As their government adjusts its Internet filters, raising some barriers and lowering others in a bid to contain a violent Sunni insurgency, Iraqis are leaning on alternative technologies to maintain access to online services.
Bangladesh's Infoladies, a group of 56 women in their early twenties, are providing the nation's impoverished rural citizens with Internet connectivity. In a country that enjoys little in the way of widespread Internet access, the work of the Infoladies is allowing economically disenfranchised groups to gain access to information and resources that help them survive.
In this week's #IMWeekly: One-fifth of websites are blocked in the United Kingdom, the NSA is ruled within bounds, and Iraq flips around its filtering protocol to better target ISIS.
It has been over a month since Thailand’s military junta, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), overtook the country’s government during a May 22 coup. Since then, the NCPO has aimed to consolidate political control of the country, moving online to restrict access to information.
Devu Chodankar, a 31 year-old resident of Goa, could land himself in jail after posting comments critical of India's newest Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Facebook. The case highlights a trend towards curbing online free expression in the country following Modi's widely-celebrated victory.
In this week's #IMWeekly: Australia announces a controversial surveillance bill, Iraqi netizens find a way around internet blockages, and Russia targets extremism on Twitter.
Recent social media censorship in Pakistan has sparked renewed attention to the country's blasphemy laws and how they're applied online.
Six members of the Ethiopian blogging collective Zone Nine have been imprisoned for 63 days.
A new report from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto takes a look at Internet monitoring in Iraq. Since violence led by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) broke out in the country several weeks ago, the government has responded by cutting Internet access, first by blocking websites including Twitter and Facebook and then, on June 15, issuing orders for a total Internet shutdown in five of the nation's 19 provinces. The Citizen Lab tests the filtering methods, finding that blockage lines up with the Ministry of Communications' decree, but does not block sites affiliated with ISIS.
Anonymous has been vocal about its plans to disrupt the World Cup, pledging to target sponsors and the Brazilian government during the tournament. The group has stated that the massive audience provides a useful stage to protest the expense of the World Cup games—estimated at $14 billion—in a country where many citizens still lack access to basic services.