Tougher Internet filtering policies are being applied throughout Southeast Asia. The Gambia House of Representatives has enacted a new law banning criticism of government officials online. Russia has been pushing new legislation that allows copyright holders to ask courts to block access not only to allegedly pirated content, but also to hyperlinks to such content.
This week in #imweekly: examining content control in China, Nigerian officials announce plans to heighten internet monitoring in the country, and Russia's Kremlin resorts to using typewriters to skirt foreign internet surveillance. Meanwhile, a push to heighten information control in Turkey.
Circumventing digital surveillance, breaking through firewalls, and sharing data doesn't have to be high-tech. In fact, as the rate at which we produce and share data eclipses rate of Internet speed increases, many are experimenting with old-school alternatives. Will sneakernets and pigeons make the Internet obsolete?
In this week's #IMweekly: a Wikipedia edit war over Egypt's coup d'état, sentences for Saudi Arabian Facebook users accused of inciting protests, a new government petitioning platform in China, and more.
Governments around the world have taken steps to block online pornography, with some stating that the Internet is for porn, and little else. A look at the history of the Internet shows that pornography has played a surprising role, and that over-regulation of online porn may carry some serious risks.
A new torrent of words including "today" and "June 4" referencing the Tiananmen Square Anniversary have been blocked from Chinese social media as the country engages in its annual crackdown on Internet, also known as "Internet Maintenance Day." And though the Chinese government is running a sophisticated and tight censorship ship, they're having a bit harder time blocking memes.
New cable connections bump up Cuba's connectivity; Google may use blimps to build wifi networks in the developing world; Vkontakte temporarily blacklisted in Russia.
A recent paper from Harvard University researchers Gary King, Jennifer Pan, and Margaret E. Roberts contains a neat "censorship magnitude" graph showing which types of social media posts are most and least likely to be taken down by Chinese censors.