Stories from Abroad

When thousands of Iranians streamed onto the country’s streets the week of Dec 25 to protest government corruption and the dilapidated economy, authorities in Tehran reverted to a well-known playbook. On Dec 31, the government shut down Telegram, a messaging platform used by more than 40 million Iranians. Instagram and other social media soon followed. The mullahs’ intentions were clear: to block access to digital platforms used by protesters to spread information about the uprising. But the government’s crackdown found support from a surprising source — the American sanctions regime.

The Trump administration stepped up its support for protesters in Iran calling on the government to stop blocking Instagram and other social media sites while encouraging Iranians to use special software to circumvent controls. 

The events surrounding the FBI’s NorthernNight investigation follow a pattern that repeated for years as the Russian threat was building: US intelligence and law enforcement agencies saw some warning signs of Russian meddling in Europe and later in the United States but never fully grasped the breadth of the Kremlin’s ambitions. Top US policymakers didn’t appreciate the dangers, then scrambled to draw up options to fight back.

The United Nation’s freedom of speech expert said he was concerned about the ramifications of a decision in the United States to roll back net neutrality, since it could lead to small and independent voices being drowned out on the web.  David Kaye, an American law professor and the UN Human Rights Council’s independent expert on freedom of expression, said net neutrality, the idea that all internet traffic should be treated the same regardless of content, was essential.

The Bundesnetzagentur prohibited certain aspects of the "StreamOn" add-on option offered by Telekom Deutschland GmbH (Telekom) with its "MagentaMobil" mobile tariff. The decision ensures that the provisions of the European Regulation on roaming and net neutrality are being complied with. "Telekom can continue to offer StreamOn. But in the interest of consumers, adjustments have to be made to the arrangement," explained Jochen Homann, Bundesnetzagentur President.

Uber  suffered a major defeat in its effort to overturn strict rules and licensing requirements in Europe, after the bloc’s highest court ruled the ride-hailing company should be regulated as a transportation service, rather than a digital service. The judgment by the European Court of Justice won’t force Uber to curtail most of its services in Europe, but the decision is a blow to the company’s efforts to use courts to lighten its regulatory load—and forces it to deal more directly with national and local governments that set rules governing car and transport services in Europe.

British homes and businesses will have a legal right to high-speed broadband by 2020, the government has announced, dismissing calls from the network provider BT that it should be a voluntary rather than legal obligation on providers. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said only a universal service obligation (USO) would offer certainty that broadband speeds of at least 10Mbps would reach the whole of the UK by 2020. Broadband providers will now have a legal requirement to provide high-speed broadband to anyone who requests it, no matter where they are in the country.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is releasing its annual round-up of violence and abuses against journalists throughout the world. A total of 65 journalists were killed in 2017, 326 are currently in prison, and 54 are held hostage. The 65 journalists who were killed were either fatally injured in the course of their work (for example, in an artillery bombardment) or were murdered because their reporting angered someone. The murdered reporters were the majority – 60% of the total figure.

Alphabet Inc’s X research division said that India’s Andhra Pradesh state government would buy its newly developed technology that has the potential to provide high-speed wireless internet to millions of people without laying cable.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the agreement, which begins next year, would see 2,000 boxes installed as far as 20 kilometers (12 miles) apart on posts and roofs to bring a fast internet connection to populated areas.

[Commentary] As the US continues to debate whether to embrace internet freedom, the world is doing so already, with many countries imposing even stronger rules than the ones the Federal Communications Commission did away with. Other countries are facing similar dilemmas about how to deal with today’s digital realities, and are slowly and individually contributing to a patchwork of laws that differ from country to country.