The May 2014 coup d’etat in Thailand was the 19th coup attempt in the country’s history. It stands out from previous coups due to the military junta’s focus on information controls. In this report we document the results of network measurements to determine how the Internet is currently being filtered in Thailand and discuss other forms of information control implemented in the coup’s aftermath.

Robert Guerra, Senior Advisor to the Citizen Lab, in collaboration with Paul Vixie and ICANN’s Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) will be organizing a workshop at the 2014 United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) that will be held September 2-5, 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Jordanian Media Commission has blocked access to 7iber.org from within the country. It was removed via the Press and Publication Law, which requires all media commentary on the “Kingdom’s internal or external affairs” to be approved by licensing from the Jordanian Media Commission.

This edition of Social Media Watch deals with top court rulings on digital privacy, social media monitoring, and mobile security news.

Post-doctoral Fellow Christopher Parsons spoke with a variety of media organizations over the past month about his research and pressing events that have taken place in the Canadian telecommunications landscape. He generally discussed lawful access to telecommunications data, the release of transparency reports by Canadian Internet service providers, and the unveiling of an access to personal information tool.

Ron Deibert was awarded the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.

Our latest report analyzes our discovery of an Android application called Qatif Today that is bundled with a Hacking Team payload. The app provides news and information in Arabic with a special relevance to the Qatif Governorate of Saudi Arabia, which is a predominantly-Shia community.

We analyze a newly discovered Android implant that we attribute to Hacking Team and highlight the political subtext of the bait content and attack context. In addition, we expose the functionality and architecture of Hacking Team’s Remote Control system and operator tradecraft in never-before published detail.

Robert Guerra, Senior Advisor to the Citizen Lab, and Dr. Christopher Parsons, a post-doctoral fellow at the Citizen Lab, attended the ICANN 50th public meeting in London on June 22-26.