The Babblery

Living Within the Questions with Merle Hoffman

Women’s Healthcare Pioneer: When abortion became legal in New York State in 1970, Merle Hoffman didn’t celebrate—she got to work. While others were still absorbing the news, she opened one....

Minibabble: Cindy Cohn on protecting our online freedoms

Cindy Cohn, retiring executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, speaks about the controversies regarding restriction of online speech. Addressing everything from breastfeeding forums to human rights abuses in Sudan,....

Minibabble: 3 women. 3 lawyers. 3 ways to change the world.

LaDoris Cordell, Denise Miranda, and Cindy Cohn are three very different women who have had three very different careers. But all three have drawn their inspiration from using their legal training to make a difference in the world.

The Internet doesn’t have an anonymity problem—it has a body problem

I went into my interview with Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ready to argue my case that anonymity is the problem. I came away with a more nuanced understanding.

Fighting for a Better Online World with Cindy Cohn

Cindy Cohn’s new book, Privacy’s Defender, focuses on three legal cases that formed the basis for privacy and freedom of speech on the Internet. But it’s also a memoir, framing the issues raised by legal battles through personal choices and life events both mundane and momentous. In this unusual conversation, we leave the big legal questions behind and focus instead on our modern lives on the internet. What do women get from privacy and freedom of speech when men so often use their own privacy and freedom of speech to restrict women’s online behavior? How does the internet mirror the real world when it comes to harassment and bullying of women? How would proposed fixes to the internet’s free speech woes restrict women’s speech even further?