Freedom on the Net 2022: Countering an Authoritarian Overhaul of the Internet

At home and on the international stage, authoritarians are on a campaign to divide the open internet into a patchwork of repressive enclaves.Key Findings:Global internet freedom declined for the 12th consecutive year.Governments are breaking apart the global internet to create more controllable online spaces.China was the world's worst environment for internet freedom for the eighth consecutive year.A record 26 countries experienced internet freedom improvements.Internet freedom in the United States improved marginally for the first time in six years.Human rights hang in the balance amid a competition to control the web

Freedom on the Net 2021: The Global Drive to Control Big Tech

In the high-stakes battle between states and technology companies, the rights of internet users have become the main casualties. A growing number of governments are asserting their authority over tech firms, often forcing the businesses to comply with online censorship and surveillance. These developments have contributed to an unprecedented assault on free expression online, causing global internet freedom to decline for an 11th consecutive year.Global norms have shifted dramatically toward greater government intervention in the digital sphere. Of the 70 states covered by this report, a total of 48 pursued legal or administrative action against technology companies. While some moves reflected legitimate attempts to mitigate online harms, rein in misuse of data, or end manipulative market practices, many new laws imposed excessively broad censorship and data-collection requirements on the private sector. Users' online activities are now more pervasively moderated and monitored by companies through processes that lack the safeguards featured in democratic governance, such as transparency, judicial oversight, and public accountability.The drive toward national regulation has emerged partly due to a failure to address online harms through self-regulation. The United States played a leading role in shaping early internet norms around free speech and free markets, but its laissez-faire approach to the tech industry created opportunities for authoritarian manipulation, data exploitation, and widespread malfeasance. In the absence of a shared global vision for a free and open internet, governments are adopting their own approaches to policing the digital sphere. Policymakers in many countries have cited a vague need to retake control of the internet from foreign powers, multinational corporations, and in some cases, civil society.This shift in power from companies to states has come amid a record-breaking crackdown on freedom of expression online. In 56 countries, officials arrested or convicted people for their online speech. Governments suspended internet access in at least 20 countries, and 21 states blocked access to social media platforms, most often during times of political turmoil such as protests and elections. As digital repression intensifies and expands to more countries, users understandably lack confidence that government initiatives to regulate the internet will lead to greater protection of their rights

You Have a Boyfriend?: Representations of Disabled People and Intimacy in Film

Disabled people have the same romantic and sexual desires as nondisabled people, yet many still fail to see disabled people as capable of being an equal part of a healthy relationship. Much of the general population is only exposed to disabled people through film and television, so how these pieces of media portray disabled people in relationships informs how the general population sees disabled people in relationships. For this project, four pieces of media were studied: two films and two television shows. One film and television show featured a disabled character played by a disabled actor, while the other featured a disabled character played by a nondisabled actor. In each piece of media, the portrayal of the disabled characters’ relationships were studied to identify patterns in the portrayals. The portrayals were also compared with works in disability studies to identify why these patterns in the portrayals of disabled relationships occur. In the studied media, disabled characters played by nondisabled actors tend to portray disabled people as asexual or incapable of being in a loving, mutually beneficial relationship. The characters’ disabilities were also framed as the problem in their relationships, despite the characters often treating partners/potential partners badly. This contradicts the experience of many disabled people, but the stereotypes created by this media makes it harder for disabled people in the real world to find relationships.Theatre ProgramHonors Colleg