EFF: Amendments to Mauritius’ ICT Act Pose Risks for Freedom of Expression
Amendments to Mauritius’ ICT Act Pose Risks for Freedom of Expression Mauritius doesn’t get a whole lot of international attention. The island nation off the southeast coast of Africa, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is a diverse country that is highly ranked for democracy, and economic and political freedom. The Economist’s Intelligence Unit has named the country the only “full democracy” in Africa, and Freedom House’s latest Freedom in the World report calls it a free country. The country’s Constitution (Art. 12) protects freedom of expression, with exceptions in line with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . But readers of this blog know that democracies, from France to India and many places in between, often get Internet regulation terribly wrong. Recent amendments to Mauritius’ ICT Act are exemplary of that fact. The Information and Communications Technologies Act was created in 2001 and covers a broad array of topics, from fraud to identi...