Jillian C. York
EFF
Germany
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Past articles by Jillian:
The State of Online Free Expression Worldwide: 2022 in Review
It’s been a tumultuous year for free expression globally. From internet shutdowns, crackdowns on expression and closed-door partnerships to attempts to restrict anonymity and end to end encryption, in many places, digital rights are under threat. And while the European Union has made regulatory... → Read More
Turkey's New Disinformation Law Spells Trouble For Free Expression
Turkey’s government recently passed a new law aimed at curbing disinformation that citizens have dubbed the “censorship law,” according to reports. The new law was met with condemnation from both inside the country and abroad.Troublingly, the vaguely-worded law, passed by parliament on October 13,... → Read More
Stop the Persecution: Iranian Authorities Must Immediately Release Technologists and Digital Rights Defenders
Update, November 9, 2022: We are happy to announce that Aryan Eqbal has been released along with other digital rights defenders. Jadi Mirmirani remains wrongfully detained. We will continue to monitor the situation.We, the undersigned human rights organizations, strongly condemn the Iranian... → Read More
Twitter Has a New Owner. Here’s What He Should Do.
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter highlights the risks to human rights and personal safety when any single person has complete control over policies affecting almost 400 million users. And in this case, that person has repeatedly demonstrated that they do not understand the realities of platform policy at scale. → Read More
Disentangling Disinformation: Not as Easy as it Looks
Body bags claiming that “disinformation kills” line the streets today in front of Facebook’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. A group of protesters, affiliated with “The Real Facebook Oversight Board” (an organization that is, confusingly, not affiliated with Facebook or its Oversight Board), is... → Read More
New Mask Guidelines Don’t Take a Huge Number of Americans Into Account
And I’m not talking about children. → Read More
The EU Online Terrorism Regulation: a Bad Deal
On 12 September 2018, the European Commission presented a proposal for a regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online—dubbed the Terrorism Regulation, or TERREG for short—that contained some alarming ideas. In particular, the proposal included an obligation for platforms... → Read More
Content Moderation Is A Losing Battle. Infrastructure Companies Should Refuse to Join the Fight
It seems like every week there’s another Big Tech hearing accompanied by a flurry of mostly bad ideas for reform. Two events set last week’s hubbub apart, both involving Facebook. First, Mark Zuckerberg took a new step in his blatant effort to use 230 reform to entrench Facebook’s dominance. Second... → Read More
Crowdfunding Legal Fees Is Not a Crime
A piece in USA Today describes how a number of Capitol Hill rioters are utilizing online fundraising platforms to raise funds to cover legal fees, only to find their accounts shut down. This is prompting an online discussion not only about when and how tech companies should shutter online accounts... → Read More
Beyond Platforms: Private Censorship, Parler, and the Stack
Last week, following riots that saw supporters of President Trump breach and sack parts of the Capitol building, Facebook and Twitter made the decision to give the president the boot. That was notable enough, given that both companies had previously treated the president, like other political... → Read More
Now and Always, Platforms Should Learn From Their Global User Base
The upcoming U.S. elections have invited broad attention to many of the questions with which civil society has struggled for years: what should companies do about misinformation and hate speech? And what, specifically, should be done when that speech is coming from the world’s most powerful leaders... → Read More
Trump’s TikTok Crusade Makes US Censorship Look a Lot Like China’s
The US government is demonstrating that it is no better than the country it has long criticized for its vast censorship apparatus. → Read More
OTF's Work Is Vital for a Free and Open Internet
Keeping the internet open, free, and secure requires eternal vigilance and the constant cooperation of freedom defenders all over the web and the world. Over the past eight years, the Open Technology Fund (OTF) has fostered a global community and provided support—both monetary and in-kind—to more... → Read More
From Tunis to Minneapolis—and Beyond—Social Media Keeps Us Connected
In January 2011, after hearing about the unrest unfolding in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni (who passed away in January of this year from a chronic illness) began traveling around the country to document the nascent protests and the government’s response to them. “There are no... → Read More
Facebook's Oversight Board: Who (and What) Is Missing From the Picture So Far
We’ve been skeptical of Facebook’s Oversight Board from day one. We’ll follow closely and keep open minds, because we appreciate it is a first attempt at some semblance of much-needed governance and external review. But no amount of “oversight” can fix the underlying problem: Content moderation is... → Read More
Automated Moderation Must be Temporary, Transparent and Easily Appealable
For most of us, social media has never been more crucial than it is right now: it’s keeping us informed and connected during an unprecedented moment in time. People have been using major platforms for all kinds of things, from following and posting news, to organizing aid—such as coordinating the... → Read More
The Right to Anonymity is Vital to Free Expression: Now and Always
“There are myriad reasons why individuals may wish to use a name other than the one they were born with. They may be concerned about threats to their lives or livelihoods, or they may risk political or economic retribution. They may wish to prevent discrimination or they may use a name that’s... → Read More
Goop’s Horrible Netflix Show Accidentally Makes a Case Against Social Media Censorship
By misidentifying parts of the anatomy she claims to be an expert on, actress and self-appointed lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow demonstrates the damage caused by censoring women’s bodies. → Read More
Innocent Users Have the Most to Lose in the Rush to Address Extremist Speech Online
Internet Companies Must Adopt Consistent Rules and Transparent Moderation PracticesBig online platforms tend to brag about their ability to filter out violent and extremist content at scale, but those same platforms refuse to provide even basic information about the substance of those removals. How... → Read More
In Ecuador, Political Actors Must Step Away From Ola Bini’s Case
After spending nearly a week in Ecuador to learn more about the case against Swedish open source software developer Ola Bini, who was arrested here in April, EFF has found a clear consensus among the experts: the political consequences of his arrest appear to be outweighing any actual evidence... → Read More