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Every week, we aim to update you about our work at Access Now and the broader battle for human rights in the digital age. But with digital authoritarianism rising and civic space shrinking, we want to make sure you’re getting the information you need to fight back. Please take our short six-question survey, and we’ll use your insights to improve what lands in your inboxes each Friday!

Your support matters

Will you join our fight for digital rights?

When governments shut down the internet, spy on activists, and criminalize voices for change, it undermines human rights and closes the space for discussion, debate, and resistance. The battle to protect this space needs all of us — including you. Can you donate today to help us defend the people and communities most at risk?

Spyware’s unanswered questions

Fighting spyware: an update from WhatsApp

In May 2025, Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group was ordered to pay Meta more than USD $168 million in damages for using the WhatsApp platform to deliver Pegasus spyware. Now, Meta is accusing NSO of launching attacks that allegedly breach the legal injunction permanently barring the company from targeting WhatsApp’s platform or its users. Together with our partners, Access Now recently filed an amicus brief urging the U.S Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to maintain the injunction and protect encryption from NSO’s spyware. “The way that NSO has been behaving, including the way that they behaved in this lawsuit, shows that they are completely evading accountability,” says Access Now’s Natalia Krapiva. Read more via The Financial Times

One year on, Italy is still waiting for answers from Paragon over spyware scandal

More than a year after the Italian government asked spyware maker Paragon Solutions for information about human rights violations carried out using its Graphite technology, WIRED Italia reports that the company has been less than forthcoming. While Paragon claims to be an “ethical” spyware provider that sells only to democratic governments, Natalia Krapiva notes that the company has so far thwarted Access Now’s attempts to gain clarity on its human rights safeguards. ”The company refused any engagement, telling us through intermediaries that it does not speak with us,” she says. Read more via WIRED Italia

Statement: End complicity with ISS World Europe

Access Now joined EDRi and other civil society partners in calling on EU institutions and governments to immediately end all association with ISS World Europe, which took place in Prague last week. This surveillance industry trade fair functions as a marketplace for digital repression tools, connected to companies allegedly involved in war crimes, human rights violations, and the genocide in Gaza. When civil society members protested the event on-site, they were not allowed inside. Read more via EDRi

Eyes on EU

AI Omnibus deal: EU lawmakers should reject a rollback of AI safeguards

As the European Parliament prepares to sign off on the AI Omnibus — a deeply flawed proposal that would dilute the EU AI Act’s barely in-effect human rights protections — Access Now, Amnesty International, EDRi, and the European Centre for Not-for-profit Law (ECNL) are once more urging EU lawmakers to reject this attempt to deregulate under the banner of “simplification.” As our full analysis points out, the deal delays key protections, weakens transparency, and sets the dangerous precedent of reopening digital rights laws before they apply, which allows powerful actors to treat implementation as yet another opportunity to weaken rules they oppose. Read more via EDRi

Reality check: Iran is still disconnected

“Celebrating this partial restoration is not right” — Iran emerges from 88-day internet shutdown, but what happens next?

TechRadar speaks to WITNESS digital rights expert Mahsa Alimardani about why partial restoration of the internet in Iran isn’t good enough, the grim reality that authorities are likely to impose yet another blackout, and how the international community can help. Read more via TechRadar

The splinternet: where China led, Iran and others are eagerly following

In an editorial citing our most recent data on internet shutdowns around the world, The Guardian points out that it is becoming increasingly easy and “less remarkable” for authoritarian governments to crack down on internet access, underscoring the urgent need to support the work of digital freedom activists. Read more via The Guardian

Opportunities and other highlights

Staying safer online this Pride Month

For LGBTQ+ individuals and communities, the internet is a space to connect, organize, and find support — but it can also be dangerous. To mark Pride Month, our latest Digital Security Toolkit offers practical tips to help you better protect your identity, privacy, and online communications from digital threats, including doxxing. Take a look and share what you find useful with your community. Read more via Access Now

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