12 Jurisdiction Cases that Marked the Year 2016

Published on
January 9, 2017

2016 was an important year for the policy network Internet & Jurisdiction. We convened, organized and participated in a significant number of events around the world to enable multistakeholder cooperation. The first Global Internet and Jurisdiction Conference, held in November 2016, gathered over 200 stakeholders from more than 40 countries to collectively address the most pressing issues regarding the future of jurisdiction on the cross-border Internet.

Committed to enable evidence-based policy innovation, Internet & Jurisdiction informs stakeholders about jurisdiction trends that we diligently track around the world since 2012 in the I&J Retrospect. Through a crowd-based curation process supported by the I&J Observatory of leading academic experts, the 20 most influential cases are identified, analyzed, and summarized every month. Once added to the I&J Retrospect Database, subscribers receive the 20 top cases in their inbox through the I&J Newsletter.

We have selected 12 cases that shaped 2016 in different regions. Click on their titles to read the full stories. All 240 cases of the past year and their summaries can be consulted in the I&J Retrospect Database.

January

Pakistan lifts YouTube’s three-year ban after launch of local version

February

Uganda government blocks social media during presidential election

March

Kenya: Google rejects film regulator’s request to take down gay music video from YouTube

April

EU Parliament adopts data protection reform

May

Google appeals French order for global application of “right to be de-indexed”

June

Israeli court approves class action suit against Facebook for violating users privacy

July

Brazil: WhatsApp targeted again in judicial blocking order

August

France and Germany push for new EU measures on encryption and extremist content

September

Facebook and WhatsApp’s data sharing policy challenged in Europe and India

October

US Department of Justice appeals US court decision in Microsoft Ireland case

November

Russia blocks LinkedIn for non-compliance with data localization rules

December 

Internet platforms launch hash-sharing initiative to combat terrorism online