DRLT Cases
Okoiti v. Communications Authority of Kenya x Summary Facts In January 2017, Kenya’s Communications Authority (CAK) announced plans to implement a Device Management System (DMS) that would allow access to mobile subscribers’ data—including call records—to combat counterfeit and illegal devices. Okiya Okoiti, executive director of Kenyans for Justice and Development Trust, filed a petition at the…
Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) & SAFEnet v. Minister of Communication and Informatics & President of Indonesia x Summary Facts In August 2019, following civil unrest in Papua and West Papua, the Indonesian government (Defendant 1: Minister of Communication and Informatics; Defendant 2: President of Indonesia) implemented two actions: first, an internet “throttling” (bandwidth limitation) and second, a total internet…
The Gambia v. Facebook x Summary Facts In 2019, The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging genocide against the Rohingya minority. As Facebook was a major platform used to spread anti-Rohingya hate speech in Myanmar, The Gambia filed a discovery request in the U.S. District Court for access…
Carpenter v. United States x Summary Facts Timothy Carpenter was convicted of a series of armed robberies after the FBI obtained his historical cell-site location information (CSLI) without a warrant using a court order under the Stored Communications Act. CSLI is generated whenever a cell phone connects to a tower, creating a time-stamped record of a person’s movements. The government obtained…
The Director of Public Prosecutions v. Graham Dwyer x Summary Facts The case arose from the prosecution of Graham Dwyer for murder, where key evidence consisted of mobile phone metadata retained and accessed under Ireland’s Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011. After Dwyer’s conviction, the Irish High Court ruled in 2019 that the 2011 Act breached the EU…
Digital Rights Ireland Ltd v. Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources x Summary Facts This case concerned the legality of the EU’s Data Retention Directive (2006/24/EC), which mandated that telecoms providers retain users’ communications data for up to two years for the purposes of investigating, detecting, and prosecuting serious crime. Digital Rights Ireland Ltd challenged the directive,…
Association des Blogueurs de Guinee v. Guinea x Summary Facts In October 2020, during Guinea’s presidential elections, the government restricted internet and social media access nationwide. Between October 18–27, there was limited to no internet, and from October 27 until December, Facebook was completely blocked. The applicants, Guinean NGOs advocating for human rights and media freedom, filed a case before…
Fiji Fashion Week and Ellen Whippy Knight v. Emosi Radrodro x Summary Facts Emosi Radrodro, a former radio personality, published a series of posts on his Facebook pages alleging that Ellen Whippy-Knight, the Managing Director of Fiji Fashion Week, was involved in morally inappropriate conduct. The posts specifically accused her of arranging encounters between young…
Patrick George Zaki v. Egyptian State x Summary Facts Patrick George Zaki, a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), was arrested on 7 February 2020 at Cairo International Airport upon returning from Italy, where he was pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Bologna. He had come home for a short…
