The web won’t set us free

My following article was published by the Washington Post online on September 26: During China’s milk powder crisis, with tens of thousands of babies affected by the contaminated goods, the country’s blogosphere railed against corrupt officials. One outraged blogger wrote: “What are the people in the Government doing? They just want mistresses, they want cash,…

What really is terrorism?

On the face of it, Google’s attempts to purge “terrorist” material from YouTube sounds reasonable, but ultimately who makes the decisions which videos are problematic? The popular video-sharing site YouTube has moved to purge terrorists training films and other videos that extremist groups might use to attract new members, an imperfect process that will rely…

Together we stand

This is the only kind of solidarity against web censorship that can pressure governments to re-consider their authoritarian ways: Turkish bloggers are closing their websites to protest against courts banning dozens of mainstream sites for carrying content deemed “immoral” or insulting to Turkey’s founding father. A grassroots “censuring the censors” movement has formed over the…

The Blogging Revolution lands

My following essay appears in today’s Weekend Australian newspaper: The young online tribe is more interested in discussing sex, drugs and rock’n’roll than political revolution, writes Antony Loewenstein Early last month, some Iranian members of parliament voted to debate a draft bill that aimed to “toughen punishment for disturbing mental security in society” by adding…

The Anglo influence

Is this new citizen journalism program from YouTube the way to find stories the MSM usually ignores? Probably, but I’m heathily skeptical about the kind of perspectives shorts only allowed in English will produce?

Too much power is never a good thing

According to the MediaGuardian 100 list – the most influential media figures in the UK – Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page (both Americans) top the list. Why? Brin and Page’s creation dominates the UK online search market, with eight out of 10 searches through Google. The UK is its second most valuable territory behind…

Raging against rising internet repression

My following article appears in the US magazine The Nation on the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit and the issue of web repression: During the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2008–sponsored by Harvard University and Google in Budapest, Hungary, in late June, and attended by over 200 bloggers, human rights activists, writers, journalists, hackers and…

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

Site by Common