Each theme contains useful resources for lawyers on freedom of expression, click below to get started.
An overview of the multi-faceted right to freedom of expression and how it is protected under international law.
Understanding digital rights is crucial to protecting human rights, as little of our lives today is immune from the forces of technology and the internet.
An overview of the ways in which access to the internet and online content are restricted around the world.
An overview of freedom of expression issues in the law, including how defamation is treated in domestic and international law.
An overview of the right to privacy, data protection, and protecting freedom of expression in a digital world.
Describes the different types of cybercrimes, tracks the trends, and evaluates how cybercrimes are dealt with in international law.
An overview of hate speech and how it is dealt with both under domestic and international law.
An overview of the ways in which access to content and freedom of expression online are restricted by private actors.
An overview of false news, misinformation and propaganda, including causes and potential solutions..
An overview of the various rights and concepts which encompass digital rights.
The internet has given extraordinary decision-making power to private actors, who often face little scrutiny or oversight over their behaviour and how it may affect access to information and freedom of expression.
View this themeThe European Court of Human Rights held that an online publisher’s failure to comply with a de-indexing request justified restricting the publisher’s freedom of expression by allowing the request.
The Supreme Court of India found that freedom of speech and expression and the freedom to practice any profession or occupation over the medium of the internet enjoys constitutional protection and that suspending internet services indefinitely is impermissible.
The European Court of Human Rights referred for the first time to the notion of SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) in a civil defamation suit brought by a Russian regional state body against a media company.
A unanimous judgment from the South African Constitutional Court recognised a SLAPP defence as an existing form of abuse of process under South African law that did not call for a further development of the common law.
The European Court of Human Rights held that a blocking order on a website hosting platform produced arbitrary effects, and that blocking segments of the internet for whole populations or segments of the public can never be justified.
In a discovery request, the US District Court held that Facebook must disclose de-platformed content and internal investigation documents relating to the incitement of ethnic hatred against the Rohingyas in Myanmar.
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the right to be forgotten means that personal information that is “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive” must be erased by the search engine, but that the right should not apply to information that is relevant for the public interest.
The Johannesburg High Court in South Africa held that a defamation case brought by a former executive of a state entity constituted a SLAPP suit.
The Court of Justice of the European Union found that a de-listing order made in a member state of the EU did not mean that search results had to be removed from all the search engine’s domain name extensions globally.
The German Federal Court of Justice ruled that Facebook’s terms of service on deleting user posts and blocking accounts for violations of its Community Standards were invalid because they failed to account for informing users and giving them an opportunity to respond.