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Deutsch: Die neuesten Versuche der russischen Regierung das Internet zu zensier...

Especially during the period before and immediately after the Russian parliamentary elections of 4 December 2011, government censorship attacked not only traditional media, but also the Internet, which plays now a very important role in the political debate in Russia with more than 51 million users.

An order from the Federal Security Service (FSB) asked social network Vkontakte, with more than 5 million Russian users, to block the websites of seven groups calling for demonstrations durin

On 8 December, the Council of Europe launched a very important Declaration on "the protection of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association with regard to privately operated Internet platforms and online service providers." The text picks up many of the themes and priorities of EDRi's study, published in January of this year, on the "Slide from Self-Regulation to Corporate Censorship".

The text explains that "although privately operated, they are a significant part of the public sphere through facilitating debate on issues of public interest; in some cases, they can fulfil, similar to traditional media, the role of a social "watchdog" and have demonstrated their usefulness in bringing positive real-life change".

In the context of the positive obligations o

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Deutsch: US-Razzien gegen Domains und IP-Adressen gehen weiter

US authorities have resumed their "Operation in Our Sites" in order to attempt to fight counterfeit and piracy-related websites. During this second annual "Cyber Monday" crackdown, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has shut down 150 websites from all over the world.

The recent introduction of draft bills, such as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) now aims at providing a legal basis for domain names and IP address seizures.

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Deutsch: Türkei führt Internetfilter ein

Turkish Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) launched the Internet safety scheme on 22 November 2011, as planned, but on a voluntary basis, following the fierce criticism and opposition to the original plans to introduce a mandatory filtering system.

Internet users may sign up with their ISPs for the free of charge filtering system which blocks "objectionable content", being able to choose from three variants: child, family and domestic.

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Deutsch: Scarlet vs. SABAM: Ein Sieg für die Grundrechte und die Freiheit des ...

On 24 November 2011, the European Court of Justice decided that an Internet service provider (ISP) can not be ordered to install a system of filtering of all electronic communications and blocking certain content in order to protect intellectual property rights.

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Deutsch: Google: Deutlich mehr Löschanfragen von Regierungen
Macedonian: Сè поголем број владини барања за отстранување содржини од Google

A Transparency Report issued by Google shows an increasing level of government requests of private data and content takedown, during the period January - June 2011.

It is the first time that Google reveals not only information on the number of requests by governments, law enforc

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Deutsch: Ukraine: Gesetz zum Schutz der öffentlichen Ordnung bedroht Redefreih...

The Ukrainian Parliament approved on 18 October 2011, in first reading, a draft law that proposes amendments to the present law on the Protection of Public Decency Law, which puts freedom of speech at risk.

The draft bill is said to be aimed at banning pornography, the use of words or images of an "obscene, vulgar and brutal" nature, extremist and offensive content and the defence of violence, in the print and broadcast media including the Internet.

However, the text is so vague and bro

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Deutsch: Russische Regierung will Kontrolle über Online-Medien übernehmen

Roskomnadzor, Russia's federal supervisory agency for communications, information technology and mass media, is presently testing a search software to trace "extremist" content on the Internet, planning to start using it in December 2011.

The software will check text, audio and video footage on the Web for words and phrases containing calls for violence, social and national hatred, information on manufacturing and dissemination of drugs etc.

In case the respective software decides, based on rather vague cri