Internet Freedom Weekly: News Recap, July 20th–24th, 2026
It's been a significant week. India shut down Delhi's internet during a student protest march (without publishing the order) and then let telecom companies confirm the order existed while still refusing to show it. A French law made everyone in the country subject to age verification. A Chinese journalist faced deportation from Thailand back to a government that's jailed hundreds of journalists. And the EU's top court did something genuinely good: it called VPNs lawful tools and meant it.
The through-line is familiar. Governments reach for control. Courts occasionally push back. The costs land on people who had no say in any of it.
India Shut Down Delhi’s Internet During a Protest Without Publishing the Order
On July 20, thousands of students marched to parliament in the "Chalo Sansad" protest. The government suspended mobile internet in central Delhi, reportedly from as early as 10 am until 6 pm, describing it as a "precautionary measure." No suspension order was published — in direct violation of a 2020 Supreme Court ruling and India's own Telecommunications Rules 2024. The Internet Freedom Foundation condemned the shutdown and will file Right to Information applications to force disclosure.
Telecom Companies Confirmed the Order, the Government Still Won’t Publish It
The follow-up was more damning than the original story. Officials at two major telecom providers confirmed receiving government directives to cut mobile internet in central Delhi. The government's position is now clear: it's not denying the shutdown happened. It's simply refusing to give the public any legal basis to challenge it. An unpublished order is an unaccountable order. India recorded 65 internet shutdowns in 2025, the highest of any democracy in the world.
EU Court Ruled VPNs Are “Lawful Technical Tools” in a Landmark Copyright Case
The Court of Justice of the European Union explicitly categorized VPNs as "lawful technical tools" in a ruling stemming from a dispute over a scholarly online edition of Anne Frank's manuscripts. The court found that publishers who deploy state-of-the-art geo-blocking can't be held liable when users circumvent it with a VPN — and that the mere existence of VPNs doesn't make geo-restrictions legally inadequate. It's the clearest judicial recognition of VPNs' legitimate status under EU law yet, at exactly the moment governments across Europe are looking for ways to restrict them.
France Banned Under-15s From Social Media — and Everyone Will Have to Verify Their Age
France's parliament adopted a law banning social media for under-15s, making it the first EU country to do so. From January 2027, every person in France — regardless of age — will need to verify their identity to access social media. The government cited Australia's ban as a model. By March 2026, seven out of ten affected Australian children still had "some access" to banned platforms. France is watching a failed experiment and calling it a template.
A Chinese Journalist Faces Deportation From Thailand Back to China
More than 50 press freedom organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, have urgently called on Thailand not to deport Bai Zhaodong — a Chinese investigative journalist who exposed corruption implicating senior Communist Party officials. He's been held in Bangkok immigration detention since January 2026. China is the world's largest jailer of journalists, with 120 imprisoned. If returned, Bai faces arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture. The window to act is closing.
A New EU Court Ruling Could Push Platforms to Censor More Speech
The EU Court of Justice's Coyote System ruling found that when a platform's algorithm determines how content is ranked and disseminated, the platform "controls" that content and loses its hosting liability protection. The Electronic Frontier Foundation warns the reasoning is broad enough to apply to virtually every major social media platform. When hosting user content carries liability risk, platforms censor preemptively — including lawful speech. The ruling sits directly against the logic of the EU's own Digital Services Act.
California’s DROP Lets You Delete Yourself From 614 Data Brokers
California's DELETE Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP) lets residents send a single deletion and opt-out request to all 614 registered data brokers in the state. From August 1, brokers have 45 days to act. It covers social security numbers, precise geolocation, browsing history, inferred health and political data, and more. It doesn't cover Google or Meta. It doesn't stop data collection — only its sale. And you'll need to refile periodically. But it's one of the most practical privacy tools a US state has produced, and it's worth using.
The Internet Isn’t Equally Safe for Everyone
Women and girls of African descent navigate the internet at the intersection of gendered and racialized targeting simultaneously. Facial recognition systems misidentify them at higher rates. Content moderation flags their speech while leaving the harassment directed at them in place. Coordinated abuse campaigns are designed specifically to push them off public platforms. Critical data gaps mean their experiences of online harm are poorly measured and, as a result, poorly addressed. Formal equality of access — the fact that anyone can create an account — doesn't resolve any of this.
Climate Information Is Manipulated — a Digital Rights Problem
Outright climate denial has largely given way to delay narratives: manufactured uncertainty about timelines, costs, and the viability of action. These spread faster through algorithmic recommendation systems than corrections do. In countries with large fossil fuel industries and low press freedom, climate journalists face direct pressure, harassment, and in some cases physical danger. Communities in the Global South bear the heaviest climate impacts and have the least influence over the information systems that shape global climate discourse. UNESCO is now framing this as a governance problem, not just a fact-checking one. It's right to.
China Is Escalating Surveillance to Suppress Social Unrest
China is tightening its digital surveillance and censorship infrastructure in response to floods, economic distress, and labor unrest. Flood-affected communities sharing information about disaster conditions and government response are having content removed. Workers discussing economic grievances are being monitored. The infrastructure being deployed isn't new — but the intensity is. What's built during a crisis doesn't get dismantled after it. Each expansion becomes the new baseline. Authoritarian governments worldwide are watching China's playbook and taking notes.
Western Australia Launched Real-Time Facial Recognition
Western Australia police launched a real-time facial recognition trial capable of scanning hundreds of faces per minute and cross-referencing them against police databases. An arrest on the first day is being used as proof of concept. Privacy advocates have immediately flagged concerns about false alerts, algorithmic bias, and function creep. A day-one arrest isn't evidence of accuracy or proportionality. It's evidence the system can produce a match. Western Australia is at the beginning of a curve that doesn't tend to end with less surveillance.
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Gintarė is a cybersecurity writer at Mysterium VPN, where she explores online privacy, VPN technology, and the latest digital threats. With hands-on experience researching and writing about data protection and digital freedom, Gintarė makes complex security topics accessible and actionable.
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