The Access movement strives to keep the internet an accessible and open space for all. Their activities include real-time support for people behind fire-walls, helping to bypass censors and aid citizen journalism. This support may take the form of anonymous twitter relays, automatically web based proxies and low bandwidth projects.
Access uses technology to aid human rights camapigns, with a focus on civil society and political freedom movements, their campaigns include:
Brett Solomon, co-founder and Executive Director of Accessnow.org, spoke at TEDxSydney 2010, Saturday 22 May 2010. At this time compulsory internet censorship in Australia was a proposed policy by the Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, with 87% of Australians opposed.
Discussing issues of firewalls and government oppression, Solomon presented the work digital of activists in Iran, Macedonia and China, as well as the United States.
“This is not a disconnected internet, this is one internet, and if Australia chops off a pinkie, and Iran chops off a hand, and if China chops off a leg and if American corporates chop off an arm, what do we have left? We are living in a democracy, we should be standing up for the rights of internet freedom, digital freedom, for political participation and to end the digital divide.”
Thankfully, as of June 2010, legislation to enact a policy of internet censorship in Australia still has not been drafted.
Watch TEDxSydney video:Brett Solomon – Citizen Journalism and the Democratisation of News Coverage
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