A welcome sign of transparency by Google – and far better than most other web companies – but there’s a long way to go. For example, what are the cosy deals between Google and governments who simply don’t like certain material and want it removed from YouTube? Google Inc. has set up a new tool…
Showing all posts tagged internet
Twitter will now never be forgotten
Just how many Tweets are really worth remembering? If you tweet this, it will be in the Library of Congress, which said Tuesday it has acquired every public tweet since Twitter‘s service started four years ago. The Library of Congress put it simply today in its own tweet, “Library acquires ENTIRE Twitter archive. ALL tweets.”…
When most Iranian Twitter fiends were actually living in the US
Food for thought. Moeed Ahmad is the head of New Media at Al Jazeera and he spoke a few months ago at Australia’s Media 2010 Conference. An astute reader pointed out this clip and he comments about Iran’s so-called Green Revolution in 2009: Moeed studied the “Twitter” accounts of posters purporting to be in Tehran…
How Beijing doesn’t trust its citizens to think for themselves online
The New York Times explains just one example of how China’s internet censorship regime works in reality: Jiaozuo, a city southwest of Beijing, deployed 35 Internet commentators and 120 police officers to defuse online attacks on the local police after a traffic dispute. By flooding chat rooms with pro-police comments, the team turned the tone…
How the British want to “protect” citizens from online truths
Yet another example of why governments can’t be trusted to properly regulate/censor the internet. Their main goal will never be to provide maximum coverage but rather remove politically problematic material: The [British] government forced through the controversial digital economy bill with the aid of the Conservative party last night, attaining a crucial third reading –…
Understanding the real agenda behind Wikileaks
I’ve written extensively about the wonderful website Wikileaks and its ability to continually release vitally important information. But Mother Jones provides a more shaded view, questioning some of the tactics of the secretive group: WikiLeaks hatched in 2006 on a private mailing list used by Assange and other journalists and activists. To help navigate the…
The Israeli story that the Israeli press can’t/won’t report
A story that’s been percolating on the blogosphere for a while – initially revealed by US, Jewish blogger Richard Silverstein (look here and here) – now finally reaches The Daily Beast, courtesy of one Judith Miller. What a teaser: A 23-year-old journalist is under arrest for exposing a secret Israeli assassination plot, and another has…
How to watch the killers in Sri Lanka (via the web)
The beginnings of something positive in Sri Lanka (maybe). Accountability and transparency for human rights abuses is vital if the country is to have any chance of being respected again as a viable democracy. Right now, it’s a tawdry police state that tortures and murders with impunity: The Sunday Leader recently reported on a new,…
Does the British government know the difference between Islam and Islamist?
Another example of a Western government (this time the British) seemingly incapable of understanding the nuance and shade in the non-Anglo world. How comforting to know that writing about Islam and being critical of the “war on terror” makes one a potential target for government intrusion: The UK Home Office last week released a study…
Signs of life inside North Korea
After my book The Blogging Revolution was released, I was constantly asked why I hadn’t examined North Korea. I always said it was simply because the internet barely existed in the Communist nation. Now, via the New York Times, a glimpse: North Korea, one of the world’s most impenetrable nations, is facing a new threat:…