The World Wide Web Foundation, which was founded by Tim Berners-Lee, issued its Web Index Report for 2014.  The Report finds a large digital divide, with over 4.4 billion people--primarily from poor and developing countries--with no Internet access.  Even in developed countries, there is a digital divide with lower income people having less access to the Internet.  In terms of mass surveillance, 84% of the 86 countries analyzed lack privacy laws to protect people from government surveillance.  Likewise, 84% of the countries analyzed lack suffiicient protections for net neutrality.  74% of the countries analyzed "are not doing enough to stop online violence against women."

After months of standing on the sidelines in the contentious debate over whether to adopt net neutrality in the United States, President Barack Obama has finally spoken.  The timing is pretty late, but it may well be that the President was waiting until after the mid-term elections to take a stand on what would be a controversial decision regardless of which way the President came out.  Yesterday, the President gave a full-throated endorsement of adopting a principle of net neutrality that would forbid companies from creating paid fastlanes on the Internet for those companies that can afford it.

On October 27, 2014 the Argentinean Federal Supreme Court of Justice issued its much awaited decision on the case involving the Argentinian model and actress María Belén Rodriguez vs Google Inc. (file number 99.613/06).  The case tackles the issue of the civil liability of web search engines derived from the content listed on their databases.  In an important victory for Internet service providers (ISPs), the Supreme Court ruled that Google and and other ISPs are not liable for the content of third parties if the ISP does not have knowledge of the allegedly infringing material or, having such knowledge, acts expeditiously to remove access to such material.  The Court balanced the competing interests of the freedom of expression and personal honor and reputation.

Sirgoo Lee, the co-CEO of Kakao Talk, the leading instant-messaging service in South Korea, held a press conference to apologize to Kakao's 35 million users, many of whom had reportedly began leaving the popular service due to privacy concerns.  This year, the South Korean law enforcement started cracking down on false and malicious online posts.  The government effort was, in part, a response to unflattering posts related to President Park Geun-Hye, who complained about insults and rumors made about her online, especially related to her handling of the tragic Sewol ferry capsizing.