Protests Force Mexican Government to Step Back from Blocking Internet Mark Stevenson - The Associated Press
go to original April 24, 2014

In Mexico, there've been protests against a communciation law being debated by the Senate. Demonstrators say it will allow the interior Ministry to censor the internet. But the government says it needs new powers to combat illegal activity. Al Jazeera's Rachel Levin reports from Mexico City. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

MEXICO CITY —  Mexico's governing party appeared to step away on Wednesday from a proposal that would authorize officials to block Internet and telecom signals, pulling back a day after anti-censorship protests that ended in clashes in Mexico City.

Sen. Emilio Gamboa, leader of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in the Senate, said proposed communications legislation would be changed to avoid a distracting debate over issues that he said were never central to the proposal.

A draft of the bill that his party supports in the Senate has provisions permitting authorities to "temporarily block, inhibit or annul telecommunications signals at events and places deemed critical for the public safety."

Gamboa promised such clauses would be deleted. At present, authorities block cellphone signals in some sensitive areas, like prisons, but the proposed bill appeared to vastly widen that power.

"Any other additional power ... like the blocking of signals for national or public safety will be excluded from the reform," Gamboa said at a news conference.

Gamboa said the bill's rather broad language requiring telecom providers to provide data on users would be limited to measures already in effect to permit authorities to locate a user and obtain telephone records for criminal investigations in cases like kidnappings.

Read the rest at ABC News

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!