Is this move by Nicolas Sarkozy about protecting the children or cementing a base that loves the idea of the state intruding on our private business? The lower house of the French parliament has approved a draft bill that will allow the state unprecedented control over the Internet. Although the government says it will improve…
Showing all posts tagged internet
The animal kingdom used to question the Great Firewall of China
Who said Chinese bloggers are happy with the country’s insanely tight web censorship? Famous amateur film-maker, Hu Ge, has recently made a new satirical piece on the Internet censorship in China. The 7-minute piece, ”˜Animal World: the Home-living Animal’ is styled as an animal-planet type of documentary and has attracted hundreds of thousands of views…
A rare, ray of light from Gaza
The latest weekly edition of Gaza Gateway: It doesn’t often happen that we get to report success stories, but this week Ayman Quader “made it”. Ayman, a 23-year-old student from the Gaza Strip, overcame numerous obstacles to reach his goal. After working tirelessly and contacting anyone who would listen to his story, he received his…
Blood, drama, chaos and defiance on the streets of Iran
The Islamic Republic is determined to crack down on any dissent on the 31st anniversary of the 1979 revolution: Iran’s telecommunications agency announced what it described as a permanent suspension of Google Inc.’s email services, saying instead that a national email service for Iranian citizens would soon be rolled out. It wasn’t clear late Wednesday…
Bombing Iran will only push people into the arms of the regime
Mohsen Sazegara, a founder of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in 1979 but now strong critic of Tehran, talks to Foreign Policy: I hope that the Obama administration and other democratic countries will be more supportive of the struggle of the people of Iran for democracy and human rights. I can summarize it in four items. First,…
World web users are suffering under increasing censorship
Fact of the week: The OpenNet Initiative estimates that at the end of 2009, 32% of all Internet users [globally] were accessing a filtered version of the Internet.
What Egypt could like look when free
Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas, a brave soul and long-time enemy of the US-backed client state, speaks out on what he dreams for his country:
Wikileaks must survive for the sake of transparency
A black day for the crusading website Wikileaks: The anonymous whistleblower website Wikileaks, which has been a thorn in the side of governments and big business for three years, has shut down temporarily because it has run out of money. The document repository, founded by an Australian living in East Africa, has been the catalyst…
Colombo has no understanding what democracy means
Sri Lanka’s past, present and future continues to be clouded by the foul air of corruption and authoritarianism: The newly re-elected government of Mahinda Rajapaksa has been accused of orchestrating a fresh crackdown on the media after a series of websites were blocked and at least one reporter detained after raising questions about the conduct…
Memo to Jews close to God; porn and online gambling are your friends
The intention of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel to ban access to an open internet in Israel isn’t going too well: Are Israel’s Haredi religious authorities losing control of their followers? In December, leading Israeli rabbis launched a new push to curtail Internet use among ultra-Orthodox Jews, emphasizing that their longstanding ban on Web surfing applied…