Association for Progressive Communications

Acronym: APC

Established: 1990

Address: PO Box 29755, Melville 2109, Johannesburg, South Africa

APC is a global network of civil society organisations, which promotes the empowerment of citizens through ICT, and advocates access to a free and open Internet, in respect of human rights and freedoms in the online space. It conducts policy research on Internet and society, focusing on the main Internet principles, and provides capacity-building activities. As of November 2015, APC had 47 organisational members in 34 countries (most of them developing countries).

APC’s activities focus on areas such as: contributing to bringing Internet access to people who don’t have it yet, assisting communities in making use of information and communications technologies for their development, and advocating for ICT related public policies which serve the public interest. Examples of specific Internet governance issues covered by APC projects include: digital civil rights, gender and Internet governance, women’s rights online, universal access, intermediary liability, etc.

The APC network and its partners produce an annual report, the ‘Global Information Society Watch’, which analyses the progress made by countries in creating an inclusive information society. Each edition of the report focuses on different issues, such as: sexual rights and the Internet (2015), the state of communications surveillance around the world (2014), women’s rights and gender through the lens of ICTs (2013), Internet and corruption online (2012), etc.

APC is active in Internet governance processes at regional and global level. It has been a regular participant at the annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, and has also contributed to activities related to the implementation and review of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society.