[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Thursday reported that Palestinian authorities in the West Bank have begun to crack down on freedom of expression, detaining students for their political affiliations or political criticism. In the past six months, according to HRW, at least four West Bank students have been detained [HRW report], seemingly for connections with Hamas or making statements of political dissent. HRW Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson called the situation “deeply worrying,” saying that “Palestinians should be able to express critical political opinions without being arrested or beaten.” Two Palestinian students were allegedly arrested because of things they had posted on Facebook. Journalism student Ayman Mahariq from West Bank’s Al Quds University stated that after being brought to a police station by plainclothes policemen in 2014 he was beaten and faced criminal charges for posting critical comments about Palestinian Authority forces on Facebook, and that he was held for 30 days. Media student Bara al-Qadi from Birzeit University was arrested in January for criticizing a Palestinian Authority official [Facebook post, in Arabic] on Facebook and was held for 13 days. Adnan Al-Dimiri, a spokesman for Palestinian Security Forces in the West Bank, denied earlier this month that the arrests were politically motivated, saying that they “never arrest people for their speech or their political affiliations.” He said that the arrests instead stemmed from charges of “incitement of sectarian violence and other criminal charges.”

Internet freedom [JURIST backgrounder] remains a controversial issue around the world. In March India’s Supreme Court struck down [JURIST report] a law that gave authorities the power to jail people for offensive online posts. In December the US Supreme Court heard arguments [JURIST report] in a case involving threatening rap lyrics posted to Facebook. Last year the Turkish president approved a law[JURIST report] that tightens the government control of the Internet and expands the powers of the telecoms authority. In 2013 a Canadian human rights group unveiled research [JURIST report] indicating that a number of nations are using American-made Internet surveillance technology that could be used to censor content and track their citizens. The UN Human Rights Council in July 2012 passed its first-ever resolution to protect the free speech [JURIST report] of individuals online. The resolution was approved by all 47 members of the council, including China and Cuba, which have been criticized for limiting Internet freedom. Also in 2012 China adopted stricter rules [JURIST report] on both Internet providers and users. In November 2012 Russia passed a law [JURIST report] giving the nation the authority to completely block access to certain websites.