African bloggers discuss the possibility of American military bases on the continent. (For the record, they’re universally opposed to the idea.)
Showing all posts tagged internet
Let the videos run free
When will dictatorships ever learn? The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed the country’s ISPs to block access to the videos sharing website YouTube for allegedly featuring a blasphemous video. However, and according to the Pakistani “Don’t Block The Blog” there are two theories that could explain PTA’s recent move to ban YouTube: vote rigging…
Don’t mess with internet freedom
Following the recent attempted closure of the Wikileaks site by a California judge, the move has spectacularly backfired. The story received international media coverage. Here’s the legal low-down.
Searching for stroke victims
The power of the internet giant is getting way out of hand: Google’s efforts to engulf the world’s medical records will begin in Cleveland. Today, the search engine cum world power announced a joint project with the Cleveland Clinic, an 87-year-old not-for-profit medical center, that will see between 1,500 and 10,000 of the center’s patients…
Don’t post those full frontal shots
China continues its eradication program of the internet: News from the Ministry of Public Security is that 13 Chinese ministries have been taking a joint action since last month to regulate online order, with the emphasis being given to the cleaning out of such content as candid snapshots, nude pictures and “unhealthy” adult literature. During…
The Orwellian censorship of Wikileaks
The following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Internet censorship is something we normally associate with countries such as Iran or China, but increasingly Western governmental and legal authorities are aggressively restricting the ability of users to view information unimpeded. Such is the story with Wikileaks, one of the most essential websites launched in…
The (thankful) passing of an era
The retirement of Cuba’s long-time dictator Fidel Castro is welcome news. He’s been in power for decades too long, never understanding that authoritarianism is the enemy of stability and peace. The US embargo has been nothing short of futile. Changes may be afoot. It should signal a change in policy from Washington, though probably not…
Blogging the differences away
Away from the politicians and commentators, an Israeli and a Palestinian talk online: They used to meet in Sderot. It seems like ages ago. They were a group of Palestinians from Gaza and Israelis, most of whom were from Sderot. A siren could go off at any moment, but they continued to try to understand…
Blogging to (partial) freedom
Ethan Zuckerman discusses the tranformative power of the internet in Kenya: There’s a strong overlap between the emerging middle class in the developing world and the world of citizen media. Bloggers in Africa are highly educated, and generally are wealthier than the average African. (It’s not cheap, in African terms, to afford the amount of…
The price of disclosure
Essential website Wikileaks runs into some trouble (but soldiers on): The website WikiLeaks.org has been taken off line in many parts of the world. Wikileaks is a website dedicated to leaking documents that are “anonymous, untraceable, uncensorable.” Several factors have taken the site off line including DDoS attacks, which was followed by a fire which…