We reported some time ago on the complicity of Nokia in the recent Iranian crackdown. Western multinationals have become pretty good at working with authoritarian regimes (witness Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft in China.) But now a backlash: The mobile phone company Nokia is being hit by a growing economic boycott in Iran as consumers sympathetic…
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Shoddy behaviour will catch up with you
This news is welcome in a nation such as China where web repression is deep: A Chinese academic has successfully sued an internet company for closing his website after he posted articles on subjects including corruption and environmental issues. Hu Xingdou, professor of economics at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said he hoped his case…
Power of the people
Dawn is Pakistan’s leading English language paper. Today it publishes a review by Mustafa Qadri of my book, The Blogging Revolution: Hot on the heels of his last book, My Israel Question (a history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine from the perspective of an anti-Zionist Jewish Australian), freelance journalist Antony Loewenstein delves into the…
Bloggers under fire
I was interviewed by Sarah Arnold in US magazine The Nation for an article published online on December 23: According to a Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) report released December 4, of the 125 media workers in prison – a list that includes Ibrahim Jassam, a photographer held in US custody in Iraq – more…
Regaining the upper hand?
Yahoo threw down the gauntlet to bitter rivals Google and Microsoft yesterday by cutting the length of time that it retains information about what its users are doing online. It will now keep information about online searches for only 90 days – down from 13 months – before ‘anonymising’ the data by getting rid of…
The Blogging Revolution: a look at the repression of online journalism around the world
Democracy Now! is the world’s finest independent news service, based in New York and known for its fearless investigations of the major issues of the day (and many ignored by the corporate media.) I was interviewed live on their TV/radio program in the studio this morning about my book, The Blogging Revolution: JUAN GONZALEZ: A…
Going online in repressive regimes
My following talk was presented today to a full room at Harvard University’s Berkman Centre: Harvard University’s Berkman Centre for Internet and Society Luncheon Series, 25 November 2008 The Blogging Revolution: Going online in repressive regimes Antony Loewenstein Internet censorship is something that only happens in non-democratic states. Regimes that want to crush free speech…
Iran isn’t the only problem
Internet censorship is increasingly occurring in so-called democracies, including Argentina: Since 2006, Internet users in Argentina have been blocked from searching for information about some of country’s most notable individuals. Over 100 people have successfully secured temporary restraining orders that direct Google and Yahoo! Argentina to scrub the results of search queries. The list of…
The blogging revolution that’s changing the world
The following feature, by Pam Walker, appeared in the Hub newspaper on October 13: Few would now deny the growing power of the internet and its appeal to younger readers who are turning their backs on mainstream media in favour of online content, especially blogs. Antony Loewenstein, Australian journalist and author of My Israel Question,…
Have blog, will rebel
The following news story and interview, by Rob Bates (photo by Alan Place), appears in this week’s Wentworth Courier newspaper: Controversial author, journalist and blogger Antony Loewenstein will host an event at Paddington’s Fringe Bar to discuss internet censorship and the brave few who rise against it. Loewenstein’s first book, My Israel Question, received mixed…