July 2016

Civil liberties Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) approved plans to create a law that will block terrorist content online. The counter terrorism directive also deals with terrorism training and financing as well as “Internet propaganda, and the misuse of the Internet for terrorist purposes." It was passed by 41 votes to four, with 10 abstentions meaning that the parliament’s chief negotiator, German MEP Monika Hohlmeier, can now start talks with the European ministers for justice and home affairs on a final text.

The initial draft proposal contained no reference to online activity, but Hohlmeier introduced two new sections taken in part from the EU law against child sex abuse. Under the latest wording, national authorities must take measures to ensure the prompt removal of illegal content hosted from within their territory that constitutes public incitement to commit a terrorist offence. If this is not feasible, they may take the necessary measures to block access to such content “while adhering to transparent procedure, adequate safeguards, and subject to judicial review.” “It’s easy to ban something on the Internet, but of course you can’t ban everything, and if people use terrorist-related Internet facilities, then they will be correspondingly dealt with," said Hohlmeier.

Senior US District Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr., a federal judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, has ruled that the user of any computer which connects to the Internet should not have an expectation of privacy because computer security is ineffectual at stopping hackers. The ruling made on June 23rd was reached in one of the many cases resulting from the FBI’s infiltration of PlayPen, a hidden child exploitation site on the Tor network. After taking control of the site, the FBI kept it up and running, using it to plant malware on visitors’ computers, gathering identifying information that was used to enable prosecution.

Judge Morgan ruled that the FBI’s actions in hacking visitors’ computers did not violate Fourth Amendment protections and did not require a warrant, stating that the “Defendant here should have been aware that by going [on-line] to access Playpen, he diminished his expectation of privacy.” Describing the ruling as “dangerously flawed” Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Mark Rumold wrote, “The implications for the decision, if upheld, are staggering: law enforcement would be free to remotely search and seize information from your computer, without a warrant, without probable cause, or without any suspicion at all.” But holds out that the ruling is “incorrect as a matter of law, and we expect there is little chance it would hold up on appeal.”

The World Institute on Disability (WID) is partnering with the California Emerging Technology Fund to annually survey Californians with disabilities to determine how high-speed Internet adoption rates compare to the overall state population and to identify the factors leading to low adoption rates. This marks the second year of a three-year survey built to more fully understand Internet adoption trends among this population and to develop public policy recommendations to help drive adoption higher among people with disabilities.

Results from the second year of the three-year survey showed that among a revised group of surveyed Californians with disabilities there has been a slight increase in those reporting having high-speed Internet access: from 62% of respondents in 2014 to 66 percent of respondents in 2015. However, this was lower than the 79% of the overall population reported by the Field Research Corporation and CETF. The price point at which many households without high-speed Internet say they would consider subscribing to a service is $10 per month. Not including limited-time deals, residential high-speed Internet costs between $50 and $70 a month, and sometimes much higher, in California. In 2015, we surveyed a second cohort of 100 people with disabilities and found that 66% had access to high-speed Internet, up 4% from a year ago, yet still trailing the larger population by 13 percentage points.

• More than one-third of Californians with Disabilities (34%) do not have high-speed Internet at home, compared to 21% of the overall population.
• A large percentage of non-Internet subscribers say that $10 a month is what they can afford.
• Over half of all 2015 respondents say that their disability makes it difficult to use a device to go online.
• About one third (34%) of respondents use an assistive device or software to access the Internet, increasing the cost to get online at home.