industry needs to accept that fact and adjust.
READ MORENational security hysteria, the fastest-growing crime in Aust
Wild claims about cybercrime are a key tool in inflating spending on cybersecurity and expanding the powers of governments, like the latest proposal for two-year data retention.
READ MOREHypothetical: news from a national security future
We already know what could happen if proposals to dramatically extend surveillance and intelligence-gathering powers are allowed to proceed.
READ MOREWhy has the Right gone missing on the surveillance state?
When Labor finally unveils a genuine threat to civil rights, its usual critics have fallen silent. Why?
READ MOREGovernment unveils huge wishlist of new surveillance powers
A major parliamentary inquiry will examine government proposals to significantly extend surveillance powers — including to Twitter and other social media.
READ MORESend in the sock puppets: social media manipulation and Kony
The ease with which people have been manipulated by the Kony 2012 video will have governments and corporations excited.
READ MOREFederal Bureau of Facilitation — what was the FBI doing with Stratfor and WikiLeaks?
Revelations about the role of an FBI informer raise further questions about the FBI’s facilitation of crime.
READ MOREWho’s sued Twitter? The list so far
News that Melbourne defamation lawyer Stuart Gibson is suing Twitter on behalf of Joshua Meggitt for a Marieke Hardy tweet is only the most recent of efforts by the legal industry around the world to take on the social media giant.
READ MOREThinking of the kids as the net flattens information hierarchies
Attempts to legislatively address the TV Now “problem” will fail - and the solution is staring rights holders in the face.
READ MOREHow to get off scot-free after a massacre — the playbook
Stolen emails again demonstrate how the defence and political establishments do business in the US.
READ MOREKeane on SOPA: Big Copyright will continue to endanger basic rights
The copyright industry has rejected the opportunity to profit from online content and insisted on maintaining its analog business model.
READ MORE
The Boston fishing party and Australians’ rights online
A Melbourne activist is caught up in a remarkable social media fishing expedition by the state of Massachusetts.
READ MORESweeping the net: the economies of scale of filtering
The web filtering industry ranges from the innocuous to the ruthless in its quest to censor the internet.
READ MORETracking the trackers: the cyber snoops working in Australia
Companies that have provided surveillance equipment to some of the world’s worst régimes are operating in Australia
READ MOREMore hyping of the threat of ‘cyber’
Cyber warfare continues to be spruiked by governments as a major threat. Pity they fail to explain where the threat really lies.
READ MOREThe internet: when the frontier closes
It’s time for the internet “frontier” to be closed, say governments. So what would the “civilized internet” look like?
READ MORE
Back to the future with Cameron’s digital Riot Act
David Cameron’s promise to crack down on social media travels a path well-worn both this year and in centuries past.
READ MORELondon riots: the (social) media is to blame, apparently
According to some British media, Twitter was responsible for the London riots. We’ve been here before.
READ MOREWhy the campaign against anonymity is an attack on free speech
There’s a growing campaign against online anonymity from governments, corporations and even the media. It’s dangerous.
READ MORE
Attacking privacy under the cover of ‘cyber war’
The conflation of very different forms of online activity underlies the use of “cyber war” as a pretext for reducing privacy and funding contractors.
READ MORE
