The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
You may never have heard of Omegle–or perhaps you have. It is an online platform that allows people to meet and talk to total strangers online through video links. Participants are randomly paired but there is also a form of self-selection by indicating shared interests. Once people are paired, they can stay and chat or move to another partner. Continue reading
On 28 April 2022, with little advance notice, an announcement was released by various governments informing the world that they had just signed a “Declaration for the Future of the Internet”. In all, sixty-one countries signed this grandiose-sounding document, ranging from Albania to Uruguay. Signatories notably included the US, which was the sponsor of the Declaration, the 27 countries of the EU, the UK, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and four of the five Nordic countries. Continue reading
When it comes to online safety—or its flip side, online harms—many countries are grappling with the problem. What is the role of government in establishing guidelines and regulations for the protection of citizens, particularly vulnerable segments of the population, from a range of harms perpetrated by anti-social and even criminal elements via the internet? What is the role of “internet intermediaries”, the internet distribution and social media platforms that the perpetrators use to attack their victims? Continue reading
Unless you have been living in a cave, you will be well aware of Facebook’s current travails, fed by whistle-blower Frances Haugen’s explosive testimony about how Facebook researched but ignored findings that suggested the company’s algorithms were harming individual users by promoting content that kept them engaged—but at a cost to their mental wellbeing. Continue reading
Should user-generated content (UGC) on social media platforms be free from any regulation and the rule of law, simply because it is user-generated? Continue reading
Finally, after months of negotiations, Google and the main French publishers’ organization (Alliance de la Presse d’Information Generale—AIPG) have reached agreement on the principles under which Google will pay news publishers in France for use of their content in Google’s online offerings. Continue reading
I have written about the case of Google Inc vs Equustek Solutions several times over the past couple of years (for example, here, here, and here). This series of blog posts tracked the evolution of the case. Continue reading
Last week in writing about the issue of SuperBowl ads, I referred to Annex 15-D of the new NAFTA, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA, or CUSMA as it is referred to in Canada) that will restore (once the Agreement is in force) the practice of substituting Canadian ads into the Superbowl broadcast even if Canadians are watching the game on a US channel redistributed in Canada. Continue reading
I recently had the honour to be invited to give a guest lecture to the Copyright Society of Australia in Sydney. My talk focussed on how the Internet has evolved over the past twenty years, leading to a severe imbalance between Internet platforms and the creative community because of the abuse and misuse of safe harbours, and how recent events have put the big platforms in the spotlight—indeed in the crosshairs of the public and politicians. Continue reading
In a blog last week I talked about the role of Open Media in trying to undermine the democratic process and manipulate political opinion by orchestrating widespread anti-copyright astroturfing campaigns in Canada and elsewhere. Continue reading
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