Saudi authorities, acting like government bird dogs, have been on the hunt for Twitter users lately.

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.

This week in #imweekly, new publication laws in Jordan lead to a shuttering of more than 200 websites, Turkish protestors are downloading VPNs to access the net in large numbers and stringent anti-defemation laws have attracted cricitism from civil society groups in Mexico.

Singapore recently passed a measure that requires online news websites to obtain licenses, pay a $40,000 bond, and agree to remove "prohibited content" within one day. Netizens protest, saying the measure's vague language could force bloggers and grassroots journalism out of business and chill their speech.

This year marks the 24th anniversary of China's Tiananmen Square massacre. In what has become an "Internet maintenance" ritual, the popular microblogging site Weibo blocked terms relating to the event but could not keep up with the memes netizens circulated to memorialize the event.

Two weeks before Iran's presidential elections, the US government has lifted sanctions preventing the export of communications technology services to Iranian Internet users.

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.

Accidental, secret blocking of 1200 websites worries Internet users in Australia; two Internet blackouts in two weeks in Syria; disruptions to Internet and SMS in advance of Iranian presidential elections.

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.

Earlier this month, Russia’s new Internet censorship bill – designed to block content “containing [child] pornography or extremist ideas, or promoting suicide or use of drugs” – went into effect. Russian netizens are watching closely to see whether this new law will be applied narrowly or broadly, and how it will ultimately affect the freedom of Russia’s Internet.